Let this be a record, to keep and to build upon.
Dive into the currents of time.
PORT(AL) is a mesmerizing choral theater experience that opens a hidden doorway to the past within the depths of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is an immersive journey, crafted by the GRAMMY Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, that invites audiences to navigate the eddies and flows of history, where the voices of forgotten lives echo through the ages. The show premiered in May 2025 at the Navy Yard, with a subsequent run at the PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance.
Conceived by Dianne Berkun Menaker and brought to life with renowned artists Paola Prestini, Jad Abumrad, and Jessica Grindstaff, PORT(AL) is a powerful production that transforms any space into a vessel sailing the seas of time. It allows audiences to peer through windows into bygone eras, where the legacies of figures like historian Howard Zinn and activist Clarence L. Irving, Sr. ripple through the currents. The show confronts the undercurrents of the past, as it unearths the trailblazing spirit of machinist and drag king Rusty Brown and the pioneering voice of mezzo-soprano Eugenia Farrar, which surge like tidal waves.
Port(al) is a living museum, with Brooklyn Youth Chorus as the primary guide.
PORT(AL) does not merely anchor audiences in the past; it also opens a portal to the uncharted waters of the future. The Chorus navigates the swells of anxiety and the tides of hope that define a generation on the brink of transformation, their voices intertwining with the whispers of yesterday to create a powerful current that propels us forward.
The production's unique format includes a secondary audio guide and voiceover that shares details about the people and places of the Navy Yard over centuries, adding layers of historical context. Audiences explore the space as the Chorus builds a living record for people now and in the future to understand the past. PORT(AL) is an adaptable and immersive passage through time, a proven theatrical work where the boundaries between eras dissolve and the enduring power of the human spirit sets sail.
THE VOICES OF BROOKLYN TODAY
Interwoven throughout the entire piece, as something that surfaces and recedes, and becoming more prominent as the work draws to its conclusion, are the individual and collective voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus speaking to their relationship to their very own time and place in history.
What do you hope for?
“There’s hope in living in the present”
“People can heal themselves”
“There’s an ebb and flow to just being able to be alive, constant, calm”
“The idea that this space holds multitudes of histories and perspectives was interesting to us, and the project became like a séance in a way: you walk into a space and try to listen to the whispers. The piece is, in a way, trying to bring the dead back to life, and have kids respond to them, sing to them, from where they are.”
— Jad Abumrad, Composer and Librettist
