Festival Fall 2017: invisible material

"What does a collective mean in terms of the history of this city? We tried to give many different kinds of collectives and formats a opportunity to share their way of working together... which can maybe make a broader commentary on capitalism and the way that people are trying to imagine being paid for their labor, to dreaming creatively, and also finding a way to create liberatory acts inside of the structures that be." Jonathan Gonzalez

"It was an ambitious week... we were not trying to work with this idea of collective as a romantic one, more so to bring collective ways of working to the forefront. To kind of witness and learn, see what questions and problems rose to the surface." EmmaGrace Skove-Epes

Jonathan and EmmaGrace were featured on a live stream by Artists Space, speaking about the curation of Festival Fall 2017: invisible material. Find out more by listening to Maintaining Good Relationships: Starting from Zero, starting at 18 minutes.

These workshops are not curated by the Movement Research Festival Fall 2017: invisible material, but in the spirit of collective wellness, the curators recommend all Festival attendees visit!

//MINKA//
1120 Washington Ave, Brooklyn
minkabrooklyn.com
Throughout the festival week, visit MINKA -- a center for wellness and an inclusive environment in Brooklyn -- for sliding scale community workshops in different healing practices.

//Using the ACRE Platform: A Toolkit for Racial Equity and the Arts//
Tuesday, November 28 6-9pm
Gibney Dance 280 Broadway
FREE
Maria Bauman, Sarita Covington, and Nathan Trice, the co-founders of Artists Co-Creating Real Equity (ACRE), share a platform collectively devised by ACRE members, focusing on racial equity in arts education, funding, coverage in media, curation, casting, and in space allocation/availability, through which they will help participants examine their own artistic practices and artistic organizations with a racial justice lens informed by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Skeleton Architecture is a vessel of Black womyn and gender nonconforming artists rooted in the rigor and power of the collective in practice. We create, organize, advocate, gather, curate, perform, play, challenge, and teach through the depth of our ancestral knowledges toward the liberated future of our worlds. Our members are Maria Bauman, Sidra Bell, Davalois Fearon, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Melanie Greene, Kayla Hamilton, Jasmine Hearn, Marguerite Hemmings, Nia Love, Paloma McGregor, Sydnie L. Mosley, Rakiya Orange, Grace Osbourne, Leslie Parker, Angie Pittman, Samantha Speis, Charmaine Warren, Marýa Wethers, and Ni'Ja Whitson.

Note: One of our core values is prioritizing the "us" versus our productivity.  Thanks to you and to all of our supporters, ancestral and present,  for being a witness to us and our process.  

For this event Skeleton Architecture is in partnership with Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, who is working directly with cultural organizations in Loriza of Puerto Rico, Barbuda, Antigua and St. Croix for hurricane relief. The CCCADI, in partnership with our communities, is wholeheartedly committed to action in this moment of crisis. It is our duty to contribute to relief and recovery efforts and to support our brothers, sisters, families, and communities in the Caribbean. 

A note from CCCADI:

"Hurricanes Irma and Maria have had a devastating impact on the islands that are our root homes.  It is our duty, it is our obligation, it is our responsibility to reach out to our communities in this time of dire need.  The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute is committed to raising resources to be equally divided amongst on the ground community cultural institutions working with the most vulnerable communities requiring immediate assistance in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, St. Croix, and St. Thomas.  

I know that our sacred communities, friends, and neighbors are all committed to assisting.  Give what you can in whatever ways you are able to. Remember to be generous. Today, our friends and families on the islands are affected. Tomorrow, it could be us. Please make the effort to contribute what you can.  It is our humanity, our love of others, and our devotion to family and friends that have provided the resilience and power to sustain. Let us continue to demonstrate the very kindness that binds us in this moment."

mayday heyday parfait
By The Commons Choir
Music Director, Composer, and Arranger: Anaïs Maviel
Assistant Director: Saúl Ulerio
Composer: Darius Jones
Dramaturg: Susan Mar Landau
Lighting Designer: Tuce Yasak
Sound Designer: Dov Tiefenbach
Costume Designer: Ashaka Givens
Performers: Martita Abril, Drew Devero Belfon, Ilona Bito, Lydia Chrisman, Alvaro Gonzales Dupuy, Jean Carla Rodea, Saúl Ulerio, C.D Woolfolk, NBJ Zhong, Carol Porteous, Sarah Chien, and guests

After developing mayday heyday parfait for the last 3 years, The Commons Choir reconfigured itself with the intention to unearth their process with the audience in regard to the following concerns. The backstory is The Age of Discovery: da Gama and Columbus sailing in opposite directions in search of the same spice (nutmeg) setting into motion a global interchange of people, crops, livestock, ideas and communicable diseases under the most exploitive terms imaginable. Although this ongoing momentum is coextensive with our extinction, we still have not put in place a counteractive Age of Undiscovery. For the Movement Research event/festival, we’d like to open up our process and problem set to directly address the audience with questions such as: Is divisive speech ever free speech? How could something or someone possibly be out of place? Is “peopling” of the planet potentially out of place? Is identifying with identity the problem? What happens when language is reduced to pragmatics, syntax, self-expression and merely what words can say? Without a practice of ecstasy (standing outside oneself, ek-‘out’ + histanai ‘to place’) will we only reinforce the harmful systems we intend to change? If 70% of domestic terrorist attacks are carried out by individuals acting alone, is singularity the enemy? What do your enemies believe about you? If we stopped arguing, would it solve the problems we’re arguing about?  We’re in New York because beaver pelts could be felted to make waterproof hats in Europe. Are you more different from your group than mine? Shall we all meet all over again, free of transaction?

From the libretto:
Juniper Berries
If we divided the
earth into pieces the
size of juniper berries the
number of pieces would not-be-as-great-as-the number of times that each
being has been our mother

The Commons Choir is a variable group of people gathering around concerns that are addressed collectively. The work-to-be-done takes different forms, from discussions to educational programs to interventions to presenting performances. The work, to put it simply, is about who we are as we work together, placed in resonance with you. It’s not a choreography, play, score or improvisation per-se, though it involves all these components.

Fifty One Pounds
By Feminist Art Group
J. Soto, Amanda Hunt, Miette Maharry, IV Castellanos
Platform and handle fabricated by IV Castellanos
Rock harvested from Glenford, NY
Thank you Jennifer Maharry and Mor Pipman

Santuario(s)
By Collective States
Works by featured artists as part of Santuario(s): 
Refugio by Hidelberto Utrera 
Chicken Wire #1 by Isabella Cruz-Chong 
Loop by Ssu-ya Hsiung 
Santuario(s) panels and Q&A by Mónica Robles with Rishauna Zumberg, Chris Whitney, Beto Utrera, & Isabella Cruz-Chong

Collective States decided to focus their efforts in support of Santuario(s) - a space created by performances of immigrant artists whose first language is not English. To learn more about Santuario(s), please visit: santuarios.weebly.com. 

The Featured Artists thank Collective States for greatly supporting and helping develop the work of immigrant artists. Collective States & Featured Artists thank the NYFA Immigrant Artist Program; our partners: Raúl Ramírez, Sarah Whitney, Adrian Coto; Nooshin Rostami for mentoring and support; Danspace Project (Lighting, Crew, Ushers, Admin, Box Office), St. Mark’s Church, Zavé Martohardjono for giving us this opportunity, Anna Adams Stark for support, coordination, and logistics; the whole Movement Research team for all their work to make this night and this festival happen; and Allison Corbett for recording equipment and language justice resources: langjust.com

you get what you paid for
By Wildcat!
Eleni Theodora Zaharopoulos, André M. Zachery, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
What happens when labor evaluates its own worth?

The Tenets of Wildcat! Event-Making:
1. Every participant must have a solo.
2. There must be an element of exhaustion.
3. There must be an element of repetition.
4. There must be a cycle of 8 minute studies.

Thanks Jonathan Gonzalez and Movement Research for the support!

SHPC X
By Social Health Performance Club
Maria Hupfield, Ayana Evans, Geraldo Mercado, IV Castellanos

When We Stand Alone
Brooklyn Arts Exchange's Dance Performance Workshop (DPW) Level III
Choreographer: Skye Montante
DPW III Director: Helen Tocci
DPW III Performers: Ariel Gunnell, Ava Mascuch, Ana Mesa, Olive Raymond, Hana Jang
Music: Prelude by Nosaj Thing, Optimist(Live) by Zoe Keating, Level 1 by Clams Casino 

BAX's Youth Education Programs are generously supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Bay and Paul Foundations, Sterling Bank, Park Slope Civic Council and our many individual supporters.

Thank you to the BAX's DPW families for recognizing your children's unique artistic gifts, for supporting them in their wholeness, and for being such an important part of the greater BAX community. BAX exists because of you and your commitment to performing arts and arts education as a vital way to connect and transform individuals and communities.

Together and a Part
A Collective Choreography 
Young Dancemakers Company Performers: Manuela Agudelo, Ciara Bowen, Hosbel Hernandez, Chloe London, Genesis Perdomo, Idania Quezada, Ariel Romage, Justin Torres
Music: Shadowbox

Upcoming Undoing Racism® workshops in our community and nation-wide can be found here.

Maria Bauman

Milta Vega-Cardona

People's Institute for Survival and Beyond

After rich conversation, and an eagerness to connect, attendees to and panelists of this studies project pooled a list of shared resources surrounding activism in our community:

• Culture Push
• People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond
• Anti Racist Alliance 
• BUFU
• Mayday Space
• We Make Noise
• Educated Little Monsters
• Mi Casa Es No Su Casa
• Sister Circle Collective
• Gabriela — Filipino Social Justice & Advocacy Group
• powrplnt
• Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network
• Take It Back/Before It’s Gone
• Equality for Flatbush
• Resource Generation