This tribute performance honors Detroit jazz legend and drummer Roy Brooks (1938–2004), a key figure in the vibrant Detroit jazz scene. Throughout his career, Brooks performed and recorded with jazz luminaries such as Horace Silver, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, M’Boom, Charles Mingus, and Woody Shaw. He was known for his innovative use of unusual instruments in his performances, including a musical saw and the "breath-a-tone," a drum with vacuum tubes attached to regulate pitch.

In 1972, he formed the Artistic Truth, which featured artists like Sonny Fortune, Eddie Jefferson, and Hamite Blunt. He also created the Aboriginal Percussion Choir, an ensemble focused on combining non-Western percussion instruments with more conventional ones. This performance will feature the music of Roy Brooks, played by musicians who worked with him, as well as a blend of younger-generation musicians who were influenced by his groundbreaking work.

The Five Tangos, originally conceived as a stage production, was set to debut at the Detroit Institute of Arts Film Theatre in November 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic prompted its transformation into a film, shot at four iconic Detroit locations: the Crystal Gallery at the DIA, the Guardian Building Promenade, Meadowbrook Hall, and the Scarab Club.

Inspired by Astor Piazzolla’s Five Tango Sensations, the project explores emotions like dreaming, loving, anxiety, despair, and fear, paralleling the collective struggles of the pandemic. Public health restrictions, such as mask-wearing and avoiding handholds, shaped the choreography, reflecting the yearning for connection during quarantine.

This screening features a live performance of Piazzolla’s score. The Five Tangos was a semi-finalist at the 2022 Inspired Dance Film Festival in Australia and won Best Experimental Film at the 2022 Dancecentric Film Festival in Florida.

Father and daughter puppeteer team, String Theory Theater create imaginative stories employing various narrative styles and puppetry formats, including hand puppets, rod puppets, crankies, shadow puppets, and more. String Theory Theater’s colorful design and hilarious wit results in thought-provoking performances that are entertaining for families with children 7 and up. (50 min)

Presented with live ASL interpretation.

Capacity is limited – seating begins 30 minutes prior to performance start.

Join us to celebrate the MC5’s upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with two events (information below) and the release of MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band. Variety hails the book as “definitive,” and Rolling Stone calls it “worthy of the band’s legacy.” Meet the authors Brad Tolinski (Guitar World) and Jaan Uhelszki (Creem) for a book signing and a brief discussion about the band moderated by WDET host Liz Warner. The evening will be capped off with a dynamic set from the Motor City’s legendary garage rock band, The Detroit Cobras.

• MC5 Book Release hosted by Liz Warner: 6:30 p.m. 
• Friday Night Live! featuring The Detroit Cobras: 7 p.m

MC5: An Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band will be available for purchase during the event at the DIA Shop. 

Event is free with museum admission.

Germany/1924—directed by F.W. Murnau | 90 min.

The splendidly uniformed, aging doorman at a grand Berlin hotel, portrayed by the legendary Emil Jannings, is devastated by his demotion to washroom attendant. His shame is so profound that he cannot bring himself to tell his family or neighbors. He even goes so far as to steal his old uniform to wear to his daughter’s wedding.

Made during Germany’s “Golden Age” of filmmaking, F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh introduced innovative camera techniques that enhanced the power of visual storytelling. The film was hailed as state-of-the-art cinema during the silent era.

The unexpected ending, as suggested by the title, remains as richly satisfying as ever. The film is shown in a new 2K restoration, accompanied by an original live score performed by Little Bang Theory.

“A masterpiece of the German silent cinema… it has never looked as dazzling.” –Dave Kehr, The New York Times

Rooted in the African American experience, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company is a culturally diverse modern/contemporary dance company committed to reaching the broadest audience through exceptional performances and arts-integrated education. DCDC is a company of bold, electrifying, and innovative dance artists steeped in the spirit of Sankofa – retrieving from a rich past while venturing forward. The program will include American Mo’ a celebration of the exquisite pride and love – of self, of humanity, of the nation we built – that accompanied the marches of the Civil Rights era; and Nourishing Routes, a love letter to the ancestors who left breadcrumbs of wisdom for future generations to find, ingest and employ in the long march to justice.

(90 min.) 

Heritage Works presents Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Moving Justice.

Shara Nova, a classically trained vocalist and self-taught multi-instrumentalist who has recorded dazzling, shapeshifting music as My Brightest Diamond. Over the course of four groundbreaking albums she resisted the conventions of genre, blending elements of rock, art pop, and chamber music into a sound totally her own. 

While fiercely independent, she like everyone else, still desires connectedness. This tension is at the core of her new projects - an album A Million And One, and Under the Snow, an opera for all ages written for puppet theater. Free with museum admission.

Navajo pianist and composer Connor Chee is known for combining his classical piano training with his Native American heritage. With an accessible, sophisticated, and groundbreaking sound, in 2020 Chee was commissioned to write a set of piano pieces for pianist Joel Schoenhals. The result was Soundpainting for Piano, now recorded and performed throughout the United States by Schoenhals. The composition reflects both the visuals of Navajo sandpainting and contains cultural references that Schoenhals will explore with the composer. Free with museum admission.

Rubab player Homayoun Sakhi and tabla player Salar Nader are masters of their generation, and together they will explore the rhythmic pulse that fuses Afghan and Indian percussion and draws out the parallels with Hindustani music.

Presented in connection with the special exhibition The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, on view from September 22, 2024 through January 5, 2025. Free with museum admission.

Hosted by award-winning singer-songwriter Audra Kubat, this evening will feature some of Detroit’s finest songwriters and be fashioned after the ‘Nashville-style’ writers-in-the-round. This intimate storytelling opportunity will engage in a conversational approach, inviting the audience inside the powerful relationship between the artist, the story, and the song. Songwriters include Audra Kubat, Emily Rose, Isis Damil, Mayaeni, Michelle Held, and Marbrisa!