Looking to plan your cultural calendar for 2022? You’ll want to take a serious read of  these very special, unique programs in the performing arts Miami  (dance, music and theater) for the next 15 months.They’re the winners of grants in the new AWARE program of the Funding Arts Network (FAN),  a not-for-profit organization of which I’m proud to be a member. FAN is dedicated to the cultural enrichment of Miami Dade County residents by providing funds through grant support. Besides these special AWARE programs, all of the organizations have ongoing performances, some as early as later this week,  that you’ll want to check out. There’s a link to all the sites on the organization’s name.

AWARE is an initiative celebrating FAN’s 25^th anniversary. Standing for Artistic Works Addressing and Rethinking Equity, the program’s grants Initiative aim to advance exciting, probing performing and/or visual arts work that explores or reflects issues of equity. Here’s the list and short description of the six winners. Since the works are still in development, with the first premiering this Spring, performance dates are projected. Check the respective websites for updates on the performances/programs.

Dimensions Dance Theatre – Possible: Imagination Is the Root of Change. POSSIBLE is a radical initiative designed to challenge both dancers’ and audiences’ mindsets. The “exploratory” world premiere of a dance work choreographed by NYC community and arts leader William Ervin,  features curated workshops, and virtual components produced by local filmmaker Stephanie Perez.  POSSIBLE hopes to move ballet in South Florida toward greater inclusivity and equitability. Spotlighting artists from underrepresented communities and illuminating tangible “possibilities” for diverse 21st century dancers within an age-old artform, POSSIBLE aims to encourage conversation, imagination, and exploration. The goal is to proactively rewrite traditional biases and stifling industry doctrines.

Location:South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center Lab Theater.

Projected Date: March 2023

MDC Live Arts Miami -Haint Blu. Haint Blu is a site-specific new work created by acclaimed dance collective Urban Bush Women that takes audiences on an immersive dance-theater journey throughout the Historic Hampton House. It explores the movements, histories, and stories of Brownsville community elders and ancestors. Named after the color used by Southern families to paint their front porches to ward off bad spirits, Haint Blu reflects on cross-generational loss and recovery in Black communities while creating actionable pathways for healing and regeneration.

Location: Historic Hampton House

Projected Date:  March 2023

More Performing Arts Miami:

Martha/Mary Concerts – Baroque Jazz Club – In Miami! Local, national and international jazz greats will perform great jazz in the Merced Plaza on the Corpus Christi Church Campus in Allapattah. The historic Chapel facade will be specially lit, beckoning all to share the spirit.The first concert on the plaza is planned for the spring of 2022. Artists and collaborators include Sammy Figueroa, Brian Potts, Nestor Torres, Emmet Cohen, Cynthia Bague, Giselle Rios; advisers include Frank Cooper (for the Baroque sensibility), Shelly Berg and Julio Bague of peermusic.

Location: Merced Plaza on the Corpus Christi Church Campus in Allapattah

Check out my review on the incredible La Merced Chapel.

Projected Date: Spring 2022, Spring 2023

Miami Light Project – F.Punk Junkies by Teo Castellanos D-Projects. F.Punk Junkies by Teo Castellanos D-Projects, with choreography by Augusto Soledade, is an ensemble-driven dance theater piece that brings the Teo Castellanos DProjects company’s continued development of “AfroRican Punk” aesthetic to the forefront, breaking away from traditional Eurocentric proscenium theater and returning to the ritual and interactive performance circle. It is performed by an all-Black and Latinx company – honoring the elders in the artist community and cultivating the next generation of artists in the process.

Location: Miami Theater Center

Projected Date: Fall 2022

Murray Dranoff Foundation – Jazz in the Americas: Music and Artists of the Black African Diaspora Through the Lens of Separation and Synthesis. Dranoff 2 Piano, in conjunction with The Betsy Hotel, will present a weeklong performance and cultural festival on the influence that the music, song and instruments of African slaves – especially dance rhythms – had on the development of jazz and other regional music genres in the Americas. Performances will match musicologists with historians in discussions about the arrival of African music in the Americas and Miami’s own history – from segregated Bahamian Black Grove to Overtown, the McDuffie riots, and Miami Sound’s beginnings in historically Black colleges. It will combine Cuban and Caribbean jazz concerts from ragtime to reggae to the Afro popular. The festival will include at least two ensemble concerts and several performance, history, and video multimedia programs.

Location: The Betsy Hotel

Projected Date: March 2022, March 2023

Seraphic Fire – The Art of Protest .Finally in the list of grant winner in performing arts Miami, Seraphic Fire will present The Art of Protest, featuring newly commissioned arrangements of protest songs from varied cultural traditions and movements including Black America, Cuban, Haitian, Chilean, and the women’s suffrage movement. Curated and hosted by Reginald Mobley, a longtime Seraphic Fire artist and programming consultant for Boston’s Handel + Haydn Society, this free concert and community discussion will explore the right to free expression and how artists challenge the status quo through song.

Location: TBD

Projected date: Spring 2023

About Funding Arts Network:

FUNDING ARTS NETWORK (FAN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the cultural enrichment of MiamiDade County residents. FAN provides funds through grant support to visual and performing arts Miami. FAN’s goal is to fund creative and innovative performances, productions, and exhibitions that will stimulate the minds and capture the imaginations of our community’s diverse audiences. FAN encourages the development of new projects and programs that engage audiences and heighten their appreciation of the arts.

Interested in membership? Individual members may participate on FAN committees; attend FAN’s Cultural Camaraderie gatherings, Member’s Only events, quarterly luncheons; and will receive the annual grant award booklet and ballot to vote on the yearly grant awards.The individual yearly membership contribution is $1,200.

For membership information email: FAN@fundingartsnetwork.org

About AWARE grants:

FAN’s AWARE (Artistic Works Addressing and Rethinking Equity) Grants Initiative aims to advance exciting, probing performing and/or visual arts work that explores or reflects issues of equity. These AWARE Grants are given for work in development that: delves into or embodies issues or experiences of racial, gender or social equity and is dynamic, involving a diverse creative team. The end result is a thought inspiring cultural experience, with a potential for broad impact and community engagement.