The Walker Art Center and Northrop Present
Shamel Pitts | TRIBE
Marks of RED
2025–26 Northrop Season
Fri, Mar 20–Sat, Mar 21, 7:30 pm
Walker Art Center
For the final work in a three-year artistic partnership with Northrop and the Walker Art Center, award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts and multidisciplinary arts collective TRIBE present the world premiere of the Walker and Northrop Centennial Commission Marks of RED. A work of magical realism narrated by and featuring the viewpoints of six women, Marks of RED continues Pitts’ research exploring Black embodiment, aliveness, and human connection.
Marks of RED is an Afrofuturistic meditation on the “womb space,” divining the effect that memory has on our experiences, senses, bodies, reality, and our imaginative possibilities. The multidisciplinary work includes scenic designs by Mimi Lien, projection lights by Lucca Del Carlo, and production by TRIBE arts collective. The fourth chapter in the RED Series by Pitts, Marks of RED explores the nuanced multiplicity and deep complexity of self-expression, and the perceived spaces for regeneration, enfoldment, implosion, rupture, and potential.
In 2025, Northrop and the Walker Art Center copresented Touch of RED and in 2024 BLACK HOLE – Trilogy And Triathlon with Shamel Pitts and TRIBE.
Top image: Shamel Pitts | TRIBE in Marks of RED. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Articles & More
“Curiously stylish and sincere, glossily cold and tender. Always visually striking, it’s never dull. But it transpires at a distance.”—The New York Times
“I know I’ve just witnessed a beautiful work when I leave the theater full of questions; but more so when I leave the theater with answers and clarity.”—Dance Currents
“Shamel Pitts, one of the most acclaimed dancers/choreographers of his generation and a shining example of Black excellence.”—Afropunk
“Since leaving Batsheva Dance Company, choreographer Shamel Pitts has been provoking audiences with multidisciplinary dance works that push against the boundaries of identity.”—Dance Magazine
“An Afrofuturist Trip to the Lunarverse”—The New York Times
“Why Shamel Pitts Is Setting a New Work in a Boxing Ring”—Dance Magazine
“Shamel Pitts and Tushrik Fredericks Negotiate Human Instinct In ‘Touch Of RED”’—LA Dance Chronicle
TRIBE Instagram: itsatribe
TRIBE Facebook: itsatribe
TRIBE YouTube: itsatribe
Shamel Pitts Instagram: shamelpitts
Scenic Designer Mimi Lien website
About the RED Series
The RED Series continues Shamel Pitts’ research to propose and share the colorfulness within blackness. "I have met a multitude of performers from various countries of the African diaspora & heritage and this has widened my understanding as to the diversity of black people as well as formed my realization that we find home through a shared platform”—Shamel Pitts
RED Series art projects:
Touch of RED—Multidisciplinary Live Performance
Solace of RED—Art Residency Incubator
Lake of RED—Video Art, Dance Film
To Help You Decide
Create Your Own Package
Our flexible Create Your Own package lets you choose your experiences from any three or more in-person events from the 2025–26 Northrop Season! Subscribers enjoy:
- Savings of 15%—when you buy three+ 2025–26 Northrop Season events
- Early prepaid parking reservations—order when you purchase tickets
- Invites to exclusive, behind-the-scenes events
- Flexibility at no extra cost—get unlimited free ticket exchanges
- Our appreciation for supporting Northrop programming and Centennial Commissions! Your purchase helps make a difference.
You might enjoy this performance if you love(d):
- A.I.M by Kyle Abraham
- Batsheva Dance Company
- Shamel Pitts | TRIBE BLACK HOLE and Touch of RED
Know Before You Go
Event Information
- Performance Location: Walker Art Center
725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN 55403 - Performance Begins: 7:30 pm
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Visitor Guidelines on the Walker website
- Tickets: Check the email you provided when you placed your order to locate your digital ticket. Be sure to check your spam or junk mail folders if you do not see them.
- Detailed Event Information: Check back for more information closer to the date.
If you need assistance, please call 612-624-2345 or email umntix@umn.edu.
Learn More - Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop's mission towards intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
- Theater Technology: Sound & Light Design
- Theater: Performance, Devising
- African & African American Studies
- African Diaspora
- Afrofuturism
- Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
- Dance: Contemporary/Modern, African Diasporic
- Music: Composition
- Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health
- Architecture
Dive deeper with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the artform and the artistic process.
Video: "Shamel Pitts: Thinking in Red | How: Showing The Making"
Shamel Pitts: MacArthur Foundation
Video: "Inside the Pillow Lab: Shamel Pitts | TRIBE"
Blaylock, Sidney, Jr. "The Future Is Now: The Power and Promise of Afrofuturism." Ph.D. dissertation, Middle Tennessee State University, 2023. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (30419931).
Book Preview: "Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro Blackness"
"Afrofuturism in the Stacks" — The Met
"A Beginner's Guide To Afrofuturism: 7 Titles To Watch And Read" — Essence
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Northrop and the Walker Art Center will copresent Marks of RED, a creation by Shamel Pitts, artistic director and founder of the Brooklyn-based, Afrofuturistic arts collective TRIBE. In 2025, Northrop and the Walker Art Center copresented Touch of RED, and in 2024, BLACK HOLE - Trilogy and Triathlon by Shamel Pitts and TRIBE. TRIBE’s mission is to cultivate space to create a platform for artists — most specifically artists of color — to "tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different, and shines more luminously, from its past."
- Afrofuturism is said to connect people from the African Diaspora to their forgotten African ancestry. How might this “creation of a brighter future” be inspired by imagining the experiences, hopes and dreams of African American ancestors?
- Why is it important to unlock this imagination? Could unlocking this imagination provide us with clues about how African American ancestors felt about the world around them?
- How do you think spaces for dreaming and imagining are created for and by artists (especially artists of color)? Why is it important for artists to cultivate identity-specific spaces?
Marks of RED, Pitts’ first choreographic work in which he will not perform on stage, will feature mostly women presenting and/or identifying as people of color. Through this work, TRIBE researches the nuances that are memorialized in and about womanhood, particularly for Black women. It explores and examines the effect that memory has on our senses, our bodies, our reality and our imaginative possibilities.
- How might memories affect your felt experience and your creativity, and how might your culture and gender influence your memories?
- Why might exploration of memory, through the lens of Black women, be necessary and relevant for all people, regardless of their gender or culture?
- How might Shamel Pitts’ first choreographic work in which he does not appear on stage create new imaginative possibilities for TRIBE?
Marks of RED will feature designs and scenic elements by Mimi Lien, acclaimed Chinese American set designer and MacArthur Fellow — the first set designer to receive this distinction. Arriving at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. In addition to designing award-winning stages around the country, Lien has exhibited large-scale public installations, performances and sculptures at international arts festivals worldwide.
- How do production elements, such as lighting, music or set design, influence the experience of the performer and audience member?
- How might set design, especially by a Chinese American woman, explore the nuances and memories of womanhood?
- Why are BIPOC multimedia collaborations important for evolving the landscape of dance and culture?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Marks of RED was developed at a Summer Stages Dance @ The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston residency in 2024. Marks of RED was commissioned by Northrop and the Walker Art Center 2026. Marks of RED creation is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Additional TRIBE commissioning, development and core operating support is provided by the Mellon Foundation; Arison Arts Foundation; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Ford Foundation; 92Y Harkness Dance Center; National Performance Network (NPN) Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund Project. The Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency); New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
