Obie Award-winning actor, playwright, and director Roger Guenveur Smith presents an intimate one-man show honoring his friend and collaborator Jean-Michel Basquiat. Weaving personal stories and historical anecdotes with his improvisational performance style, Guenveur Smith explores the legacy of one of the most defining artists of the 20th century and his enduring impact.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Roger Guenveur Smith met in Los Angeles, where Jean-Michel was painting in a Venice studio and Smith was rapping as “Hollywatts” on the fertile 1980s club scene. Smith’s politically charged soliloquies found their way onto Basquiat’s canvas, and Smith eventually created “Smiley”, the Basquiat-inspired artist/arsonist for Spike Lee’s classic Do the Right Thing.

Smith has presented his intimate meditation on Basquiat and his enduring legacy for retrospectives of the artist’s work at the Brooklyn Museum and MOCA Los Angeles, as well as an acclaimed run at St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre.

This New York City premiere is presented by New York Theatre Workshop and Under the Radar for the 2026 Under the Radar Festival.

“Roger Guenveur Smith gets it all and gets it brilliantly.”
–The New York Times