JASON TIMBUKTU DIAKITÉ

A DROP OF MIDNIGHT

Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité is Sweden’s most well-known and respected hip-hop artist. He released his first music in 1996 and has since released eight solo albums and numerous singles of which the vast majority have reached Gold or Platinum status. His accolades also include eight Swedish Grammy awards, and four P3 Guld (Swedish radio) awards. Timbuktu has hosted several shows on national Swedish radio, received a Nordic language award and performed for audiences all over the world, from various corners of Africa to Svalbard, from the legendary Apollo in NYC to the Roxy in LA, at the Polar Music Prize and at the Nobel Peace Prize. Together with the organization Plan, he also built a studio (Studio Timbuktu) in Senegal, to give kids the opportunity to make music. In 2016 Jason released the acclaimed book “A Drop of Midnight,” later developed into a captivating stage performance. An English version of A Drop of Midnight, A Memoir is scheduled for release on March 1, 2020; available through Amazon Crossing.  

Director, Jonathan McCrory is an Obie Award-winning & Audelco Nominated, Harlem-based artist who has served as Artistic Director at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre since 2012. Currently serving on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards & The Lucille Lortel Awards. Throughout his career, McCrory has worked professionally as a director, producer, and actor. A Washington, DC native, he attended Duke Ellington School for the Arts, where he trained in musical theater and theater production. He earned a BFA degree in Acting and Africana Studies from New York University TISCH School of the Arts.  He has directed numerous professional productions and concerts which include:  Dead and Breathing, HandsUp, Hope Speaks, Blacken The Bubble, Last Laugh Enter Your Sleep, Iron John (NAMT), How the Light Gets In (2018 & 2017 at NYMF), and Klook (NAMT). He has worked at Experimental Theatre Wing at TISCH NYU creating devised work like Emergence: A Communion (based on adrienne marie brown's book Emergent Strategy), and evoking him: Baldwin and at Suny Purchase directing a production of Exit Strategy and A Beautiful Day in November. Outside of his own directorial work, he has been able to work as an assistant director to Talvin Wilks: Anne & Emmet, One Quarter, and Banana Beer Bath and Charles Randolph-Wright: Motown [Workshops].

The U.S. adaptation of A Drop of Midnight was commissioned by Harlem Stage’s WaterWorks program and premiered at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse in June 2022. 

Support for A Drop of Midnight was provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Leonard & Robert Weintraub Family Fund, Warner Bros. Discovery, Black Seed, Mosaic Network and Fund, Ed Bradley Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Hearst Foundations. With special support for A Drop of Midnight from the Embassy of Sweden, Consulate General of Sweden, Swedish Arts Council, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.