Reston Community Center Announces Upcoming Professional Touring Artist Series

Bakari Sellers, a political commentator and attorney who is the youngest African American elected official in the nation, will headline Reston Community Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. event next year. Seller’s keynote address is set for Monday, January 20 as part of RCC’s newly announced professional touring artist series for 2019-2020.

The season includes a mix of new and familiar artists to CenterStage. Reston residents and employees can purchase tickets beginning on August 1. Tickets will open up to the public on August 8.

“The Reston Community Center thrives at 40 because the arts have been at the center of building this special community,” said Paul Douglas Michnewicz, RCC’s Director of Arts and Events. “We know the season ahead will only deepen Reston’s love of the arts and the power they have to bring us together.”

RCC highlighted the following events:

• Peter Kageyama (Saturday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.): “Peter Kageyama, author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places and Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places, will bring his expertise to an exploration of how Reston exemplifies his ideals.”
• Jeffrey Stewart (Sunday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m.): “Author Jeffrey C. Stewart sits down with Dr. Jane Censer, Professor Emeritus of History at George Mason University, to discuss his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, a panoramic view of the personal trials and artistic triumphs of the father of the Harlem Renaissance.”
• Fran Lebowitz (Saturday, Sept. 21): “In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our funniest and most insightful social commentators. ”
• Dr. Azar Nafisi (Wednesday, Nov. 6): “The Iranian American best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi has electrified readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students.”
• Boys Don’t Cry (Tuesday, March 3): “Boys Don’t Cry is inspired by text from Chantal Thomas and is a funny and tender reflection on what it means to dance when you are a boy from North Africa and the Arab world.”
• Lulu Fall (Saturday, April 4 at 8 p.m.): “A product of Senegalese and Cameroonian parentage, Fall creates music that reflects her global perspective by way of her American sensibilities.”
• The Phantom of the Vaudeville House (Sunday, May 17 at 2 p.m.): “It’s magic, mayhem and laughter when Buddy “Mr. Vaudeville” Silver is faced with yet another hilarious dilemma. Is the CenterStage Motion Picture and Vaudeville House haunted?  Come cheer the good guys, boo the bad guys and keep the phantom from stealing the show!”

Box office business hours are from 4-9 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday. The office is also open two hours before the curtain time of each performance.

Photo by Frédérique Calloch, Red Molly, Kia LaBeija