From Jazz to Dance: Previewing This Year’s Newman Center Presents Series

Denver-area arts lovers know that the Newman Center for the Performing Arts is one of the premier venues for experiencing performances both local and global. The Newman Center Presents series, in particular, brings a diverse slate of acts-from creative dance troupes to genre-bending musical artists-right here to DU's campus.

But what Denver-area arts lovers may not know about is all the hard work that goes into finding and booking the world-class talent that graces the stages of the Newman Center every year.

Leading the team that seeks out performers for the Newman Center Presents series every year is Aisha Ahmad-Post, executive director of the Newman Center. She says the

Aisha Ahmad-Post.

process of procuring these acts starts early, sometimes years in advance.

"It's a long game," she says. "Some of the folks that I'm bringing this year, I've been talking to or sort of circling, and we just couldn't make the dates work. Or their [previous] project wasn't right for the Newman Center. Or they took a hiatus to build their work."

Ahmad-Post says she aims to offer a variety of performances every year. From dance and jazz to global music, she wants to give the Newman Center community a little bit of everything to choose from.

"I want some random stuff to make it alive and not staid," she says. "I want to look for partnerships with the community; I want to look for things that are important for the University community and that have resonance with our faculty and students and staff."

Some of the artists Ahmad-Post brings to the Newman Center are people she's had relationships with for a long time; others are brand new-and that's exciting, she says.

"There's always the discovery part, where you learn about an artist you didn't know about the year before," Ahmad-Post says. "So, this year for me, that was Lakecia Benjamin, who is an alto saxophone player who's coming in October."

Benjamin, a three-time Grammy-nominated artist, was featured as a performer on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." Her most recent album, "Phoenix," was released in January 2023.

Julia Keefe, a Native American jazz vocalist, will bring the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band to the Newman Center in April 2024, highlighting the history and future of Indigenous people in jazz.

"I wasn't familiar with Julia herself, but there was a lot of buzz at the conference that I go to in January every year," Ahmad-Post says. "It was just kind of one of those magic moments where you're like, 'Oh, this is going to be something.'"

Another artist with Native roots is Martha Redbone, whose Sept. 25 performance of the song cycle "Bone Hill" will feature "her unique gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky, infused with the eclectic grit of pregentrified Brooklyn."

"She's a gospel and blues and folk singer, and she's got this phenomenal voice," Ahmad-Post says.

Ahmad-Post says the diversity of performers and performances-sometimes coming to DU from across the globe-is what makes the Newman Center Presents series so special.

"I feel really strongly that you have to have this effusion of new ideas," she says. "There has to be dialogue. There has to be an exchange of some sort if you're going to help build a thriving artistic community within your own area."

Visit the Newman Center's website for a full list of performers in this year's Newman Center Presents series.