LEWISTON — “The movements for social change and environmental accountability are one and the same,” says Marc Bamuthi Joseph. “And focusing on steps to sustain the planet will ultimately force us to envision a pathway to sustaining humanity.”

Finding that focus is the goal of the stage show “red, black & GREEN: a blues,” which Joseph and a host of collaborators will present April 27-28 at the Lewiston Memorial Armory.

As part of Martin Luther King Day observances at Bates, Joseph will present a staged reading of the piece at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. For more information contact 786-6135 or [email protected].

“Red, black & GREEN: a blues” combines the spoken word, music, dance and a dynamic stage design.

This multimedia production, presented by Bates College and the Bates Dance Festival, brings to life personal stories about the impacts of a deteriorating environment.

The full-length performance piece is designed to jumpstart a conversation about environmental justice, social ecology and collective responsibility in the climate-change era.

Joseph, one of America’s vital voices in performance, arts education and artistic curation, brings the piece to Lewiston as part of an ongoing relationship with Bates.

” ‘rbGb’ breaks new artistic ground and delivers a powerful message,” says Laura Faure, Bates Dance Festival director.

The performance reunites seven artists from the 2008 work “the break/s: a mixtape for stage”: writer-performer Joseph; director Michael John Garces; choreographer Stacey Printz; drummer/beatboxer Tommy Shepherd; documentary filmmaker Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi; lighting designer James Clotfelter; and media designer David Szlasa.

Joseph is joined on-stage in the performance by Shepherd, dancer-actor Traci Tolmaire and vocalist-visual artist Theaster Gates, who is also designing the set.

Stories for “rbGb” were developed from material gathered at a series of festivals that use participatory arts and action to advance social and environmental justice in diverse and underserved communities. Under Joseph’s artistic direction, these “Life is Living” events in Oakland, Calif., Harlem, Chicago and Houston have yielded residents’ testimony as dramatic source material.

Interviews, poems, films and murals from “Life is Living” have become words, dance and images that express the challenge of living green where violent crime and poor education are more of a threat than ecological crisis.

Set into Gates’ malleable stage installation of repurposed building materials and clay objects, and heightened by Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s vivid films and vibrant graffiti murals from “Life is Living,” “rbGb” is driven by the idea that valuing your own life, and the life of your community, is the first step to valuing planet Earth.

The production is made up of two sections. Titled “the colored museum” (inspired in part by the George C. Wolfe play of the same name), the first invites spectators on-stage to look into the windows of installations that represent four urban regions as well as stories and movements from these areas.

In “colors and muses,” audience members return to their seats and watch as the piece extends beyond conversation and focuses on central figures in Houston, New York, Chicago and Oakland.

Joseph, an equally talented poet, dancer, educator and activist, appeared on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine in 2007 as one of America’s Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences.

He was artistic director of the HBO documentary “Russell Simmons Presents Brave New Voices” and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists.” He received this year’s Alpert Award in theater.

Performances of “red, black & GREEN: a blues” will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 27-28, with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. for a viewing of the show’s innovative stage sets. Tickets are $20, $10 for seniors and students. They will go on sale on March 1 at batestickets.com. For more information, call 786-6163.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph and a host of collaborators will present

the multimedia stage show “red, black & GREEN: a blues,” which brings to life personal stories about the impacts of a deteriorating environment. As part of Martin Luther King Day observances at Bates College, Joseph will give a staged reading of the piece on Friday, Jan. 13, at Olin Arts Center.