Experience dynamic, site-specific performances inside the YBCA galleries from 3 movement artists whose works subvert, disrupt, and respond to the tokenizing identity politics forced onto Black creatives by art institutions.
In many ways, cultural and arts institutions are some of the most visible arbiters of identity politics in the arts industry. During a month that purports to honor Black Histories, these artists will engage with the literal and metaphysical ways that art institutions and museums hold Black histories, artistry and cultures captive.
Each of the performance’s artists—Audrey Johnson, Rama Hall, and Dazaun Soleyn—are committed to transdisciplinary practice, direct community engagement, and practicing underrepresented art forms. Audrey Johnson and Dazaun Soleyn each incorporate practices in plant work and architecture respectively, which enhances their individual movement processes in exciting, nontraditional ways. Rama Hall is a skilled practitioner of an underground art form, and a key builder of the Bay’s House dance scene. All three artists teach regularly, acting as mentors to countless students and as bridges between disparate communities. These communally-engaged artists have practices that exist outside mainstream expectations of Black dance artists, and subvert elite institutional influences on our local arts ecosystem.
This performance is curated by the 2024 Kathleen Hermesdorf Fresh Festival Curatorial Team, which is composed of Abby Crain, gizeh muñiz vengel, ainsley e. tharp, Clarissa Rivera Dyas, and Chibueze Crouch.
