A virtual exhibition beamed to your living room by NYU Abu Dhabi

Hankering for an arts fix but don’t have the energy to get yourself up and about after work? Fear not culture vultures, The Arts Centre at NYU Abu Dhabi has the solution.

The second of a three-night digital-only exhibition is going live this evening (Wednesday February 3), featuring a cross-cultural line-up of globally renowned groups who encapsulate the centre’s ‘A Bridge’ season.

The virtual exhibition will also speaks to the globally-observed Black History Month, which takes place every February.

Afro-Venezuelan artist Betsayda Machado, the African American / Native American Martha Redbone Roots Project, and Afro-Khaleeji/South African jazz collaboration, Boom.Diwan X Nduduzo Makhathini will share exclusive programmes and engage in conversation with the UAE and the wider global community.

Tailored for online viewing, each event is a cultural journey brought to life through music and in-depth exchanges with the artists.

Executive artistic director at The Arts Centre at NYUAD Bill Bragin, said: “Barzakh Festival will explore the multitude of identities and heritages that musicians bring to their art, supporting new artistic research and creation, and celebrating artists who cross cultural and stylistic borders.

“The online setting allows those crosscurrents to ripple across the multiple nights, as each of the three artists bring hybridized influences to their own performances.”

Tonight is the turn of US-based Martha Redbone Roots Project, making its UAE debut from 8pm.

Mixing Appalachian music with soul, blues and Native American elements, it creates a uniquely personal combination that speaks to Redbone’s Afro-Indigenous heritage.

Redbone was recently featured in Tiny Desk meets globalFEST on NPR Music in January, and she is a recent winner of multiple awards as the composer for The Public Theater’s production of Ntozake Shange’s ground breaking choreopoem / theatre piece For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide (When The Rainbow is Enough).

The performance, filmed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, will be followed by a live online Q&A.

Then, on Saturday February 6, also at 8pm, the rhythms and sounds of Khaleeji pearl diving traditions meet South African jazz with Boom.Diwan x Nduduzo Makhathini.

Audiences will see the premiere of a new suite composed by the NYUAD faculty member and guitarist Ghazi Al-Mulaifi and South African jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, the first ever South African musician signed to the legendary Blue Note Records.

Tune in or miss out.