Lincoln Center announces free Summer for the City 2023 lineup

Lincoln Center has announced the 2023 lineup of Summer for the City, their annual free festival celebrating visual art, music, dance, theatre, and culture. All of Lincoln Center’s outdoor spaces have been redesigned by artist Clint Ramos ahead of this year’s series, and highlights include Korean Arts Week, the New York City premiere of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, the return of the BAAND Together Dance Festival, globalFEST, and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra concerts, plus several events celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June and a week-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop featuring J. PERIOD, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and more to end the summer. Head to the Summer for the City website for full details–highlights are listed below.

Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City — 2023 Highlights

The New York City premiere of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, an opera by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon based on Butler’s prescient novel of the same name. The fully staged congregational opera recreates the sci-fi, Afrofuturist masterpiece, celebrating the novel’s 30th anniversary in collaboration with Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, and New York Public Library.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra performs a series of engaging and dynamic concerts in celebration of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée’s twenty-first and final year with the Orchestra.

Several events celebrate Pride Month throughout June including National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival; queer pop duo The Illustrious Blacks’ silent disco; Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles, the world’s first LGBTQIA+ mariachi group; and a joyous tribute to Sylvester, one of the first openly gay artists in disco and R&B.

Cultivating Access Ecologies, curated by disability artistry guest curator Kevin Gotkin. The hybrid in-person and virtual series includes performances by Deaf and disabled artists including DJ Nico DiMarco, Jerron Herman, Crip Rave, JJJJJerome Ellis, Una Osato, and Pato Hebert.

Korean Arts Week, a full-campus takeover with a K-Indie Music Night, DJs, a film festival, silent discos, K-pop, wellness events, family programs and more, along with a feature program with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle, an evening of orchestral performances and readings that highlight the African American struggle to reap the benefits of liberty and justice as part of American citizenry, conceived and curated by singer-songwriter and composer Tamar-kali, and performed with the American Composers Orchestra.

An outdoor film festival in Damrosch Park, complete with popcorn and drinks, and transmitted via Quiet Event headphones, in collaboration with Film at Lincoln Center. The series includes a crowd-pleasing three-film showcase in connection with See Me As I Am, the campus-wide celebration of pioneering musician Terence Blanchard, featuring some of the illustrious composer’s most celebrated cinematic collaborations.

A pair of social sculpture interventions curated by Lincoln Center Artist-in-Residence Mimi Lien, including a dressforms exhibit inspired by the residents of San Juan Hill by costume designer Sabrina Guillaume-Bradshaw and a series of movement activations featuring artistic displays of queerness and self-love by nicHi douglas.

Big Umbrella Day, a one-day iteration of Lincoln Center’s Big Umbrella Festival, creating relaxed spaces which specifically welcome neurodivergent audiences through multi-sensory experiences, performances, installations, and workshops.

The debut of Sydnie L. Mosley Dances’ PURPLE: A Ritual in Nine Spells, an evening-length choreopoem inspired by Ntozake Shange, created in community with senior residents of NYCHA’s neighboring Amsterdam Houses and in association with Gibney Presents. A pre-show multimedia art installation will be on view in the lobby, What Does PURPLE Sound Like?, spotlighting older adults from our local communities.

A dance workshop on The Dance Floor with the School of American Ballet and an open-air percussion performance with students from The Juilliard School.

Presentation of The Bessie Awards, NYC’s annual celebration of the best in dance and performance.

A campus-wide celebration honoring Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary rounds out the summer, spotlighting the music, fashion, dance, poetry, and global cultural influence of Hip-Hop, including a Live Mixtape with Brooklyn DJ J.PERIOD performed live with Rakim and Big Daddy Kane; the Sainted trap choir; Jazz Está Morto with Arthur Verocai hosted by Adrian Younge and Brooklyn’s own Ali Shaheed Muhammad; as well as family programs, outdoor dance parties, silent discos, and more.

Returning events at Lincoln Center

Social dance on The Dance Floor at Josie Robertson Plaza, kicking off on June 14th with Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner Lucrecia performing Cuban music with salsa group 8 Y Más, and continuing throughout the summer with powerhouse artists including the Stax Academy with special appearance by soul icon Booker T Jones; José Alberto “El Canario”; returning favorites like Joe McGinty & The Loser’s Lounge and Orquesta Broadway; a night of line dancing hosted by Stud Country, and performances and classes across a variety of dance styles including swing, Hip-Hop, merengue, salsa, line dancing, Lindy hop, and more.

Silent discos, following social dance nights on The Dance Floor multiple nights per week with a diverse range of dance styles from K-pop, salsa, Hip-Hop, Broadway, and more.

The Underground at Jaffe Drive, a speakeasy-inspired space now expanded in size, hosting stand-up comedy nights, jazz nights with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and spoken word and poetry slams curated by Lincoln Center Poet-in-Residence Mahogany L. Browne.

BAAND Together Dance Festival with five of NYC’s most iconic dance companies—Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem—performing together on one stage for five nights. Made possible by CHANEL.

A site-specific, evening-long performance commemorating Juneteenth, conceived and curated by Carl Hancock Rux, and featuring performances by Aaron Diehl, Alicia Hall Moran, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber with special guests Vernon Reid and DJ Logic, and Ronald K. Brown’s EVIDENCE Dance Theater.

Choreographer Kyle Abraham, building off of last year’s two-night dance festival Reunions, curates two more evenings of new site-specific works pairing choreographers with composers.

The Las Culturistas Culture Awards, a pop culture celebration hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, with special comedian presenters and surprise guests.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “second line” processional to Lincoln Center—the New Orleans tradition to mourn and celebrate lives lost—as well as a series of jazz concerts in The Underground at Jaffe Drive.

Deaf Broadway, bringing an exciting new rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, performed entirely by Deaf actors in American Sign Language.

Featured musical performances in the Bandshell at Damrosch Park including Trinidadian calypsonian David Rudder; Venezuelan singer-songwriter Danny Ocean; a tribute to Haitian singer, songwriter, and producer Michael “Mikaben” Benjamin curated by Chriss Rimpel; Aimee Mann in conversation with Ann Powers, and more

The Reading Room with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as well as family Storytimes series.

Wedding: New York’s Biggest Day, inspired by the first ever (Re)Wedding in 2022, inviting hundreds of couples to our 16-acre campus and offering New Yorkers the chance to celebrate love. Conceived by Tony, Grammy, and Olivier Award-winning Director Scott Wittman, the celebration brings hundreds of couples together for a multicultural ceremony with music, poetry, social dance and more, for a wedding that could only happen at Lincoln Center.

The Art of Wellbeing, participatory movement and mindfulness sessions harnessing the power of the arts to engage the mind, body, and spirit, presented in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Expanded offerings for families with workshops, Storytimes, silent discos, and performances from artists including Élage Diouf and HEGAZY.

Collaborations with new and existing partners including the Mahindra Blues Festival, France Rocks, Brasil Summerfest, Here Lies Love, Harlem Arts Alliance, PEN America, Korean Cultural Center New York, GRAMMY Museum, La Casita, globalFEST, Bushwick Starr, NYC Laughs, the New York City Department of Education, and community blood drives with the New York Blood Center.