The Apollo Announces 2025 Fall/Winter Season of Programs

Partnerships with organizations across the city include 651 ARTS, The Flea, City Winery, among others

Annual Series Apollo Music Café and Apollo Comedy Club continue at The Apollo Stages at the Victoria

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Harlem, NY – (July 31, 2025) – Today, The Apollo announced its Fall/Winter 2025 season of performances, exhibitions, and community programs, including commissions, presentations, and collaborations with cultural partners across New York City and beyond. Taking place while its Historic Theater is under renovation, Apollo season highlights include a theater series marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that explores its lasting impact on Louisiana, the country and disproportionately affected Black communities in New Orleans, both reflecting and intensifying long-standing racial and economic disparities; a panel discussion on the legacy of the iconic reggae group Steel Pulse; and performances that pay tribute to music legends and showcase emerging talent.  

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Apollo programs continue at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria and at partner locations while the Historic Theater undergoes its largest renovation and restoration in history, which began on July 1.  

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“During this pivotal moment of transition while our Historic Theater undergoes renovation, The Apollo’s Fall 2025 season maintains its focus on the Black experience—examining legacy, lineage, and social justice through art, dialogue, and creativity. From honoring trailblazing legends and icons to uplifting the next generation of visionary artists, this season reaffirms The Apollo’s role as a vital hub for Black creativity, history, and innovation,” said Apollo President and CEO Michelle Ebanks. 

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“In addition to presenting our mainstay music, comedy, and poignant panel discussion, a key pillar of this season is a bold tribute to the richness of Black theater—past, present, and future. We’re proud to center stories that reflect the depth, creativity, and cultural impact of Black artists, whose contributions have long shaped the landscape of the stage. It’s a season of celebration, innovation, and necessary recognition,” said Apollo Executive Producer Kamilah Forbes.  

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In September, The Apollo New Works commission in collaboration with Junebug Productions, Echoes of the Storm, brings together eight playwrights—four based in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states, and four Louisiana-born writers now based in New York—to create a series of 10-minute plays reflecting on the enduring impact of Katrina 20 years after the devastating storm. The works are relayed through intimate storytelling, offering a deeply personal look at how the storm reshaped lives, communities, and cultural identity. The plays will then tour across the U.S., culminating in New Orleans, Louisiana at Junebug Productions. The Katrina commemoration will also span film and conversations including a screening of episode 1 of the upcoming Netflix docuseries co-produced by Spike Lee, Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and talkback with the program’s producers. The weekend of events entitled Southern Stories will kick off with a reading of a new play by Apollo’s Director of New Works, Kelley Girod.  Echoes of the Storm builds upon The Apollo’s commissioning support to creative innovation by emerging and established artists whose work challenges, reflects, and is in dialogue with the most pressing issues within our communities. Previous works have included The Blues and Its People, the stage adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me; The Gathering in collaboration with National Black Theatre and American Composers Orchestra, and genre-defying opera We Shall Not Be Moved by Daniel Bernard Roumain, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Bill T. Jones, co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia.

In November, The Apollo presents Hang Time, a searing and poetic work written and directed by Harlem native and Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard. Critically acclaimed during its 2023 Off-Broadway debut, the 10-performance run at The Apollo of Hang Time is a powerful Harlem homecoming for Ms. Howard. Centering the emotional lives and inner worlds of three Black men as they gather beneath an old tree, the play offers an intimate, unflinching exploration of vulnerability, memory, and Black masculinity. 

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While programs continue in its new spaces, The Apollo’s major full-scale restoration, renovation, and modernization of its iconic Historic Theater is underway, led by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects + Planners with consultants Charcoalblue, Flyleaf Creative, and Higgins Quasebarth &Partners. The project honors the legacy of The Apollo while enhancing the audience experience with a renovated and expanded lobby with a café and bar for community gatherings and performances, new and restored seating, significant upgrades to backstage areas for artists, a revitalized, globally recognized historic Apollo marquee, and more. Construction on the theater—which first opened in 1914 and was renamed The Apollo in 1934—began this summer and will be undertaken in phases until its completion in 2026. 

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The Apollo’s season of programs follows below, with additional programs to be announced.  

CALENDAR OF THE APOLLO’S FALL/WINTER 2025 SEASON:   
All times below are listed in EST.  

Exhibition: Got To Be There: The Apollo, Its People, and Its Stories 
On view through June 30, 2026  

Laura and Frank Baker Gallery 
Free & open to the public 
Presented within The Apollo’s exhibition space within the Victoria Theater, this collection of materials, mostly drawn from The Apollo Theater Archives, is presented to better understand the many roles that The Apollo Theater has played and continues to play in service to the arts, the Harlem community, and global pop culture at large. These photographs, video recordings, and artifacts offer a window into The Apollo’s contributions both on and off stage, including facets of the theater’s mission and operations that may be largely unknown to the general public.  

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Harlem Week 2025
The Art of the Mix  
Saturday, August 16, 2025 & Sunday, August 17, 2025  
Outdoors: 135^th Street between Adam Clayton Powell &Frederick Douglass Blvds  
Free & open to the public  

The Apollo & Sprite have teamed up once again to celebrate HARLEM WEEK 2025. This year, The Apollo welcomes audiences to Celebrate Our Magic by bringing The Art of the Mix to the famed Summer in the City and Harlem Day outdoor celebrations. Explore food and beverage parings courtesy of Sprite and Chef JJ Johnson’s Field Trip, live art collaborations that celebrate The Apollo’s iconic history and cultural impact, and celebrate individual style with a drip mix station and photo booth. As always, there will be giveaways, Apollo trivia and more.  

On Sunday, August 17^th join The Apollo on the Harlem Week mainstage at 135^th and St. Nick for The Apollo hour hosted by Billy “Mr. Apollo” Mitchell, featuring performances by The Apollo’s Amateur Night “Set it Off Man” Greginald Spencer and more.  

Click here to view the full HARLEM WEEK 2025 schedule.   

Apollo In The Hamptons
Friday, August 22, 2025  
EHP Resort & Marina (Si Si Restaurant) 
Tickets: $2,000 

The Apollo Theater returns to the Hamptons for an intimate night of dinner and dancing on the water in honor of its mission and Historic Theater Renovation. Apollo in the Hamptons kicks off a broader Weekend of Cultural Elevation, in collaboration with On Our Toes in the Hamptons, presented by Ronald K. Brown and EVIDENCE. All proceeds from Apollo in the Hamptons will support the non-profit organization’s year-round, world-class artistic, education, and community programs, as well as its commitment to articulating and elevating arts and culture. Music and entertainment provided by DJ Cassidy, Doug E. Fresh, Chubb Rock, Dres, 
Amateur Night at The Apollo artist Wé Ani, and Cafe Wha Band. 

Southern Stories Series - In Honor of Hurricane Katrina’s 20^th Anniversary 

Staged Reading 
Apollo Presents Works In Process: The Faith Healer   
Saturday, September 13, 2025   
Event Begins: 2:30PM  
Doors Open: 1:30PM  
Procope Theater  
Tickets: $20  

The Apollo’s Works in Process series kicks off this season with a reading of The Faith Healer, a new play by The Apollo’s Director of New Works and founder of The Fire This Time Festival, Kelley Girod.  

The Faith Healer follows a young Black doctor in Louisiana who faces the biggest crisis of his career at the same time that his father dies, while haunted by the ghost and legacy of his father who was a respected traitair, or spiritual healer. This doctor learns what it takes to not just be a medical provider, but a husband, a son, and a friend. 

Join this journey to the remotest parts of Louisiana, where French is still the first language, and sway through a past and a present that tie two generations of healers in a drama that highlights the plight of those who are called to care for others.   

This reading is presented as a part of a series of programs commemorating 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and highlights the traditions, language, and rich customs of the gulf coast people that still thrive despite the impact of natural disasters.  

Presented in partnership with The Fire This Time Festival, an Obie-winning festival founded in 2009 by playwright and Apollo New Works Director Kelley Girod to provide a platform for early career playwrights of African and African American descent. The Festival also supports actors, directors, and technical personnel to help seed the pipeline with diverse talent and amplify underrepresented voices in theater in New York and beyond, and has in the past included prominent theater actors and writers Radha Blank, Jordan E. Cooper, among others.  

Film 
Spike Lee’s Katrina: Come Hell and High Water (Episode 1) 
Saturday, September 13, 2025, 7:30 PM 
Victoria Theater 1 
Tickets $25 
 
Spike Lee’s new Netflix docuseries Katrina: Come Hell and High Water revisits the hurricane that caused 1,392 fatalities and more than $100 billion in damages in 2005. Over the course of a gripping and emotional three episodes, the people of New Orleans recount their past, extoll their present and lean into the future of what they and their beloved city survived and have become 20years later. Detailed, harrowing and triumphant first-person accounts and never before seen archival footage illustrate the magnitude of Katrina, the aftermath of the levees breaking and the bungled recovery. There will be a post-show conversation with members of the series producers, Alisa Payne, Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir.  

Echoes of the Storm: 20 Years After Katrina  
In collaboration with Junebug Productions 
Monday, September 15, 2025, 7:30 PM 
Victoria Theater 1 
Tickets: $20 
8 10-minute plays – 1 hour 30 minutes 
 
The Apollo, in collaboration with Junebug Productions, presents Echoes of the Storm, a theatrical commemoration marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This special project brings together eight playwrights---four based in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states, and four Louisiana-born writers now based in New York---to create a series of 10-minuteplays reflecting on the enduring impact of Katrina. Through intimate storytelling, dramatized memory, and documentary-style narrative, these original works explore themes of loss, resilience, migration, and home, offering a deeply personal look at how the storm reshaped lives, communities, and cultural identity two decades later. The project will culminate in an evening of live readings, providing audiences with an immediate engagement with these urgent stories. Echoes of the Storm honors Hurricane Katrina’s lasting imprint on the people of the Gulf Coast, ensuring their narratives are preserved, heard, and remembered. 

About the Plays 

Until Somebody Remembers You by Kim Sykes 

Lost memory found. Reconnecting after the storm. 

The Verti Marte by Jackie Alexander 

On a night with the French Quarter under siege, two native New Orleanians are confronted by the changing landscape of the city. 

BOOGiE by Brian Egland 

Two brothers, evacuees displaced by Hurricane Katrina, face complications as they start at a new school in a new city.  

Braking Waters by Sha’Condria “Icon” Sibley 

A young woman, who is displaced due to Hurricane Katrina, grapples with the grief and loneliness of loss, whether taken or surrendered. She must tread through painful memories in order to make the ultimate decision about what she is capable of holding on to and letting go of.  
 

Conference Room C by Kaaron Briscoe 

If you could go back to the place where it all fell apart and fix it, would you? Twenty years ago, Katrina ripped up best-laid plans.Could a trip to Conference Room C put everything back on track? 
 

Saltwoman by Stephanie McKee-Anderson 

In the warm, truth-telling tradition of the south, Saltwoman channels the spirit of every Black woman who learned to find the sacred in survival. Mama Water—grandmother, storm, and seed scattered by disaster—walks onto the stage carrying twenty years of memory in the bottom of her belly. 
 

They Read The Land Like a Book by Nick Slie 

A family sits at a crab boil on the lower side of the Atchafalaya Basin, singing, dancing, and poetically recounting the secrets ofthe waters that surround them. 

Pre-K by Lori Elizabeth Parquet 

Siblings by blood. Strangers in spirit.  In search of a home where it no longer exists.   

 
In Conversation: 50 Years of Steel Pulse  
In partnership with City Winery  
Saturday, September 27, 2025  
Event Begins: 2:00 PM  
Doors Open: 1:00pm  
Victoria Theater 1  
Tickets: $25    
Program Runtime: 60 minutes  

The Apollo, City Winery and One Caribbean Media Group have teamed up for an afternoon celebrating the legacy of the Grammy Award–winning roots reggae band Steel Pulse at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria. This intimate conversation with band members David Hinds, Selwyn Brown, and Amlak Tafari, along with SiriusXM’s Pat McKay reflects on the band’s 50-yearrevolutionary journey, the evolution of roots reggae, and the music’s lasting influence on generations of artists and activists. The celebration continues into the evening when the band takes the stage at City Winery New York. Audiences can use the promo code APOLLOCW for early access to tickets for the Steel Pulse performance at City Winery that evening.  

The Apollo’s In Conversation series amplifies the voices of artists and thought leaders and explores the African American and African diasporic narrative. Past In Conversation artists and panels have included Joy Ann Reid, Rachel Maddow, Fat Joe, John Legend, Black Thought, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Oprah Winfrey, Chadwick Boseman, Edward Enninful, Lupita Nyong’o, Ketanji Brown Jackson and more.  

Apollo Comedy Club   
 

Thursday, October 9 
Timmy Hall – Host 
Shantae Nash 
Rich Aronovitch 
Kenny Woo 
 

Thursday, November 6   
Damon Williams – Host 
Meghan Rose 
Oscar P    
Coleman Green 
 

Thursday, December 11  
Memphis Will – Host 
Paula “The Trophy Wife” Clarke 
Uncle G. 
Mark Gregory 

 
Event Begins: 10PM 
Doors Open: 9PM   
Apollo Stages at The Victoria 
Tickets: $30 (plus$10 food/beverage minimum) 
Recommended for ages 18+ 
Program Runtime: 90 minutes 

This year marks The Apollo’s 10^th Year Anniversary of Comedy Club. Curated by Bob Sumner (legendary producer of Def Comedy Jam, creator of Laff Mobb on Aspire), The Apollo Comedy Club presents a night of comedic sets and space for audiences to laugh and let loose, while providing emerging and established comedians a legendary forum to experiment and hone their craft. 

Recognized primarily for its role in launching the careers of some of the world’s biggest music artists, the Apollo also has a storied history with comedy. Since the Theater first opened its doors in 1934, comics were a central part of the Theater’s variety shows. From the 1930s through the early 1950s, comedy at The Apollo consisted of situational, sketch humor and evolved to include stand-up monologues and social commentary from the mid-1950sand on. 

The Apollo’s roster of comic artists who graced its legendary stage include: Lincoln Perry (Stepin Fetchit), Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Pigmeat Markham, Mantan Moreland, Tim “Kingfish” Moore, Butterbeansand Susie, Flournoy Miller, Timmie Rogers, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Slappy White, Redd Foxx, Nipsey Russell, George Kirby, Dick Gregory, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Sinbad, Capone, Mo’Nique, Steve Harvey, Kenan Thompson, Wanda Sykes, Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle. 

Apollo MusicCafé  
 
Friday, October 10, 2025 | Shoniqua Shandai 
Saturday, October 11, 2025 | Samoht  
Friday, November 7, 2025 | Rae Khalil 
Saturday, November 8, 2025 | Renée Neufville   
Friday, December 12, 2025 | Du’Bois A’Keen 
Saturday, December 13, 2025 | Ayana George Jackson 
 
Event Begins: 10PM  
Doors Open: 9PM  
Procope Theater  
Tickets: $30  
Recommended for ages: 18+  
Program Runtime: 60 minutes  

The Apollo Music Café series presents independent artists to audiences. Featuring diverse performances across a myriad of genres (R&B, hip hop, soul, jazz, pop, funk, and rock), this series showcases artists drawn from the independent music scene who impact the way music is heard and experienced. This season of Apollo Music Café premieres with Grammy-nominated artist Samoht. Fresh from his overly sold-out Red Zonetour, Samoht delivers a roof-raising night of music.  The opening weekend also includes Amazon Prime series Harlem actress Shoniqua Shandai who will headline her own soulful concert. Additional performers in the season include Grammy-winner, singer-songwriter Rae Khalil, jazz and neo-soulsinger Renée Neufville (half of the legendary group Zhané), contemporary gospel singer Du’Bois A’Keen and acclaimed vocalist and Broadway alum Ayana George Jackson.  

Theater 

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Apollo New Works Commission 
Bricks -  A NewMusical by Charlene Jean and Franklin Rankin 
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 2:30pm & 7:30pm 
Tickets: $20 
Procope Theater 

In this Apollo commissioned premiere presented in partnership with 651 ARTS, a mother represses the gifts of her daughter hoping to protect her innocence from a world that has torn their lives apart. But as her daughter comes of age she learns the truth of her purpose and the spirits who guide her. This play explores a mother-daughter relationship and the power of the spirit world. 

Apollo New Works expands The Apollo’s commitment to supporting creative innovation by emerging and established artists whose work challenges, reflects, and is in dialogue with the most pressing issues within our communities. 

Charlene Jean is a NYC-based artist and playwright who has presented multidisciplinary works at Playbill, Sig Space, Weeksville Heritage Center, Manhattan School of Music, Hi-ARTS, Brick Theatre, and JACK Arts Radical Acts Festival. 

Franklin Rankin is a NYC-based composer who studied at the Harlem School of the Arts and graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition and received his Master’s in Jazz Studies from NYU. Since then, Franklin has worked with such artists as Nona Hendryx, AzealiaBanks, Mwenso and the Shakes, and Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly. 

Theater 
Hang Time (Zora Howard) 
November 7, 2025 - November 16, 2025  
Victoria Theater 1 
Tickets: $45 
Program Run Time: 60 minutes 
Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize Finalist Zora Howard in her directorial debut, the critically-acclaimed theater production Hang Time is a deeply moving and subversive work that explores the expectations put upon Black men in America, and the ways in which their humanity can triumph over the brutality that has been brought against them. Three men chew the fat under an old, wide tree. In Hang Time, we peek into the interiority – the great loves and bitter blues – of Black men in America. Setting the romantic and the macabre in sharp relief, Hang Time invites the viewer to envisage the living Blackbody triumphant over the legacy of violence that it holds.  

Speaker Series  
The Apollo and The Black Genius Foundation Present Black Genius Talks
I’ll Make Me A World: World Building and the Power of the Imagination with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah and Kiel Adrian Scott 
Thursday, December 4, 2025, 7:30 PM  
Tickets: $25 
Victoria Theater 1 
 
In partnership with The Black Genius Foundation, The Apollo convenes an intimate one-on-one conversation between 2023 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, two-time Edison Award winner, and six-time Grammy-nominated musician, composer, producer, and sonic architect Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah and award-winning filmmaker and writer Kiel Adrian Scott. 

The two visionaries, who are also twin brothers, will interview each other in a dynamic exchange about their respective crafts, the power of art and imagination, and how they are building worlds and infrastructure to support Black artistry and creativity. 

Black Genius Talks are humanities discussions designed to engage community and deepen public knowledge around Black artists, the Black creative ecosystem and the tradition of Black genius. The Black Genius Foundation transforms the conversation around genius by placing Black artists and the Black creative ecosystem at the center.