CPA unveils first ‘All. Together. Now.’ lineup
The three-day Carolina Performing Arts festival will feature comedian Josh Johnson, pass events and free open gatherings.
Carolina Performing Arts announced lineup and programming details for the inaugural “All. Together. Now.” festival, taking place Feb. 19-21, 2027. The three-day festival will bring together visiting artists, Carolina researchers and students, and Triangle artists and community partners for performances, creative experiences and conversations connected by the theme of love and hope.
Unfolding in venues and spaces across the Carolina campus and downtown Chapel Hill, the festival offers three kinds of experiences: pass events, full-length performances accessed with the purchase of a festival day pass; free open gatherings for public artmaking, jam sessions, conversations and film; and one ticketed, reserved seating Saturday night presentation.
That Feb. 20 show at Memorial Hall will feature “The Daily Show” correspondent and rotating host Josh Johnson, performing the distinctly conversational stand-up that has made him one of the most acclaimed and widely watched comedians working today.
Pass events include:
- An immersive, interstellar listening experience built from real voicemails imagining more hopeful futures in “Utopian Hotline,” a Mitu Collaboration presented beneath the dome at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
- A choral work that turns caring for others into song and movement in composer David Lang’s assembly of “poor hymnal,” performed by The Crossing, led by artistic director Donald Nally with staging and choreography by Annie-B Parson
- A theatrical mixtape of hip-hop, spoken word and step about a young Black man’s fight to define himself beyond the criminal justice system in Dahlak Brathwaite’s “Try/Step/Trip”
- Three stories of love persisting against the odds, carried across cultures and centuries by string quartet Brooklyn Rider, including new visuals inspired by the work of Frida Kahlo, in “Star-Crossed”
- A genre-crossing exchange of percussion, electronics, bilingual songs, banjo and guitar from Sō Percussion, Helado Negro and This Is the Kit
- A performance blending hip-hop, soul, jazz and funk with strikingly honest lyrics about mental health and healing from 2026 Tiny Desk Contest winner Cure for Paranoia.
Open gatherings include:
- NC Hip Hop Cypher, featuring multiple generations of North Carolina hip-hop artists, co-presented and co-curated by Carolina Waves founder Mir.I.am and Chapel Hill poet laureate and UNC faculty member Donovan Livingston
- “A Love Supreme” jam led by saxophonist and educator Dexter Moses, celebrating North Carolina native John Coltrane
- Poetry in the Round, an assembly guided by the four current poets laureate from Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh
- A multimedia sound installation created live by Triangle trio Delver using synthesizers, drum machines, seashells, broken violins and beaver logs
- Public artmaking, led by artists affiliated with the Carrboro-based The ArtsCenter
- Informal talks with UNC faculty and researchers
- Readings from the North Carolina Folk Play Project, presented by PlayMakers Repertory Company as part of its 50th-anniversary season
- An exploratory experience at the Ackland Art Museum to engage with works from the museum and reflect on ideas of love and hope
- A film showcase at the Varsity Theatre centered on love and hope, curated by the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Research in Black Culture and History that builds on its annual fall Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film.
“We built ‘All. Together. Now.’ to gather a wide range of people, ideas and art forms into shared spaces across one weekend, and invite everyone to be part of what unfolds,” said Alison Friedman, Carolina Performing Arts executive and artistic director. “That freedom to move between experiences is what makes a festival exciting! Artists meet researchers, tradition meets experimentation and a performance might lead to a conversation with someone new, a jam session with local artists or a work of art made alongside neighbors. With so much range and choice, no two paths through the weekend will be the same. Festivalgoers can begin with whatever draws them in and leave room to discover what happens along the way.”
Festival day passes go on sale Sept. 15 at noon. Tickets for Josh Johnson will go on sale in mid-October, with more details to be announced. Visit carolinaperformingarts.org for schedule and ticket information. Stay updated by following @carolinaperformingarts on Instagram.
