Six years ago, my child Audrey Patterson, now 19, and I attended the first Big Umbrella Festival at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City (and wrote about it in this space). Since 2018, this international gathering of arts professionals has offered performances for young people with “complex, often multiple disabilities and their families.” Back then, the festival spanned an entire month, and Audrey and I attended events over several weekends.
This year’s Big Umbrella Festival, the fifth, spanned just one weekend, April 12-14, but while its length was shortened, its reach broadened, as it was “designed with and for neurodiverse audiences,” according to Lincoln Center’s website. Two elements of this new language struck me: “designed with” and the word “neurodiverse.”
A lot has happened in the six years since we attended our first festival, both in the performing arts sector and personally. One personal thing: I met an autism activist named Elizabeth Dicker at American Repertory Ballet’s Princeton Ballet School. Elizabeth taught me the plea for “Nothing About Us Without Us” with regard to legislation she and others are working to pass. This motto applies to the creation of art as much as it does to the creation of legislation. Broadway saw its first openly autistic actors playing autistic characters in How to Dance in Ohio last fall, and Lincoln Center followed suit by including neurodiverse planners and artists in this year’s programming.
Secondly, the word “neurodiverse” is far-reaching. Audrey received a diagnosis of a rare genetic difference in 2021, thrusting us into the world of rare diseases and the shockingly high number of newly diagnosed individuals in the world, thanks to whole genome sequencing. So, while autism may still be an increasingly common and mysterious diagnosis, we have learned that the term only scratches the surface.
“Lincoln Center is very committed to being a space for all audiences,” said Rebecca Podsednik, Lincoln Center’s director of artistic programming. Case in point: Six years ago, the festival was organized by its education and community engagement department; now it is simply considered a part of their overall programming.
More than 5,000 people participated in person and online this year, attracting more participants with each iteration. The first performance we attended this year was by a neurodivergent artist, Lachi (pronounced LA-chee, “as in Versace,” she explained playfully), in the David Rubenstein Atrium on West 62nd Street. She was clad in shimmering gold lamé “from Anthropologie” and seven-inch heels—“well, okay, six-inch,” she confessed while voicing her visual description. Audiences were wrapped in the warm embrace of her full-bodied voice and piano in that acoustically live space. In addition to her gorgeous, melodic singing, which was peppered with scat and rap, she talked about how her understanding of the word “normal” changed after her vision deteriorated. “It’s not my condition; it’s my conditioning” that made her feel as though she didn’t belong. “Today I’m not ashamed,” she announced to the crowd. “I see disability as my identity.”
After that empowering and touching experience, we rushed into the cold drizzle and headed to the opposite corner of the Lincoln Center campus to the Clark Studio Theater on the 7th floor of the Samuel B. & David Rose Building to see Scotland’s Barrowland Ballet perform Playful Tiger, one of two Big Umbrella productions developed specifically for neurodiverse audiences, the other being Théâtre Motus’ TREE, A World in Itself from Quebec.
“Morning!” the three Barrowland dancers said in greeting each other distractedly as they eased into performance mode, slowly and silently interacting with young audience members seated around the periphery of the playing area. Tangerines were involved. A network of web-like cords created four “walls,” with more overhead for a ceiling. After some expository physical storytelling, the gentle sliding of a strategically placed slip-knot by the dancers created magical entryways through which they wordlessly coaxed children to join them, leading them like real-life pied pipers. Suspended aluminum buckets occasionally spilled orange ping-pong balls onto the stage floor to the delight of the children, clearly pleased to become a part of the show.
After lunch, we got in a two-hour-long line to walk through Architects of Air’s Daedalum in Damrosch Park, only to notice a half-hour into the wait that there was a significantly shorter line for individuals with special needs. We were directed to slip covers over our shoes, then walk through the airlocked entrance. The otherworldly labyrinth of egg-shaped domes was illuminated by the sun filtering through translucent material, and around every corner was an unexpected shape and a surprising color. One of the many eye-popping features was a dome inspired by Rome’s Pantheon. “Look up!” I prompted Audrey, and when she did, she was instantly mesmerized.
Our final stop for the day was on the 10th floor of the Rose Building for some art-making (“Create Something You Saw Today” read an inviting sign) and a NY Philharmonic Playdate. Upon entering the studio, Audrey was immediately drawn to a kind lady reading Lloyd Moss’s popular picture book Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin to a group of children seated on the lip of the stage. Following the story, Audrey was able to visit a display of instruments and even try out a flute and an un-stringed violin. Then she found two friendly ASL interpreters to engage with before a playful presentation featuring Philippe the Penguin and members of the New York Philharmonic. You know you have real professional musicians when they can continue playing while someone is fitting their heads with fish hats!
After Audrey sees a show in a traditional proscenium theatre, she always asks, “Where are the actors?” and longs to wait for them by the stage door because she wants to connect with the warm and talented individuals who bring her so much joy. At the Big Umbrella Festival, she didn’t need to ask. The actors were right there, personally engaging with her and other audience members from start to finish. What a wholly satisfying experience for us all! The feelings of love, belonging, and unity were palpable.
If you and your neurodiverse friends or family would like to participate in a future festival, on Sat., July 6 starting at 11 a.m., Lincoln Center’s 2024 Summer for the City Festival will contain a free Big Umbrella Day (as it also did in 2023).
Lisa Lacroce Patterson (she/her) is TCG’s director of individual giving.
