Strand Theatre

On Friday, April 5, 2024, past and present collided when a sort of incarnation of James Brown took the stage at the Strand Theatre for a concert commemorating the day Brown saved Boston.

For years, Boston native and Emmy award-winning story designer Wyatt Jackson and writer and executive producer Robby Thomas dreamed of a performance that told the story of African American history in a sweeping, multimedia style.

The world premiere recording of the revised version of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” was released in October by BMOP/Sound. Recorded at Dorchester’s Strand Theatre, where the opera was performed for one night only on June 17, the album has been nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award. 

Playwright Francisca Da Silveira grew up in Roxbury and Dorchester and has watched both neighborhoods change and develop, for better or worse, over the years. In her new play “can i touch it?” Da Silveira explores gentrification in Boston through the lens of Black hair politics.

On June 17, Malcolm X’s bold and booming speeches will ring out at the Strand Theatre during the New England premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis’ opera, “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.”