The Approach
Using Black Feminist Theory as a point of departure, we work from a principle of “revolutionary nomadism” to create temporary site-specific installations and performances that are rooted in community collaboration and democratic processes. Communities who are directly impacted by policies and practices of structural oppression work together to conceptualize and produce surrealist "visual" opera--ambitious works that interweave visual art, found objects, sound, music, movement, ritual and narrative to confront systemic power, provoke democratic dialogue, and cultivate sustainable spaces.
Projects and Collaborators
[b]REACH imagines the fugitive journey of PRISONER #25 and a BEVY of LUNATICS who discover a secret passageway into other worlds while being held captive in the bowels of EMPIRE. Comprised of visual, sound, and environmental installations, fabrications and projections; choreographed performances, and artist/community talks, the abolitionist fable is interdisciplinary and experiential. [b]REACH is intended to be experienced in community hubs, private and public venues, and Black counterpublics. The work asks SpectActors to move within and throughout the performance space(s), to talk back, ask questions, touch, feel, think and posit within the work.
A large-scale roving performance comprised of site-specific installations, the plot follows a group of nomadic “SONGBIRDS” as they journey to recover and reclaim Home.
The visual opera drew on the vision, memory, and skills of
New Orleans-based Black feminist artists and organizers—many of whom survived Katrina. Through on-going convening, documentation, evaluation, art-making, and collective study, those New Orleans based Black feminist were responsible for driving the opera’s content, movements, mapping and impact(s).