Perelman Performing Arts Center has commissioned eight new works as the inaugural efforts of The Democracy Cycle. The project, which will continue for five years, is intended to fund the creation of 25 multi-disciplinary works exploring topics around the nature, practice, and experience of democrazy.

The inaugural slate of commissions includes works by Javaad Alipoor; Baye & Asa; Charlotte Brathwaite, June Cross and Sunder Ganglani; Pablo Manzi and Bonobo Teatro; Angélica Negrón; Vickie Ramirez, Ty Defoe and Jeanette Harrison; Abigail Nessen Bengson and The Bengsons; and Talvin Wilks and Paul Schiff Berman.

Amongst the roster of works themselves are a live cantata about body sovereignty from The Bengsons, joined by Abigail Nessen-Bengson; an interdisciplinary theatre piece about the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s Great Law of Peace from Ramirez, Defoe, and Harrison; a musical work exploring the politics of Puerto Rico from Negrón; and more. Full details about all eight works are available at PACNYC.org.

All works will receive $60,000 in support, including the $30,000 commission and an additional $30,000 to fund development. The project is the brainchild of PACNYC Artistic Director Bill Rauch and T. Eric Galloway. Commissions were chosen from an open call for submissions by a panel comprising Ludovic Blain, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Leslie Ishii, Sheila Lewandowski, Samora Pinderhughes, David Thomson, and Laurie Woolery. Submissions for additional works will open in 2025 and 2026.

“I am overwhelmed by the response this initiative has had in the artistic community,” says Rauch in a statement. “We fiercely believe in supporting artists in their work so that the arts can continue to foster civic dialogue and understanding. As a new organization, we take that job seriously. So, it was joyous and humbling to have 450 submissions from around the globe in our very first round. I’m thrilled to see what these remarkable commissioned artists will create and how their work will help us understand democracy in new ways.”

“The question is not whether our future will be interdependent—it will be—but how prepared are we to participate in it.” adds Galloway, president of Civis, a Galvan Initiatives affiliate. “These bridges between cultural and civic dialogue are essential and at the core of Civis’ mission. The important 20th century American playwright, Thornton Wilder, thoughtfully observed that ‘on the stage it is always now.’ We are excited to witness all aspects of our singular democracy, its joys, hope, and terrors, examined ‘Now’ by this talented inaugural cohort.”