The Point: America, 250 Years From Now: Imagining the Future of Performance and Identity
The Point: America, 250 Years From Now: Imagining the Future of Performance and Identity is a conversation about how the choices being made today could shape American culture over the next 250 years. As part of ArtsEmerson’s America 250 series, artists, educators, and cultural leaders will consider the future of storytelling, artistic practice, technology, public space, and community. The discussion will ask who gets to imagine the country’s future, which traditions should endure or change, and how artists can help envision new possibilities for American identity, belonging, and connection.
The event is part of ArtsEmerson’s ongoing The Point conversation series, which places audiences in intimate settings with local and national voices addressing urgent questions raised by artists and contemporary culture. It is presented in partnership with GBH’s Forum Network.
When: Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 6:30 p.m.
Showtimes: One discussion begins at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: Free with RSVP.
Venue: Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111.
Run time: Approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, followed by a 45-minute reception.
Reception: A post-event reception will offer light bites and refreshments.
Ages: All ages.
Admission note: Seating is first come, first served. An RSVP does not guarantee admission, although ArtsEmerson says it rarely turns guests away from free events. Attendees are encouraged to arrive 20 to 30 minutes before the 6:30 p.m. start.
Panelists: Alexandra Paul Zotov, Cliff Notez, and Lily Odekirk.
Alexandra Paul Zotov: Zotov is a creative strategist whose work connects culture, civic expression, public participation, and shared spaces. Her experience includes work with the City of Boston, Parrish Art Museum, Creative Time, and Elite Model Management, along with projects involving public art stewardship, digital access, archives, communications, and large-scale partnerships. Her writing has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and NOWNESS. A first-generation Ukrainian American raised in Boston, she studied art history and studio art at Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Cliff Notez: Notez is a Boston-based multimedia artist, musician, and cultural connector whose work spans hip hop, jazz, folk, soul, R&B, film, and performance. His music addresses trauma, healing, and Black lived experience. His work has been recognized by The New York Times, NPR, The Boston Globe, and Boston Magazine, which named him Musician of the Year, and he has received multiple Boston Music Awards. He has performed at Boston Calling and with artists including Ja Rule and Gym Class Heroes. Notez is also co-founder of HipStory, a digital media company focused on Boston’s creative community.
Lily Odekirk: Odekirk is a theatre artist and Emerson College professor in the graduate program for Applied Theatre and Theatre Education. Her teaching and creative research involve critical and drama-based pedagogy, autoethnography, youth-led participatory research, digital storytelling, and memory studies. Her projects have included work with Travis County Juvenile Justice in Austin, Notch Theatre’s Wild Home, and Drama for Schools programs in Austin and Warsaw. She was the 2025 Artistic Producer of the Cohen New Works Festival and received the 2024 Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellowship. Odekirk holds an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as degrees from Wellesley College and Maine College of Art and Design.
Series context: The Point is hosted by a member of the ArtsEmerson team and features conversations about significant questions facing the present moment. Previous installments are available through the GBH Forum Network archives.