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The Apollo returns to the Annual African American Day Parade

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‍After nearly two-decades, The Apollo Theater is back in the African American Day Parade and this year, we're not just marching, we're being honored. The Apollo is the inaugural recipient of the AADP Community Institution Award, recognizing our legacy of advancing Black culture, artistic excellence, and community impact in Harlem and beyond.

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This year's theme, "Good Businesses Sustain Our Future," couldn't be more fitting. As the largest Black performing arts center in the country, The Apollo has always understood what it means to be an economic engine and cultural anchor for our community, and this parade, the largest in the U.S. celebrating Black culture and NYC's biggest parade by float volume, is a chance to celebrate that spirit together.

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Here's where to find us all weekend:

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Saturday, September 19 — Community Literacy, Health & Culture Festival‍

Location: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza

Time: Starts at 12 Noon

Apollo Teaching Artist Charlene "Chi Chi" Smith brings Education at The Apollo's dance pedagogy straight to the plaza. This hands-on, joyful, and rooted artistry shapes talent in NYC schools via Apollo School Programs. ‍

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Sunday, September 20 — AADP Pre-Show‍

Location: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza

Time: Starts at 11 AM

2024 Amateur Night winner Cruz Angel takes the mic, bringing his award-winning vocals to the crowd before the parade steps off.‍

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Sunday, September 20 — Parade Day‍

Location: 7th Avenue, 111th to 136th Street

Time: From 12:30 PM to 6 PM

Watch for The Apollo's float, moving to the mixes of DJ Slid3, as we march alongside 300+ performances and 37 floats celebrating Black culture, business, and community.

The Apollo has always been where Harlem shows up for itself. This September, we're showing up in the streets. Come be part of it.

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‍Get ready, Harlem—the chauffer is pulling up with The Womack Sisters.  Kicking off The Apollo’s Music Café season, the LA-based soul and R&B trio — BG, Zeimani and Kucha — are carrying on their family's legendary musical legacy. With stellar vocals, undeniable chemistry and timeless rhythm running through their veins, soul royalty has arrived.

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About Apollo Music Café:

The Apollo Music Café series presents artists on the rise to a unique audience. Featuring diverse performances across a myriad of genres (R&B, hip hop, soul, jazz, pop, country, funk and rock), this series showcases a variety of artists who impact the way music is heard and experienced.

Fresh off a tour with Kehlani and Durand Bernarr, TheARTI$T comes to Harlem for an exclusive late-night takeover of Apollo Music Café – featuring songs from the albums Who I Am, The ARTchives, and DND. It’s an intimate night of raw and confessional soul from one of R&B’s most dynamic rising stars.

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About Apollo Music Café:

The Apollo Music Café series presents artists on the rise to a unique audience. Featuring diverse performances across a myriad of genres (R&B, hip hop, soul, jazz, pop, country, funk and rock), this series showcases a variety of artists who impact the way music is heard and experienced.

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

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The Apollo’s Works in Process season kicks off with a free staged reading of Obie Award winning, Emmy and Tony nominated actor, playwright, producer, and director Jordan Cooper’s new play Sitcom. Get ready to laugh as the creative mind behind the groundbreaking BET+ sitcom The Ms. Pat Show takes audiences for a ride when the dysfunctional cast of a hit 90's TV show reunite for the first time in 25 years for a dinner they will never forget.

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This is a free community presentation.

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Jordan E. Cooper

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Tony Award-nominated Actor, Playwright, Producer, and Director Jordan E. Cooper became the youngest Black American playwright in the history of Broadway when his critically acclaimed play Ain’t No Mo’ opened in 2022. The play, also starring Cooper, received six Tony Award nominations and was declared “Broadway's most important new play” by Harper’s Bazaar. Off-Broadway, Ain’t No Mo’ earned Jordan an Obie Award win and a Drama League Award nomination. Cooper also became the youngest showrunner in television history with the groundbreaking BET+ sitcom The Ms. Pat Show which he also Co-Created and Executive Produces. The series has received multiple Emmy nominations and earned Cooper an African American Film Critics Association award. Jordan was included in Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in 2024 and Vanity Fair’s “The Season’s Brightest (Broadway) Stars” list in 2023. He was featured in FX’s seminal series “Pose” and can currently be seen in the hit feature sequel Freakier Friday.

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Kick off your Halloween weekend with your new spooky-season tradition! Harlem's own Melanin Madness returns to The Apollo Stages at The Victoria for another spook-tacular immersive screening of the timeless classic Vampire in Brooklyn. This time, with even more opportunities to join the fun!

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Apollo Works in Process: In Place of Monuments centers the friendship of two Black American and Caribbean friends, examining how state-sanctioned violence threatens to tear their family and community apart. Through recalling memories across time, and incorporating movement and dance, the play aims to create a portal for audiences to envision more just and liberated futures for Black and Brown people. The play will be devised in community through a series of workshops (writing, somatic/dance, readings, story circles, wardrobe design etc.).  

The staged reading of the one-act will be followed by a talkback with the creatives.

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