Serpentwithfeet, Mike Tyus and more perform inside the Broad

Watch: serpentwithfeet, Mike Tyus, San Cha and Shonda Buchanan perform work inside the Broad

Sept. 17, 2020 1:59 PM PT

A few months ago at the Broad museum in downtown Los Angeles, curators invited more than a dozen area dancers, musicians and poets to explore the galleries and create or adapt works inspired by what they saw.

There, across four days, musicians Georgia Anne Muldrow, San Cha and Mx. Matías, serpentwithfeet and Sudan Archives performed songs; writers Amy Uyematsu, Shonda Buchanan and Luis J. Rodriguez presented their work; and Mike Tyus, Jermaine Spivey and Spenser Theberge, d. Sabela grimes and Rosanna Tavarez performed site-specific new dance works.

The Broad museum filmed the performances for a new series called “L.A. Intersections: Music, Language, Movement.” The project aims to adapt its annual indoor and outdoor on-site events for the post-COVID-19 world.

The first episode, which The Times is premiering below, delivers four riveting performances across its 20 minutes. Experimental pop artist serpentwithfeet, who has worked with artists including Björk, the Haxan Cloak, Skrillex and Ty Dolla Sign, sings inside the Broad’s Dr. Seuss-ian concrete stairwell. San Cha delivers beauty in a gallery alongside guitarist Mx. Matías. Dancer and Cirque du Soleil performer Mike Tyus moves in unison with a new composition by multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Harrington, one half of the electronic music duo Darkside. Writer and literary editor Shonda Buchanan presents a memorable reading of one of her pieces.

A video produced at the Broad museum features work from serpentwithfeet, San Cha and Mx. Matías, Shonda Buchanan and Mike Tyus

The series was born out of necessity. When the pandemic shut down the performance scene, the Broad was in the process of planning its summer and fall outdoor programming. As the virus endured, the Broad’s Ed Patuto says, the museum “made the decision to move from in-person events to virtual events and to adjust them thematically to address the current times.” The original programs were to be organized around the museum’s fifth anniversary, which is Sunday.

Patuto adds that another series is in the works. Focused on the musical influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat, for that series, says Patuto, “Terrace Martin and Quincy Jones Productions are talking about jazz artists such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, James Spooner, co-founder of Afro-Punk, is speaking about punk and no wave and Dr. Todd Boyd is drawing a line between bebop, Basquiat and hip-hop.”

Parts two and three of “L.A. Intersections: Music, Language, Movement” will arrive across the final two Thursdays of September.