Where Brooklyn At

On July 22, 2026, Melanin Mosaic Performance Ensemble brought Where Brooklyn At to Barclays Center, featuring eight women from across Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware in a pre-game performance for the New York Liberty.

The performers came from different programs, generations, and levels of experience. Some had not performed in years. Others were stepping into a new performance style. Within 24 hours of coming together, they were on the floor at Barclays Center.

Where Brooklyn At is part of the larger vision behind SHIFT, creating more places for color guard performers to train, perform, connect, and use their skills beyond the traditional competitive season. From clinics and creative labs to professional sports and other live entertainment spaces, SHIFT is about expanding where this activity can go and who gets to experience it.

This performance was one step in that direction.

HOLD ON

For HOLD ON, MMPE brought together a collective of men made up primarily of recent and former drum corps performers, spanning different generations of the activity, to explore what happens when mental health becomes the subject of creative discussion. The work premiered at the Ailey Citigroup Theater as part of Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance Hearts of Men Showcase, presented in partnership with Ailey Extension, where Earl Mosley described the piece as “magical.”

HOLD ON reflects the kind of work SHIFT is built to support — creating new spaces for marching arts performers to keep performing, tell deeper stories, and expand what the visual performance arts can be.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL TOUR + RESIDENCY · ONTARIO, CANADA

In February 2026, MMPE completed its first international tour and residency in Ontario, with rehearsal time spread across Friday and Saturday at Silver Spire United Church in St. Catharines — roughly five hours of development and preparation before taking the work to the stage.

St. Catharines became an important destination on the Underground Railroad and was home to Harriet Tubman during the 1850s, while Silver Spire’s long history in the city connected the residency to a place rooted in community, faith, and social justice.

That weekend, MMPE presented two performances in one day, beginning with the ONSTAGE: Black History Month Variety Show at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre and continuing with Let the Elephants Dance, a community-centered mental health concert bringing artists and audiences together around mental health awareness, education, and action. Together, the two performances allowed MMPE to SHIFT between two areas that remain central to our work.