Photo from Mikaal Sulaiman’s performance at Voxfest in Lebanon, 2018. Photo: Robert C Strong II
Photo from Mikaal Sulaiman’s performance at Voxfest in Lebanon, 2018. Photo: Robert C Strong II
Project Black Plague by Mikaal Sulaiman.
Project Black Plague by Mikaal Sulaiman.
Project Black Plague
Mikaal Sulaiman is a Tony Award-nominated multi-disciplinary artist who works as a sound designer, composer, writer, and director interchangeably across theatre, film, tv, and podcasts.
Artist BioProject Black Plague is a sound performance, experienced as a clandestine presentation created for headphones about race and death, moving beyond lament to intellectually confound a radical new understanding of being Black in America. Part revival tent, part Afro-futurist reeducation seminar, the work draws parallels between American racism and the Black Death of the Middle Ages in Europe. Over the course of the performance, the audience receives clandestine information on headphones from a secret organization unlocking the code of American racism: how it has spread like a pandemic for centuries, how it replicates and mutates, how it partners with institutional power and with death. At its core, Project Black Plague asks the audience to confront this pandemic of Black death in America, and to plumb its meaning, both scientifically and spiritually.
Mikaal Sulaiman
New Haven, CT
Mikaal Sulaiman is a Tony Award-nominated multi-disciplinary artist who works as a sound designer, composer, writer, and director interchangeably across theatre, film, tv, and podcasts. As a writer, Mikaal was recently in the writers room on a new soon to be released episodic show from A24/Amazon Studios, created by Ramy Youssef, called #1 Happy Family USA, an animated adult comedy. As a theatre deviser, Mikaal has been recognized for his original works, earning the CTG Sherwood Award in 2021 for Project Black Plague as well as being commissioned for a new original work by the new Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC). He has also honed his craft through artist residencies at Space on Ryder Farm, UCross Foundation, and VoxFest at Dartmouth College. Mikaal’s work as a sound designer and composer has earned him numerous awards and nominations, including the Tony Award, Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Audelco Award, and Henry Hewes Design Award. His sound design has been featured on Broadway productions such as Macbeth (featuring Daniel Craig & Ruth Negga), Death of a Salesman (Wendell Pierce), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fat Ham co-produced by Colman Domingo and Cynthia Erivo. Additionally, he hosts the podcast Black Enso, a platform for exploring creativity and its challenges.
Photo: Amir Sulaiman