MUSE/IQUE brings Harlem Renaissance to life at The Huntington June 2-3 (Photo – muse-ique.com)
If you could have taken a walk down the streets of Harlem in the 1920s-1940s, tunes like Stormy Weather and voices like Ella Fitzgerald’s would have filled your ears. On June 2nd and 3rd, you might relive such a moment in the gardens of San Marino.
By Melanie Hooks
For its season opener, the non-profit performing arts organization MUSE/IQUE presents The Sun Rises in Harlem: Black Brilliance and the Harlem Renaissance, led by Artistic & Music Director Rachael Worby with Kecia Lewis, Sy Smith, Leo Manzari, the DC6 Singers Collective, and the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra.
There are four performances presented between June 2 and 7, 2026 at, and in partnership with, The Huntington and Skirball Cultural Center. Admissions available now at muse-ique.com.
The music of the Harlem Renaissance — a social and artistic movement of Black empowerment and brilliance in the 1930s emanating from the small neighborhood north of New York’s Central Park — encompassed everything from red-hot jazz wailed by trailblazing bandleaders and players, to all-Black Broadway musicals, to the first classical music by a Black woman to be performed by a major U.S. orchestra.
Timeless songs like Ain’t Misbehavin’, Stormy Weather, and They Can’t Take That Away From Me were carried on the searing, soulful voices of Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday, on the iconic instruments of Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, and brought to life in legendary nightspots like the Cotton Club by bandleaders Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.
They’ll be brought back to radiant life by Broadway veteran Kecia Lewis, who won a Tony award for her performance in Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen; Sy Smith, a five-octave R&B belter who recently portrayed Michelle Obama in 44: The Musical; Leo Manzari, a gifted tap dancer who’s been a featured guest on So You Think You Can Dance; and DC6 Singers Collective, the genre-hopping vocal group recently heard in the Oscar-winning Sinners.
MUSE/IQUE’s Artistic & Music Director Rachael Worby says: “The artists, musicians, and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance declared their brilliance in a way that forever changed American culture. The daring self-expression of these Black artists, and their pride in their identity, spread a message of hope and empowerment that continues to speak to us all.”
From church pulpits to private homes and neighborhoods where Black Americans and queer folks alike felt safe, from smoky nightclubs to the stage and screen and well into the future, the musical sun that rose in Harlem is still shining bright.
After its Huntington run, The Sun Rises in Harlem travels to Skirball Cultural Center for two performances (3:00 pm & 7:30 pm) on June 7.
MUSE/IQUE: The Sun Rises in Harlem Tuesday, June 2: 7:30 pm Wednesday, June 3: 7:30 pm Location The Huntington 1151 Oxford Rd. San Marino, CA 91108 Tickets ($75) available now at muse-ique.com.
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