An absolute pleasure to design and co-facilitate this African Diasporic Writing Practices workshop with my friends and Nigerian writers, TJ Benson and Sada Malumfashi. We each led the workshop participants (which consisted of dancers, writers, musicians, etc.) in a creative writing prompt inspired by our favorite piece of writing. I brought Shug Avery and Celie along with me (or maybe they brought me lol). What unfolded was a wellspring of dialogue about writing as performance, ancestral presence, the romantic as wonder, and laughter, so much laughter. Thank you Candler School of Theology at Emory University for this honor! Click the link below to read the full article and my essay Frenzied H(e)avens: African American Post Exilic Realities in J'Sun Howard's aMoratorium. P.S. I Loved You Once, I Still Do is a performance installation I created as a final project for my Queer Theology class I enrolled in at Candler School of Theology (Emory University). P.S. theorizes loves songs by Black womxn as tools for liberation to explore the connections between Black womanhood, pleasure (sexual or otherwise), and political resistance. Sitting under a tree, I created a site of Black feminine pleasure and memory, embroidering a blanket with the names of Black womxn who have lost their lives to police brutality in the past 20 years, and coronavirus, most recently—while blasting a playlist of classic, R&B, neosoul, and alternative R&B tracks from a speaker. Engaging womanist ethicist and theologian, Emilie Townes's theory of "colored orneriness," this performance asks what it means for Black womxn to practice radical love for themselves, their communities, and their nation in the midst of constant terror and violence? How is the creation of space that affirms Black femme energy also an act of political resistance? I wrote a short reflection to accompany this piece, and created a playlist which you can listen to on Apple Music or Spotify. Photography credit: Lauren Gaia Custom lavender, babydoll dress: Naomi Dale (@naomis.closet.creations) An archive. A space to share, tell stories. Created by Alivia Blade and Bri Heath. Click the link to visit our instagram and read our poetry.
On Rennie Harris's "Lifted" at the Museum of Contemporary Art
On Po'Chop/Jenn Freeman's "The People's Church of the G.H.E.T.T.O." On Meida McNeil's "Fifth City: Revisited" On Molly Shanahan/Mad Shack's 25th Anniversary performance On Amina Ross and Eclipsed Festival at Links Hall On Donald Byrd and Spectrum Dance Theatre's "Rambunctious Iteration #3 - The Immigrant" Senior Capstone (Cultural Studies-Urban Studies) - Spring 2017
Columbia College Chicago An investigation of liturgical dance in the black church tradition as a gendered space that reifies politics of respectability for black girls. This study incorporates a critical performance ethnography of Living Word Christian Center's Dance Ministry in Chicago, IL as a methodology, and black feminism and womanist theology as frameworks. Keywords: liturgical dance, black womanist theology, performance studies, dance studies, black girlhood Awarded 2017 Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Outstanding BA Thesis in Cultural Studies from Columbia College Chicago when I remember mattie moss clark, I imagine navy hair barrettes. Two thick, black plaits with white ribbons on the ends.
with bright, wide eyes, a clear, brown face, a nickel necklace that says wwjd, a white, cotton JCPenney’s dress with puffer sleeves and navy trimming, white ruffle socks, and navy patent pleather shoes hitting against the back of the pew. The choir begins with a gentle rock that settles me in a circle of rhythm and history. my heart agrees, and my blood is introduced to its strength. a frail, light skinned black woman, commands the waves of sound. Holding her arms on her back, she spreads her grand, white sleeves, palms open. she avails herself to hold all of us in time. |
AuthorBrianna Alexis Heath is a dancer, writer, and arts administrator living in Atlanta, GA. Archives
June 2023
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