7NMS|Marjani Forté-Saunders + Everett Saunders
7NMS|Marjani Forte-Saunders + Everett Saunders is the public emergence of Marjani and Everett as a collaborative team, radically engaging art as a medium of elevation, healing, and futurity. 7NMS are currently touring Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist. The performance work is an awardee of the 2020 MAP Fund, 2020 New Music USA Award, and the National Dance Project Production and Touring grant 2021. PROPHET’s companion album IVI: The Order of the Lyricist was released Spring 2024 and can be found on streaming platforms, Spotify & Apple Music.
Marjani Forté-Saunders is a three time Bessie award winning choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and Mother. She is a 2024 United States Artist Fellow, and an awardee of the Dance Magazine Harkness Award (2021) and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2020). She is also a performer, teaching artist, and Mother. She is an inaugural recipient of three distinguished fellowships in dance, including Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative Fellowship (2017), the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2018), and the DanceUSA Artist Fellowship (2019). In 2024 Forté-Saunders made her MET Opera Debut as choreographer of El Niño preceded by her off-Broadway debut as choreographer of Dreaming Zenzile, written and starring grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Somi Kakoma, and both directed by Drama League Founder’s Award winning artist Lileana Blain-Cruz. Commercially, Forté-Saunders has workedwith Sundance Award winning director Kahlil Joseph, Kevin Willmott, Kevin Everson, and Tracee Ellis Ross’ product launch video campaign for PATTERNS.
Everett Saunders is a sound designer, composer, songwriter, and performer. He is the writer, composer and sound designer for PROPHET: The Order of Lyricism which, chronicled Saunders own triumphant journey as an artist, but most especially as an Emcee/Lyricist. Everett is the composer and thought partner behind the award-winning and international touring production, Memoirs of a.. Unicorn, and a 3-time New Music USA Awardee. His recent work can be found as composer/sound designer on Jaamil Kosoko’s Chameleon, Mayfield Brooks Whale Fall, and UrbanBush Women’s Hair & Other Stories (2018). Saunders’ commercial work includes his former operation of media and web design company, Flux Innovations. Clients have included PBS, Sony Music, and Columbia Records. Film works include PBS March on Washington (2013), Print Shop (2016), and Project Imagination winner TRANSPORTER (2018) directed by Damon Colquhoun.
