The Dorchester Reporter and Mattapan Reporter is pleased to join ArtsEmerson as a title sponsor for the upcoming Welcome to Boston Cast Party in honor of Haitian American playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the cast of /peh-LO-tah/. This festive community event will be held on Monday, April 29th at the Boston Centers for Youth and Families Tobin Community Center, 1481 Tremont Street, Roxbury, MA 02120.

The Welcome to Boston cast party, a signature program of ArtsEmerson, is an amazing community engagement event that draws large multicultural audiences from all over Greater Boston. It is rooted in the tradition of visionary arts leader, humanist and Emerson College alumna, Ms. Elma Lewis and co-hosted by variety of community partners.

While being feted by performances from Boston’s finest poets, vocalists, dancers, actors and entertainers, this warm and vibrant event presents our artists to the community before seeing them perform on stage. Since 2012, ArtsEmerson has partnered with organizations such as The National Center for Afro-American Artists, Roxbury Community College, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Get Konnected and the Strand Theatre to serve as co-presenters and venue hosts for this event.

Boston artists such as Kendall Ramseur; Jean Appolon Expressions, BostonTap Company; Origination Cultural Arts Center; Boston Children’s Theater; Black Nativity; The Wonder Twins; Jorge Arce; Boston Circus Guild; and Maria Finkelmeier have performed at the Welcome to Boston Cast Party for artists such as Cicely Tyson; Montreal’s; Machine Du Cirque; and South Africa’s Isango Ensemble.

ABOUT /peh-LO-tah/:
Soccer is now the world’s most popular sport, but for poet-performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph, his personal love of the game amounts to a heritage story. As a child of Haitian immigrants, the blissful freedom of the soccer field represented the race toward the American dream. In /peh-LO-tah/ we are taken on an epic whirlwind road trip from pickup games in Haiti to the World Cup stadiums of Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg. As Joseph and his cast fire off impassioned, poetic tributes to the game, their feet do another kind of talking with futbol-inspired choreography.

/peh-LO-tah/ digs deeper, directly clashing with the the discrepancies of a game that promises freedom yet suffers from racial inequities. It’s childhood fantasies vs. global realities, all set to sounds of hip hop and samba, celebrating the only game the entire world can agree to play together.

ABOUT ARTSEMERSON
Founded in 2010 by Rob Orchard (currently ArtsEmerson Creative Consultant), ArtsEmerson seeks to redefine the relationship between artist and audience, and the impact of theatre on community. Through performance programs, ongoing artist residencies and repeated engagements with ensembles, audiences see how our work evolves over time and, as a result, connect to artists’ deeper ambitions and processes. This investment not only strengthens the bond between artists and audiences but allows for a highly interactive exchange that helps to realize the full potential of the arts in the life and character of the city of Boston.