The Point: America, 250 Years From Now: Imagining the Future of Performance and Identity

Concluding ArtsEmerson’s America 250 conversation series, this discussion looks ahead to the stories we’ll tell, the art we’ll make, and the ways we’ll gather, connect, and understand one another in the future. Bringing together artists, educators, and cultural leaders, the conversation will explore how changing technology, new creative forms, public spaces, and the voices of younger generations are already reshaping American culture. Who gets to help imagine what comes next? What traditions will we hold onto, what will we reinvent, and what might we leave behind? And how can artists help us imagine possibilities for American identity, community, and belonging that we can’t quite see yet? Jackie Liebergott Black Box, Emerson Paramount Center 559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111 There will be a post show reception following the event. PLEASE NOTE: This is a free event. Guests will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis upon arrival. Reserving your tickets does not necessarily guarantee admission, but we rarely turn anyone away from our free events. Please plan to arrive early—ideally 20 to 30 minutes before showtime—to ensure entry. Alexandra Paul Zotov is a creative strategist working at the intersection of culture, publics, and civic expression. Her practice focuses on building participatory digital and physical initiatives that expand how people experience, access, and contribute to culture at large. She has worked across organizations such as the City of Boston, Parrish Art Museum, Creative Time, and Elite Model Management, developing programs, policy, and communications that connect artistic production to public impact. Her work spans public art stewardship, digital access initiatives, archival systems, and large-scale partnerships, amplifying the relationship between creativity, shared space, and economics. In addition to her institutional leadership, Zotov has contributed to publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and NOWNESS. A first-generation Ukrainian-American raised in Boston, she studied Art History and Studio Art at Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In her free time, she writes. Cliff Notez is an award-winning Boston-based multimedia artist, musician, and cultural connector whose work moves fluidly across hip hop, jazz, folk, soul, and R&B. Known for pairing incisive lyricism with rich, layered sound, Notez explores trauma, healing, and the lived realities of the Black experience through music, film, and performance. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, The Boston Globe, and Boston Magazine, which named him Musician of the Year, and has earned multiple Boston Music Awards, including Best New Artist. A prolific collaborator and dynamic live performer, Notez has appeared at festivals including Boston Calling and shared stages with artists such as Ja Rule and Gym Class Heroes. Cliff is also the co-founder of HipStory, a digital media production company dedicated to amplifying Boston’s creative community through interdisciplinary storytelling. Lily Odekirk is a theatre artist and professor at Emerson College in the graduate program of Applied Theatre and Theatre Education. Her teaching focuses on drama-based and critical pedagogies, and her research and artistic practices engage with autoethnography, Youth Participatory Action Research, digital storytelling, and memory studies. Projects include: a two-year Performing Justice Project residency with Travis County Juvenile Justice (Austin, TX); co-producing Notch Theatre’s Wild Home (Washington, PA and D.C.); facilitating Drama for Schools/The Applied Drama Institute (Austin, TX and Warsaw, Poland). Lily was the 2025 Artistic Producer of the Cohen New Works Festival and the 2024 recipient of the Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellowship. She holds an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities (The University of Texas at Austin), a BA in English and Theatre (Wellesley College), and a masters certificate in documentary film (Maine College of Art and Design). She is in the process of co-creating a TYA festival with her students and Emerson Stage coming this spring. The Point is a conversation series that invites audiences to explore big questions in intimate settings. Hosted by a member of the ArtsEmerson team, local and national luminaries will offer their points of view on the urgent questions surfaced by the artists on our stages. The Point series is built on years of public dialogues addressing the challenges and concerns of our moment. The Point is in partnership with GBH’s Forum Network—a series of free online lectures that explore a world of ideas. To watch past installments of ArtsEmerson’s The Point, visit the GBH’s Forum Network archives here.