Performance Information Date:  April 10 - 12, 2008 Time:  8:00 pm Place:  McGuire Theater Price:  $22 ($18; $14 Thursday Walker members) View all associated media View this performance in the Walker Calendar
		Image: Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the break/s Photo: Umi Vaughan

“…a dynamic display of facile wordplay, percussive music and phenomenal physical movement.”—The Courier Journal

“Rarely do word and movement mesh so seamlessly and elegantly. . . .[Joseph’s] stories put sound and gesture on a single continuum of expression.”—Washington Post

The break/s explores the personal costs of hip-hop’s ascendancy from a local political/arts movement to a worldwide cultural force that creates racial and cultural expectations on an unprecedented scale. Taking its lead from journalist Jeff Chang’s seminal hip-hop history Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, this dynamic new work deftly combines movement, spoken word, personal storytelling, and poetic revelation and was forged by the charismatic poet/ hip-hop theater sensation Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Featuring live music by remarkable human beatbox/percussionist Tommy Shepherd and DJ Excess, and live video by David Slzasa.

Special Event: Join Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the cast of the break/s following the show
Afterparty with KRS ONE Live in Concert
Friday, April 11: 10 pm-1 am
Trocaderos Night Club Downtown Mpls. 107 3rd Ave No, Minneapolis
Presented by Tru Ruts and Trocaderos. 18+
Tickets available at 612.465.0440 and at www.indietickets.com

Presented in association with the MN Spoken Word Association (MNSWA) and Trú Rúts' Freestyle Theater as part of the Twin Cities Hip Hop Theater Festival (for more info email: info@truruts.com).

Major support provided by the Joyce Award of the Joyce Foundation. World premiere productions: 2008 Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Walker Art Center. Lead commissioning and development support: the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Walker Art Center through the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation administered by the National Performance Network and the Network of Cultural Centers of Color.

Additional support provided by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Emerging Playwrights 2006 Initiative, The National Endowment for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Creative Capital, The James Irvine Foundation, Rockefeller MAP Fund, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Youth Speaks, East Bay Fund, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Z Space. Artistic Consultation by Jeff Chang and James Clotfelter and production consultation by KelVin Productions, LLC.

Tastes good and good FOR you http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/2008/01/17/tastes-good-good/ Walker blogs, Off Center: General

Intermedia screens film by Walker residency artist http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/2008/02/06/intermedia-screens-film-walker/ Walker blogs, Off Center: General

Bamuthi interview on MPR: The many sides of hip hop http://blogs.walkerart.org/performingarts/2008/02/11/bamuthi-interview-mpr-sides-hip/ Walker blogs, Performing Arts: General

Bamuthi in the house http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/2008/04/01/bamuthi-house/ Walker blogs, Off Center: Residencies

After Party for Marc Bamuthi Josephs the break/s April 11 at Trocaderos http://blogs.walkerart.org/performingarts/2008/04/07/party-marc-bamuthi-josephs-breaks/ Walker blogs, Performing Arts: Local performance

eavesdrop 04.09.08 http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/2008/04/10/eavesdrop-040908/ Walker blogs, Off Center: Behind the scenes