First Fridays Featuring The Jonathan Gilmore Project – Funktopia Nation
Friday, June 2 | 6 pm – 8:30 pm

Relax and unwind from your week mingling at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum with local musical performances. Explore our latest one-of-a-kind exhibitions  with food and drinks by local chefs from Lexington Market.  During our Black Futures, Black Imaginings Music Edition, experience a wide range of music connected with Black futurism and involving the imagination, time, and liberation. Come early to view Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined. 

Celebrate Black Music Month at the Lewis getting your P-Funk on with The Jonathan Gilmore Project as they present “Funktopia Nation.” Funktopia is part-theater, part-concert, and full of original funk, soul, and R&B music taking music-lovers on an intergalactic trip. Enjoy a theatrical concert performance featuring a series of selections from the hip hop, blues, funk, and disco genres and bringing Jonathan Gilmore together with a collective of Baltimore-based artists.

Jonathan Gilmore is an award-winning Baltimore native, a multidisciplinary artist that has over 10 years of experience in performance, programming, teaching, and directing. Deemed “Mr. Soul,” he has cut his teeth in musical theater (The Wiz, and Purlie), countless workshops and as a support vocalist  for national artists Navasha Daya, Donnie Hathaway, and Musiq Soulchild to name a few. Jonathan is also the leader of two bands. The Experience with longtime collaborator Lawrence “Mann” Robinson and the Jonathan Gilmore Project whose debut album Yes Love Music was released in 2022. Known for his vocal range and dynamic performances, it has been said his shows are “the crossroad of church and a juke joint.”

Food and Beverages will be provided by Next Phaze Cafe and Lounge and Just Elbows, Tossed Together, and Deedles Donuts of Lexington Market.