Deconstructing Language: Liberationist Writing for Performance
Performance Response Journal with support from the National Center for Choreography - Akron (NCCAkron) offered a free three-part dance writing workshop series August 18, August 25, and September 1, 2021. These workshops prioritized Chicago, Midwestern, and Rust Belt BIPOC art and dance writers interested in starting or restarting their dance/performance writing practice. Deconstructing Language: Liberationist Writing for Performance was led by Benji Hart (Chicago, IL); Felicia Holman (Chicago, IL); and Brianna Alexis Heath (Atlanta, GA).
“We intend to engage BIPOC writers by offering practical writing and thinking skills that support seeing and responding to performance through a pro-Black Feminist, anti-ableist, and queer framework. Participants will walk away with actionable and relevant tools to develop or restart their practices of writing and watching, as well as seeds of their own work.”
— Aaliyah Christina, Co-organizer, PRJ
Part 1: Reclaiming Gaze – Assessing Your Writing Toolkit Through a Black, Queer Lens with Benji Hart
In this workshop, participants will take inventory of their own individual voices as writers, performers, and critics. By first examining the writing of Black, queer critics in relation to Black, queer performance, participants will take note of the specific characteristics--language, style, reference, and attention to space--that set these works apart from traditional criticism, and will have a chance to practice writing a short response of their own.
Part 2: A Pandemic Approach to Arts Writing with Felicia Holman
Chicago-based arts writer/interdisciplinary artist and 2020-2022 Threewalls RaDLOW fellow Felicia Holman will present an interactive arts writing workshop exploring strategies to center both the voice of BIPOC arts writers, as well as the contexts/narratives of BIPOC performing artists' work in the COVID-19 era. Discussion topics and activities will include: Balancing Self-Care & Deadlines, Optimizing the Virtual Performance Experience, and Leveraging Niche Audience Development. All experience levels welcome; emerging writers, especially.
Part 3: Writing as Performance – Dance Scholarship as a Communal Act of Resistance with Brianna Alexis Heath
Click here for closed captioning and additional resources.
Felicia Holman in conversation with Anjal Chande, Cristal Sabbagh, Erin Kilmlmuray
Throughout the pandemic, Felicia Holman and PRJ were inspired by all the artistic risk-taking, meaning-making, and community-building happening in Chicago, in the wake of the COVID-19.
Felicia Holman talks one-on-one with a featured member of Chicago’s expansive and experimental performing arts community; offering illuminating insight into the agility, passion, and resilience fueling Chicago’s independent performing artists and cultural producers. The PRJ podcast offers a space to affirm and bolster the vitality of our shared artistic home—Sweet Home Chicago.
Anjal Chande, photo by Samir Mirza.
Anjal Chande is a dance artist, writer, teacher, producer, and founding Artistic Director of Soham Dance Space. Chande makes dance-theater performances grounded in an improvisational practice and a foundation in the bharatanatyam art form. Chande’s work has been recently supported/presented by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2019 Lab Artist Award, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Tanztage Festival at Sophiensaele in Berlin, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Washington, D.C.
sohamdancespace.org // Piloting Two New Programs // thenextcupoftea.com // chicagotr.com // Hosted by Felicia Holman at Tightrope Recording, Chicago.
Listen now (on Spotify & Soundcloud)
Cristal Sabbagh, photo by the artist.
Cristal Sabbagh’s performance practice, rooted in improvisation and Butoh, walks a line between the everyday, the divine, the personal, and the political. Embodying in her art transformational memories while simultaneously celebrating pop culture and the experimental, she challenges power structures and awakens viewers’ senses. Working both in a solo capacity and with collaborators, Sabbagh is equally attuned to individual perspectives and collective structures. Although her work is defined in movement, her practice also looks outward to portraits of the world around, taking the forms of traditionally drawn portraits, figurative ceramic sculptures, and nontraditional portraits on ceramic mugs. Sabbagh labors over each piece, that act as homage and memorials and are a resistance to white-supremacy.
@cristalsabbagh // chicagotr.com // Hosted by Felicia Holman, recorded at Tightrope Recording in Chicago, IL.
Listen now (on Spotify & Soundcloud)
Erin Kilmurray, photo by Ash Dye.
Erin Kilmurray is a dance artist building genre-straddling work born from athletics, DIY sensibilities, social practices, spectacle, and collaborative teams. Erin is a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist (2020), listed on Newcity’s 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago (2020), received a Greenhouse Grant, 3Arts Make-A-Wave + 3AP Award (2018), and toured SEARCH PARTY to Japan (2019). Her work has been presented by contemporary performance spaces, music venues, nightclubs including Links Hall, The Dance Center of Columbia College, Thalia Hall, Empty Bottle, Pivot Arts, University of Chicago, The Cambrian’s, among others. She is the creator of The Fly Honey Show --- acknowledged as a Chicago institution by the Chicago Reader (2018). She has choreographed for countless underground spaces, independent makers, parties, concerts, and musical artists, and theatrical productions.
erinkilmurray.com // chicagotr.com // Hosted by Felicia Holman, recorded at Tightrope Recording in Chicago, IL.
Listen now (on Spotify & Soundcloud)