LOS ANGELES, CA.- For Freedoms, an artist-led organization deepening civic engagement by centering artists as essential to shaping a free and pluralist society, presents AMERICA(!) THE BEAUTIFUL(?), a night of jazz, blues, hip-hop, and poetry built around a single question: For Whom America the Beautiful?. Happening on Saturday, October 3, 2026 at The Ford in Los Angeles, the gathering will feature performances by surrealist blues poet aja monet, artist and cultural strategist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Xochimilca recording artist and activist Xiuhtezcatl, and DJ and musical storyteller Kai the Universe. Produced in partnership with The Ford as part of its FordLab Producers Program Series, the performance marks the debut of AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL, organized by For Freedoms and Future Currents, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.


aja monet. Photography by Casanova Cabrera

The experience begins with a live DJ set by Kai the Universe, setting the tone for the evening with fresh beats. Next up is Xiuhtezcatl who treats ancestral knowledge as a catalyst for solidarity, resistance, and hope. Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s sermon-like performance will take time to reflect on the force of gathering in America today. The night culminates with aja monet, joined by a live band blending jazz and soul with poems that move between tenderness and power. Together, the artists turn the stage into a space of reckoning around belonging, freedom, and the stories a country tells about itself.


Xiuhtezcatl. Photography by Josue Rivas

Doors open at 6:30PM and the performance begins at 8:00PM, tickets are available now.

The evening's central question is one of six American questions developed by For Freedoms’ artist-in-residence Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the artistic and creative director of AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL and former Artistic Director at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Each stop on the roadshow series takes up a different question, weaving local voices and creative practices into a shared national dialogue about democracy and belonging as the country marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

"The 250th anniversary of this country's founding is an invitation for any one who cares about the American promise to co-create our cultural horizon," says Marc Bamuthi Joseph. "We believe that artists are critical to the infrastructure of inspiration in our country, and that creativity itself is an essential component of the American enfranchisement. These six questions form an ecology of inquiry that echoes these beliefs: invitation, co-creation, creative infrastructure, shared horizons, and American promise. We hope these questions welcome us all into an American future where artistic leadership is newly valued, and patriotic inquiry propels us toward an expanded cultural radius."


Kai the Universe. Photography by Kayla de Guzman.

"America the Beautiful builds toward the American future of civic joy and patriotic inquiry that For Freedoms has been envisioning and promoting for ten years," said Eric Gottesman, For Freedoms Artistic Director. "We have done so through a simple premise: artists lead. By activating artists and communities around questions that challenge us to think anew about who we are together, this performance explores what America is and could be."

"LA holds so much of the complexity of America: so many cultures, histories, identities, and ways of seeing the world living alongside one another," said Michelle Woo, Managing Director. "But it's also a city of possibility, a place where people come to imagine and build what's next. At a moment when so much feels uncertain, it feels like exactly the right place to come together and ask who we want to be and what kind of future we want to create together."

AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL

Launched in 2026, AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL is a national framework organized by For Freedoms and Future Currents to catalyze civic imagination around the 250th anniversary of the United States. Rooted in the arts and grounded in movement strategy, the initiative invites Americans to dream, question, and create together. The roadshow travels to six cities over two years, with each stop anchored in one of six questions conceived by Marc Bamuthi Joseph:

- What is the American dream?
- What is the American promise?
- When in your American life have you felt most free?
- Who are this country's founding mothers? What would this country be if it were founded by women?
- If money were light, how much would America have to spend?
- For whom America the beautiful?


Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Photography by Bethanie Hines

EVENT DETAILS

AMERICA(!) THE BEAUTIFUL(?) takes place Saturday, October 3, 2026 at The Ford in Los Angeles, produced in partnership with The Ford as part of its FordLab Producers Program Series. Gates open at 6:30PM and the performance begins at 8:00PM, featuring aja monet (headline), Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Xiuhtezcatl, and Kai the Universe. The evening is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. Tickets are on sale now at theford.com.