Step into a season of unmissable Black artistry with the Flow Pass, an all-access pass to Cincy’s most compelling Black arts experiences.
ArtsWave, a long-time advocate for Black art, announces the 2026-2027 season of Flow, an African American arts experience. The series features 4 unique, Black-centered events. ArtsWave also introduced the region’s first cross-venue subscription series, the Flow Pass. For just $210, Flow Pass subscribers can enjoy four all-inclusive nights of theater, dance, and art.
Benefits of the ArtsWave Flow Pass:
- Support skilled, professionally trained, emerging, and acclaimed Black artists
- Confirm premier tickets for the most popular Black arts events in Cincinnati
- Secure subsidized ticket prices thanks to the generosity of Fifth Third Bank
- Experience arts with fellow Black art lovers
- Enjoy the popular Flow social parties before or after events
Flow Series Shows
Branford Marsalis & Dianne Reeves Celebrate John Coltrane
September 10, 2026
Aronoff Center for the Arts (Downtown)
September 2026 marks the centennial of John Coltrane’s birth. To honor the enduring legacy of one of jazz’s most transcendent voices, the Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves will release a tribute album, which revisits Coltrane’s seminal 1963 collaboration with Johnny Hartman.
“The African Company Presents Richard III”
February 11, 2027
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (OTR)
Tells the story of an all-Black theatre troupe in 1821 determined to stage Shakespeare’s tragedy on their own terms. As their bold production takes shape, a rival white theatre mounts its own Richard III just blocks away, threatening to undermine, overshadow, and outmaneuver them. What follows is a charged battle of artistry, ego, and survival, where the stage becomes a proving ground and performance itself becomes an act of defiance.
Robert S. Duncanson Experience
Spring 2027; exact date TBD
Taft Museum of Art (Downtown)
The Duncanson Artist-in-Residence Program is one of the nation’s longest-running and most respected artist residency programs dedicated to celebrating and elevating contemporary Black artists across disciplines and community-based practice.
Black Opera Project: John Lewis – “Good Trouble” (World Premiere)
June 18 or 20, 2027; exact date TBD
Music Hall (Downtown)
Librettist Diana Solomon-Glover and composer Maria Thompson Corley weave together the heartwarming, heroic story of a boy from humble beginnings, armored only in his belief in “The Beloved Community,” who put his life on the line to secure the right to vote for all Americans. The opera weaves together two perspectives—Lewis as a young man, catalyzing the 1960s fight for civil rights, and Lewis as an elder statesman in 2012, considered to be the conscience of Congress by many on both sides of the aisle. Through it all, Lewis charged his successors and colleagues to come together to create a more just world.
About Flow
Flow, An African American Arts Experience, began in 2020 as a quarterly performance series featuring renowned Black artists and ensembles working in various disciplines from around the country and close to home. The series is presented by ArtsWave, the region’s engine for the arts, with support from area businesses, foundations, and individuals, and guidance from a steering committee comprised of representatives from the region’s top corporations.
Flow supports and promotes professional, evocative African American artists. The series aims to attract a highly diverse, culturally adventurous audience and create a shared and elevated appreciation for artists of color. Flow complements and expands the region’s existing inventory of multicultural experiences offered by local arts organizations.
About ArtsWave
ArtsWave, the local nonprofit arts agency serving the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region, is the engine for the arts. Its roots stem back to the late 1920s when the Cincinnati Taft family provided initial investment matched by community support. In the late 1940s, it evolved to become the first United Arts fund in the nation and, in the mid-1970s, the first organization to initiate workplace giving for the arts.
ArtsWave raises $11+ million yearly from thousands of donors — corporations, employees, foundations, residents, and others — to support more than 150 arts organizations, projects, and artists. Donations can be made at artswave.org/give.
The Voice of Black Cincinnati is a media company designed to educate, recognize, and create opportunities for African Americans. Want to find local news, events, job postings, scholarships, and a database of local Black-owned businesses? Visit our homepage, explore other articles, subscribe to our newsletter, like our Facebook page, join our Facebook group, and text VOBC to 513-966-3328.
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