Party People

Universes, the award-winning ensemble known for their fusion of theater, poetry, jazz, bolero, hip-hop, down-home blues, and politics, makes their Public Theater debut with an explosive new work about the complicated legacies of the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords Org/Party.

Directed and developed by Tony Award nominee Liesl Tommy, Universes created Party People, a musical based on dozens of interviews with members of those groundbreaking, society-changing groups. Party People imagines a present-day reunion at an art opening curated by two young counterculturists. The curators have complex relationships with Party members, who fought injustice and provided free food and medical care for their communities — often at the expense of the people who loved them most.

Old wounds and generational divides collide in this astonishing, multimedia theatrical event about the price of being a revolutionary and what it means for those who come after. Escaping the bounds of the expected, the members of Universes (Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz aka Ninja) and Liesl Tommy invite audiences of every age, color, and creed to join them as they continue to revolutionize American theater and explore the fight to bring power to the people — and the people to power.