2011 Theatre Recipient

Marc Bamuthi Joseph

performer / cultural athlete

"At its best, in the ritual of performance, the temperature rises in the room...you can FEEL the shift...This is what keeps me coming back...the high of collective transformation."

Through hybrid performance, grounded in hip hop aesthetic, Joseph situates his personal, musical language within a cultural frame. Drawing on his extensive dance training enflames the spoken word. Artistic director of Youth Speaks and its resident theatre company, The Living Word Project, he thinks of himself as an educator who performs.