body/s in question

body/s in question charts the fault lines of migration and multiracial identity via the memories of my family's stories in Jamaica, Cuba and the U.S.

• Past Performances:
  • August 11, 2017 - Work-in-Progress showing at Alternate ROOTS Roots Week 2017
  • June 10, 2016 - Work-in-Progress showing at the Caribbean Studies Association Annual Conference: Caribbean Global Movements: People, Ideas, Culture, Arts and Economic Sustainability  in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT, 2015 COMMISSIONED ARTIST & 2014 CREATE CHANGE FELLOW

StoryBlock: 

In 2015 we built on the collaboration we began in 2014 as Create Change Fellows.  As 2015 Create Change Commission Artists with The Laundromat Project, photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess and I developed StoryBlock, an oral history and visual community archive that celebrates the cultural richness of Kelly Street residents living in the Longwood section of the South Bronx.

GrowLove

In 2014 I was honored to be selected as one of 15 artists as a Create Change Fellow. The LP believes that “[w]hen artists have the opportunity to build and contribute their unique skills and perspectives to the needs of their neighborhoods, they can be invaluable assets in furthering community wellbeing.” I participated in a 5-month program of workshops on community-based creative social justice work. During this time I worked with 4 other artists in collaboration with The  Kelly Street Community Garden and with support from Banana Kelly, the BLK Projek, the Bronx Documentary Center, Casita Maria, The Point, Community Board 2, Green Mountain Energy Company, and other organizations to produce "Grow Love," a day of community activities that highlighted the assets, history and bounty of the Kelly Street neighborhood, especially around issues of community wellbeing and access to affordable, healthy food. 

• BronxInk: http://bronxink.org/2014/09/22/26837-local-garden-reignites-long-lost-community-spirit/

On Stage

Procurando Nosso Espaço (Seeking Our Space)

April 2012 - ChoreoLab, Duke University, Durham, NC

Layering samba, capoeira, blues, and funk, Procurando Nosso Espaço is an exploration of how women throughout the African Diaspora carve out and claim space through popular art; both embodying and transforming tradition and society. Taking place in the lobby of a traditional performing arts space, the circle draws us together to spiral through the lines that divide the street from the stage, memory from future, movement from writing, and art from scholarship. This performance was developed as a part of my senior thesis project in Cultural Anthropology - Mandando a Roda, Mandando o Mundo: Afro-Brazilian Women Embodying and Transforming Tradition and Society through Samba and Capoeira – which explores the role of afro-Brazilian dance and movement traditions in afro-Brazilian women’s sense of identity and citizenship. The work grew from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in in Bahia, Brazil in 2011.

Choreography: Alison Kibbe in collaboration with the dancers

Music: Vem Menina (samba song from Rio de Contas, Brazil); Adao Adao, Cade Salome (capoeira song); Washerwoman Blues by Bessie Smith; Quick Reaction and Satisfaction by Etta James; interviews conducted summer 2011 in Bahai, Brazil with female capoeiristas and sambadeiras

Accompaniment: Katya Wesolowski

Costumes: Alison Kibbe

Dancers: Destani Bizune, Chanelle Croxton, Michaela Dwyer, Alison Kibbe, Michael Oliver

Press:

ChoreoLab to Show Student and Faculty Dance Pieces Duke Chronicle, April 18, 2012, Jamie Moon

The body unbound

July 2015 -  The Movement Theatre Company @ MassBliss 2015

Fusing together movement, body percussion, and voice, THE BODY UNBOUND theatricalizes and portrays the attacks, triumphs, and healing the 21st century woman experiences with and through their body.  Devised by a multicultural female ensemble, this piece reclaims the female body through mindfulness and wellness.

Directed and Produced by Taylor Reynolds and Deadria Harrington

Death Made Love To My Feet

November 2014 - DoublePlus at Gibney Dance 

Choreographed by Audrey Hailes 

• Infinite Body - "DoublePlus: Impressive Launch for New Series at Gibney 280"
• NY Times - "A Study of Opposites"

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TWOHUNDREDTHIRTYFOUR  

May 2014 - Dancing While Black: Collective Action(s) at Bronx Academy of Art and Dance

Choreographed by Ebony Noelle Golden

• The Feminist Wire - Dancing While Black

Me Too Monologues

February 2012 - Duke University

Me Too Monologues is a show about identity, written, performed, and produced by members of the Duke community. Students, alumni, and faculty submit stories of their experiences and they are turned  into a documentary theatre performance.

• Been There, Duke Magazine, April 2012, Kristin Oakley
• Me Too Monologues, Duke Chronicle, February 2012, Jamie Moon and Caitlin Moyles