Created by Lileana Blain-Cruz
A space for dance, rest, and sustenance made for and in appreciation of black women
Featuring:
DJ Belinda Becker, May 15
DJ Reborn, May 16
DJ Kamala Muse, May 22
DJ Jennifly, May 23
Installation Design: Lileana Blain-Cruz
Wall Art: Xavier Blain-Cruz
Food Offering: Sekai Abení
Talisman Button: Anire Amoda
Installation Attendant: Aaliyah Stewart
by Kathleen Collins
A live offering created by Lileana Blain-Cruz, Amelia Workman, Kara Young, Jennifer Harrison Newman and Shasta Geaux Pop
Stage Manager: Morgan Johnson
Sound Design: Rucyl Frison
Producing Team: Eisa Davis, Deadria Harrington, Nzinga Williams & Anire Amoda
Gabby Beans, Nina Collins, Seret Scott, Susan Bernfield, Annie Dorsen, Keith Josef Adkins, The New Black Fest at The Lark, Denise Burse, Jennifer Gibbs, Alex Hurt, Griffin Matthews
The National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Co-production support provided by Deadria Harrington and New Georges.
Lileana Blain-Cruz is a director from New York City and Miami. Recent projects include: Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company), Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA); Girls (Yale Repertory Theater); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Faust (Opera Omaha); Fabulation, Or the Reeducation of Undine (Signature Theatre) ; Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum/CTG); Pipeline (Lincoln Center); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre, Obie Award); Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Rep.); Salome (JACK); Hollow Roots (the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater); She was recently named a 2018 United States Artists Fellow and a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist. She is currently the resident director of Lincoln Center Theater. Upcoming projects include Dreaming Zenzile and the opera The Listeners at Opera Norway.
Amelia Workman has appeared on Succession, Elementary, Bull and Blindspot and played a small role opposite Michelle Williams in After The Wedding. Her work onstage has afforded her the opportunity to work with Pulitzer winning playwrights Susan Lori Parks and Lynn Nottage, and allowed her to develop and/or premiere award winning work like Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment and Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (selected). She’s performed for audiences in over a dozen countries and understudied Kerry Washington on Broadway. Additionally, she played the titular role in the lauded 2019 revival Fornez’s Fefu and her Friends. For more information visit ameliaworkman.com
Kara Young Harlem born and raised. Film/TV: Chemical Hearts (Amazon, dir. Richard Tanne), After Yang (A24, dir. Kogonada), The lead in Hair Wolf, winner of Sundance 2018 Short film Jury Award:US fiction, Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), The Punisher (Netflix). Theater: All The Natalie Portmans (dir. Kate Whoriskey, MCC) Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (dir. John Ortiz, Atlantic), New Englanders (dir Saheem Ali, MTC), Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d (dir. Awoye Timpo, The Duke), Syncing Ink (dir. Niegel Smith, Alley Theatre, The Flea), Pretty Hunger (dir. Martha Banta, The Public). Labyrinth Theater Company Member. 2020 Lucille Lortel Nominee for Outstanding lead actress in a Play, Antonyo Award Nominee for Best Actor in a play, Recipient of Audelco’s 2020 Special Achievement Award. Live Voice Over Announcer for 2018, 2019, & 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV’s Girl Code (4 seasons).
Jennifer Harrison Newman is an artistic director, producer, educator, choreographer, and performance artist with over twenty-five years in the visual and performing arts. Working collaboratively across disciplines with emerging and established artists alike, Jennifer pushes the boundaries of music, dance, opera, and theater. From Broadway to Bushwick and from Boston to Beijing, Jennifer engages deeply with the process of making performance. Jennifer has been an artist in residence at The Juilliard School, Princeton University, Yale University, Central Connecticut State University, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy Inkost and has led workshops across the United States, and in Sweden, South Africa, and Mexico. Her work has been presented at Yale University, Central Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea, JACK NYC, and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance (BAAD!).
Ayesha Jordan “Shasta Geaux Pop” is a multidisciplinary performance artist based between Oslo, Norway and New York City. She often uses characters and stories to create indelible moments for cerebral and visceral experiences. She and her collaborators have been making art together for several years, producing innovative theater and music events in NYC and beyond described as edgy, dynamic, and hilarious. Most recently, she presented the work Shasta Geaux Pop: Blended Therapy as part of The Shed’s Up Close and as a commissioned artist for their Open Call 2020. Called a “Glamazon Hip-Hop Icon” (The New Yorker), Shasta Geaux Pop has appeared at the Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival, the High Line, Wow Festival, Off Center Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, the Bushwick Starr, and the Right About Now Festival (Amsterdam), among other spaces. Other works include Come See My Double D’s (JACK NY), Social Studies (Danspace NYC), Enter & Exit: Playing House, and Enter & Exit: Family Reunion. Some of her video projects include Living Room Dance Breaks, Drunk & Famous, and Shasta Geaux Pop for President 2020.