MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Shamel Pitts’ TRIBE Presents the Remix of BLACK VELVET ON ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY
Company:
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Shamel Pitts’ TRIBE
Presents the Remix of BLACK VELVET
ON ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY
A 10th-Anniversary Remix of Shamel Pitts’ Award-Winning Work
Performed by Channce Williams and Ke’ron J. Wilson
Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Friday, November 20, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 21, 2026, at 7:30 pm
The Flea Theater | 20 Thomas Street, New York, NY 10007
Tickets: $35-75, available at https://givebutter.com/blackvelvet
NEW YORK, NY: MacArthur Fellow and award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts and TRIBE present a 10th-anniversary performance of BLACK VELVET at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street, New York, NY 10007), November 19–21, 2026, at 7:30 pm. Created by Pitts and performed by Channce Williams and Ke’ron J. Wilson, this anniversary production returns to a work whose original international journey helped lay the foundation for TRIBE. Tickets, priced $35-75, are available at https://givebutter.com/blackvelvet.
BLACK VELVET – Once called “a haunting duet” by The New York Times – premiered on November 11, 2016, in São Paulo, at dawn of the first Trump presidency. In 2026, this work retains its singular political artistic relevance as a work about Black empowerment,liberation, movement, and textural beauty. Originally titled BLACK VELVET: Architectures And Archetypes, the award-winning multidisciplinary work was created and performed by Pitts in collaboration with performer Mirelle Martins and Lighting and Video Mapping Artist Lucca Del Carlo. BLACK VELVET returns a decade later, as an iterative remix with a new cast of performers. TRIBE collective artists, Channce Williams and Ke’ron J. Wilson breathe new life into Pitt’s original choreography while broadening its queer investigations on Blackness and gender. The remix features new costumes and body paint, new music arrangement, and strives to add a new arc to the original award-winning production.
“A remix is not an exercise in nostalgia. It’s an invitation for the work to become something we couldn’t have imagined ten years ago,” writes Pitts. “Channce and Ke’ron bring their own histories, identities, extraordinary physicality, and emotional intelligence to BLACK VELVET, transforming not only the duet itself, but its meaning. A work that has always sought to blur boundaries of race, gender, and identity now reaches for something beyond transformation: transcendence.”
The remixed anniversary production was developed through a fall 2026 residency at PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance, with additional residency support from Performance Space New York. The artistic team includes Lucca Del Carlo as Lighting and Video Mapping Artist, Sarai Frazier as Artistic Production Manager, Errin Shin as Costume Designers, and Manny Catechis on audio mixing & mastering. The work will be available for touring in spring 2027.
BLACK VELVET received the Audience Choice Award at the Stockholm Fringe Festival and a Double-Prize at Machol Shalem Dance Festival in 2017, followed by ArtsATL’s Best Out of Town Production distinction in 2018.
BLACK VELVET: A 10th-Anniversary Remix
Concept Direction & Choreography: Shamel Pitts
Performers: Channce Williams and Ke’ron J. Wilson
Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Friday, November 20, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 21, 2026, at 7:30 pm
More information: https://itsatribe.org/black-velvet/
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Shamel Pitts | Founding Artistic Director, Concept Direction, Choreographer
Shamel Pitts is a Brooklyn-born performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. A 2024 MacArthur Fellow and Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, he trained at LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and The Ailey School before earning his BFA in dance from The Juilliard School. He began his professional career with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal, and danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under Ohad Naharin. A certified teacher of Gaga movement language, Pitts founded TRIBE in December 2019 and has created the internationally touring BLACK and RED series. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Princess Grace Award in Choreography, and the Knight Choreography Prize, among other honors. He teaches at Juilliard and has been a guest faculty member at Princeton, New York University, and Wesleyan, and an artist in residence at Harvard.
Channce Williams | Performer
Channce Williams is a freelance artist living in New York, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His creative practice encompasses movement, poetry, and visual art. He began his training at the Center of Creative Arts and continued his studies at Point Park University, where he received his BFA. He has performed new and restaged works by Kyle Abraham, Sidra Bell, Aszure Barton, and Maxine Doyle, among others. His professional work includes Sidra Bell Dance New York, GALLIM Dance Company, and Tanztheater Wuppertal, as well as collaborations with independent choreographers including slowdanger, Hannah Garner, Demetris Charalambous, and Kashia Kancey.
Ke’ron J. Wilson | Performer
Ke’ron J. Wilson is a New York City-based movement artist, choreographer, model, actor, musician, and poet. She trained at Harrison School for the Arts and Florida Dance Theater and earned her BFA from Sam Houston State University in 2019. A founding member of Social Movement Contemporary Dance Theater and a recurring guest choreographer for the Pilot Dance Project in Houston, she explores trans embodiment, alchemy, and spiritual exile through ritual performance informed by tarot, astrology, and occult symbolism. Wilson is Triskelion Arts’ 2026 Artist-in-Residence. She leads wellness and meditation portals independently and with Angelito Collective for New York City’s queer and trans community.
ABOUT TRIBE
TRIBE (TRI314 Multidisciplinary Visual Performances, d.b.a. TRIBE) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary arts collective founded by Shamel Pitts in December 2019. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit brings together international and local artists working in movement, choreography, digital storytelling, lighting design, video mapping projection, poetry, spoken word, cinematography, scenography, dramaturgy, costume styling, and music composition. Inspired by Afrofuturism, TRIBE cultivates a space of discovery and a platform for artists, particularly artists of color, to tell new stories and imagine more expansive futures. https://itsatribe.org
TRIBE – ARTISTIC TEAM
Founding Artistic Director, Concept Direction & Choreographer: Shamel Pitts
Performers: Channce Williams, Ke’ron J. Wilson
Artistic Production Manager: Sarai Frazier
Video Light & Mapping Designer: Lucca Del Carlo
Costume Designer: Errin Shin, David Gap
Audio: Ed Côrtes
Graphic Design: Idan Epshtein
Photographer & Videographer: Itai Zwecker
Artistic Administrator: E Katrina Lewis
Managing Director: Seta Morton
Development Director: Eric Umble
Digital Creative & Development Associate: Pam Panozzo
Worldwide Bookings: Lotus Arts Management, Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, sophie@lotusartsmgmt.com
FUNDING CREDITS
BLACK VELVET’s 10th-anniversary remix is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, SHS Foundation, The Harkness Foundation For Dance, Arison Arts Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, New York Community Trust, TRIBE’s individual donors, and its Board of Directors. To view TRIBE’s complete list of supporters, visit https://itsatribe.org/support.
This project has been supported by a developmental residency from PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance and Performance Space New York.
The 2016 São Paulo premiere of BLACK VELVET was made possible with the commissioning, production, performance, and creative direction support of Mirelle Martins, with the collaboration of Lucca Del Carlo, Mauricio Pisani, Raoni Maddalena, Anna Zêpa, Robson Simon, and Carolina Garcia Marques, and the support of São Paulo Dance Company (SPCD), Escola de Dança de São Paulo, Teatro Sergio Cardoso, Liliane de Grammont, Susana Yamaguchi, and Carolina Amares.
The 2017–2020 international tour artistic team included Naomi Maaravi, Derek Van Heel, Katherina Vasiliadis, and Elizabeth Schmuhl.
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