have you all seen this? http://www.zorafestival.com/index.html
FYI: FW: CFP You have probably seen the call for papers below, posted at our website over the last year, for the 2010 Zora Neale Hurston (ZNH) Festival of the Arts and Humanities in Eatonville, Florida (USA) January 23-31, 2010.
The JUNE 1st deadline is around the corner, and your submissions is enthusiastically anticipated from across disciplines and areas of study.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES , and LISTSERVES.
Taking a minute to forward the email below can make a world of difference for this academic forum and for the sustainable development of Eatonville, America's oldest incorporated African American town in the US.
[Cultural preservation activism has helped this community survive urban gentrification]
Questions? See the call below and feel free to contact me directly.
Dr. Deidre Helen Crumbley: ZNH National Planner Associate Professor/ Africana Studies Program Interdisciplinary Studies Division Box 7107 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7107, USA
CALL FOR ACADEMIC PAPERS Invitation: Scholars are invited to submit papers for the 2010 Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and
Humanities (January 23 - 31). The festival theme is "Reflection on the Life and Legacy of Zora Neale
Hurston 50 Years After Her Death."
The legacy of Zora Neale Hurston is a phenomenon that has undergone a remarkable
development and expansion in recent decades, embracing, among others, topics in ethnic identity, social
interactions, feminist theory, and cultural continuity. Hurston's unique insights into folklore,
performance, and creative expression have invited new interpretation and inspired emulation, while the
corpus of her own work has grown as a result of research and discovery. The committee will welcome
papers exploring the dynamic dimensions of the Hurston legacy from theoretical and/or historical
perspectives and will be especially attentive to appropriate consideration of past, present, and emerging
scholarly content.
In a tradition of excellence, scholars are encouraged to engage the literature and discourse of
their respective fields at the same that they present their findings during the public forum in a form that
is accessible to academics in other disciplines and is also intellectually stimulating for an intelligent
general audience.
Submission Instructions:
Submit a 150-word abstract along with an 500-word summary of your paper that of your paper that indicates the
thesis or central question, which you plan to explore, as well as an idea of the theoretical framework
within which your findings will be considered.
Deadline:
Abstract and summary are due June 1, 2009.
If your work is accepted for the festival, a copy of
the full paper must be submitted by November1, 2009.
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative continues the "Working Our Rainbows: Critical Approaches to Africana Women's Performance Methodology" Series
Peace family. As I continue to think about "women's work", political division, art, community and sustainability, I am critically looking at these terms-feminist and womanist and how they create/define/conflate/re-iterate power, everyday "happenings" and creative performance dynamics among Black women.
The Working Our Rainbows Series is an at-home, mobile device, on line lecture series devoted to Black Women in Performance Studies. Please email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com if you would like to host a lecture!
This weeks lesson:
1. Watch Staceyann Chin's performance of "Feminist or Womanist". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOmyebFVV8
2. Read Revisiting "What's in a Name?": Exploring the Contours of Africana Womanist Thought Nikol G Alexander-Floyd, Evelyn M Simien. Frontiers. Boulder:2006. Vol. 27, Iss. 1, p. 67-89,131-132 (25 pp.)
I will email the essay if you would like.
3. Write a letter to yourself answering some or all of these questions: 1. Am I a feminist? 2. Am I a womanist? 3. How do I identify politically, culturally, socially?
4. If you were talking to Alice Walker right now, what would you say to her about womanism? 5. If you were talking to Clenora Hudson Weems right now, what would you say to her about womanism? 6. If you were speaking to Audre Lorde right now, what would you ask her about hybridity? 7. If you were talking to your mama right now what would you ask her about herself?
Hit me up on facebook or respond on my blog here!
Peace and performance!
Ebony Noelle Golden bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Thank you for your generous thoughts, participation and support since the first cycle of Gumbo YaYa in 2007. Gumbo YaYa has travelled from NYC to NC drawing on the power of sisterhood and creative healing in every session or workshop. The second cycle of gumbo yaya is wrapping up in Durham, NC.
Here are a few updates:
New Community Support! Gumbo YaYa is pleased to announce new sponsor, The Body Shop. The Body Shop (http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/bodyshop/) is providing wellness and beauty items for the Gumbo Yaya Sister Circle and supporters. Many thanks to our awesome intern, Kenya C. Harris, for solidifying this sponsorship. You rock Kenya!
Love is Radical Performance! Gumbo YaYa is wrapping up its second cycle on 3/29/2009 with a community performance, panel, and potluck.
What: Love is Radical: Performing Mothering, Daughtering, and Sistering When: 3/29/09, 2:30 pm Where: 214 Broadway St. Durham, NC Who: The Entire Community Cost: Free Why: Because we want to share our magic with you!
Please bring a dish, dessert, or beverage for the community potluck. More Information: bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com or 919.423.3780
Please tell everyone you know to come out and support Gumbo YaYa!
Gumbo on the Go! A Gumbo YaYa session was presented at the 5th Annual State of the Nation Arts and Performance Festival. Accepted with open arms by a diverse community of artists and activists, women and men engaged in "Brilliant Tomorrows: Sister(ing) as Creative Communal Performance" session in New Orleans, LA. www.sonfestival.org.
Brilliant Tomorrows will also be presented at the first We Are 1 Women's Conference in Durham, NC. The conference seeks to bring women together regardless of sexuality, faith, ethnicity. Check them out at http://www.infinitydiamondclub.com/infinity_diamond_club_015.htm.
On the Horizon... Gumbo YaYa, the movie! Gumbo YaYa, the curriculum!
We want to hear from you! -Join our list serv at http://bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com/contact.php.
-Check out our website and leave a comment at www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com.
In sisterhood and community building, Gumbo YaYa/ or this is why we speak in tongues
From: Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory Date: March 10, 2009 12:36:51 PM EDT To: toplab-announce@blythe-systems.com Subject: [TOPLAB-ANNOUNCE] Theater to Confront Diabetes; workshops 3/21 and 4/25 Reply-To: toplab-announce@blythe-systems.com
Please forward or repost
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) --a member of The Institute for Popular Education at the Brecht Forum-- --founded in 1990-- 451 West Street New York, New York 10014 (212) 924-1858 toplab@toplab.org http://www.toplab.org
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory presents
Confronting Diabetes with Theater
Two Workshops with Robbie McCauley
Saturday, March 21,2009 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm Register online at http://brechtforum.org/events/diabetic-dramas-1?bc=
Saturday, April 25,2009 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm Register online at http://brechtforum.org/events/diabetic-dramas-2?bc=
Award-winning actress Robbie McCauley returns to the Brecht Forum to lead a series of workshops called "Diabetic Dramas" based on subject matter from her performance piece *Sugar*, which looks at everything there is to see about sugar, from slavery to colonialism to American mythologies to diabetes. An ongoing work-in-progress, *Sugar*, which will be presented again at the Brecht Forum in June, will incorporate some of the story exchanges by participants in the "Diabetic Drama" workshops facilitated by Ms. McCauley. Through the interweaving of stories, images, facts and lore we will see that diabetes is not only a medical issue but also one of race and class, and we will also see how sugar is sometimes something that is very bittersweet.
The first Diabetic Drama workshop took place in January and will continue with two more workshops on March 21 and April 25. It is not necessary to have attended the January session to enroll in the March or April sessions.
Robbie McCauley has been an active presence in the American avant-garde theater for three decades. One of the early cast members of Ntozake Shange's *for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf*, Ms. McCauley went on to write and perform regularly in cities across the country, striving to facilitate dialogs on race between local whites and blacks.
In the 1990s, she received both an OBIE Award (Best Play) and a New York Dance and Performance (BESSIE) Award for *Sally's Rape*, which she wrote, directed and performed.
A core member of the American Festival Project, she has practiced and taught theater in several communities throughout the US and abroad. She is anthologized in several books, including Extreme Exposure; Moon Marked and Touched by Sun; and Performance and Cultural Politics, edited respectively by Jo Bonney, Sydne Mahone, and Elin Diamond.
In 1998, her *Buffalo Project* was highlighted as one of the "the 51 (or so) Greatest Avant-Garde Moments" by the Village Voice, a roster that included work by artists such as Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and John Cage. Her recent piece, *Sugar*, a work in progress, was presented at Ohio State University in collaboration with several institutional departments and organizations, and with members of Columbus' Near East community.
Robbie McCauley is on the Performing Arts Department faculty at Emerson College in Boston.
Co-sponsored by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) and the Brecht Forum.
Tuition--sliding scale: $15-$35
Pre-registration required.
Register online by using the links above or contact TOPLAB at toplab@toplab.org or (212) 924-1858.
All sessions take place at:
The Brecht Forum 451 West Street* New York City
* travel directions below
*****
Other Upcoming TOPLAB Workshops
March 28-29: The Rainbow of Desire (info at http://brechtforum.org/events/rainbow-desire?bc=)
March 29: Closing party for Refuge and Resistance: Reflections on Gendered Violence (an installation and performance piece conceived and executed by Ocean Ana Rising) (info at http://brechtforum.org/events/ocean-anna-rising-presents-refuge-and-resistance?bc=)
April 18-19: Cop-in-the-Head (info at http://brechtforum.org/events/cop-head-0?bc=)
May 23-28: Workshops with Augusto Boal (info from toplab@toplab.org or [212]924-1858)
May 25: An Evening with Augusto Boal (info at http://brechtforum.org/boalperformance-2009?bc=)
*****
Travel Directions
The Brecht Forum and TOPLAB are at:
451 West Street * (between Bank and Bethune Streets in the far West Village, 1-1/2 blocks north of West 11 Street) New York City
* Note: West Street is the same as the West Side Highway
Subway
IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E to 14 Street or BMT Canarsie L to Eighth Avenue (take a few minutes to look at "Life Underground", Tom Otterness' series of whimsical bronze sculptures scattered throughout both sections of the station). Walk down Eighth Avenue (against the traffic) to Bank Street (at Abingdon Square). Turn right on Bank and walk west to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.
IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3 trains to 14 Street. Exit at the south (12 Street) end of the station. Walk a short block west, across 12 Street, to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and walk one block to Bank Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to Abingdon Square. Bank Street continues on the other side of the park; keep walking on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.
New Jersey PATH train to Christopher Street. Walk north (with the traffic) on Greenwich Street to Bank Street. Turn left, walk west on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.
(From Penn Station or Port Authority Bus Terminal take the IND Eighth Avenue A, C or E trains downtown to 14 Street and follow the directions above. From Grand Central Station take the IRT Lexington Avenue 4, 5 or 6 trains downtown to 14 Street/Union Square and then change to the BMT Canarsie L train heading toward Eighth Avenue. Follow the directions above.)
Bus
#8 (Ninth/Christopher Streets crosstown) to Christopher and West Streets, walk up West Street to 451.
#11 (Ninth and Tenth Avenues): From uptown--to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street). Walk south one very short block to Bank Street, turn right, walk west to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451. No service from downtown--Abingdon Square is the terminal stop.
#14A (Grand/Essex Streets/Avenue A/Fourteenth Street crosstown) to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street). Walk south one very short block to Bank Street, turn right, walk west to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.
#20 (Seventh Avenue and Hudson Street/Eighth Avenue): From downtown--to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street). Walk south one very short block to Bank Street, turn right, walk west to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451. From uptown--to 12 Street (near St. Vincent Hospital). Walk a short block west, across 12 Street, to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and walk one block to Bank Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to Abingdon Square. Bank Street continues on the other side of the park; keep walking on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.
Car
Drive west on 11 Street all the way to West Street (West Side Highway). Turn right for one block, to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets.
Along the West Side Highway: From downtown--stay to the right and follow the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets. From uptown: Take the Highway to Clarkson Street (exit left), make a U-turn at Clarkson and proceed back up the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets.
Note that there is no legal parking on many parts of West Street before 6:00 pm, and parking on the surrounding streets is scarce. Fines for illegal parking are a minimum of $115, and your car could be towed. Retrieval can cost you as much as $300. Fees at parking lots and garages can run as high as $35 a day. WE URGE YOU TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.
=== The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) toplab@toplab.org http://www.toplab.org
"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --George W. Bush, May 1, 2003
"...I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult, and that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult--and we are prevailing." --George W. Bush, June 28, 2005
"Our cause in Iraq is noble and necessary....America is engaged in a new struggle that will set the course for a new century. We can and we will prevail." --George W. Bush, January 10, 2007
"Prevailing in Iraq is not going to be easy." --George W. Bush, March 19, 2007
+U.S. military fatalities through May 1, 2003: 140 +U.S. military fatalities through June 28, 2005: 1743 +U.S. military fatalities through January 11, 2007: 3017 +U.S. military fatalities through March 19, 2007: 3217 +U.S. military fatalities as of March 10, 2009: 4256 (this figure exceeds the number of people killed in all of the incidents that occurred on September 11, 2001)
+Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of September 2004 (estimated by The Lancet): 100,000+ +Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of July 2006 (estimated by The Lancet): 654,965 +Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of March 10, 2009 (estimated by Just Foreign Policy): 1,311,696*
*These figures are based on the number of deaths estimated in The Lancet (the British medical journal) study through July 2006, and then updated based "on how quickly deaths are mounting in Iraq". To do that, Just Foreign Policy multiplies The Lancet figure as of July 2006 by the ratio of current deaths reported by Iraq Body Count (IBC), divided by IBC deaths as of July 1, 2006. The IBC numbers, considerably lower than those cited by The Lancet, Opinion Research Business (a British polling firm which estimated 1.2 million Iraqi deaths as of September 2007), and even the Iraq Ministry of Health, are based on the number of fatalities cited in various news reports and have been criticized, with much justification, for not giving an accurate assessment of the real Iraqi death count. The much more rigorous and statistically-reliable study, conducted by teams from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and Al-Mustansiriya University, and published in The Lancet in September 2004, put the figure at around 100,000 civilians dead. However, that data had been based on "conservative assumptions", according to research team leader Les Roberts, and the actual count at that time was credibly assumed to be significantly higher. For example, The Lancet study's data greatly underestimated fatalities in Fallujah due to the surveying problems encountered there at that time. The second Lancet study, released on October 10, 2006, indicated that 654,965 "excess" deaths of Iraqis have occurred since the outbreak of the aggression and genocide committed by the United States against the people of Iraq. The current figures provided by Just Foreign Policy seem to be logically consistent with the increasing rates of death from 2003 to 2004, and 2004 to 2006.
Gumbo YaYa Celebrates Women's History Month with Love is Radical: Approaches to Mother(ing), Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing)
Contact: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Media Alert bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Durham, NC- March 5, 2009
Gumbo YaYa, ushers in Women's History Month with a four-part series of creative arts workshops, performances, and community-wide discussions about the beautiful complexity of relationships among women of the African diaspora.
Gumbo YaYa Dates of Importance: March 8: The Aesthetics of Intimacy: Daughter(ing) as Communal Performance with Ebony Noelle Golden
March 15: Love is Radical: Performing Mother(ing), Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing) with Gumbo YaYa Sister Circle
March 22: Performance Rehearsal
March 29: Community Performance and Panel Discussion with the Gumbo YaYa Sister Circle (this performance is open to the entire community)
Nancy (Nia) Wilson, executive director of SpiritHouse-NC, shares, "Thank you to our sponsors: The North Carolina Humanities Council, Healing with CAARE, Inc., betty's daughter arts collaborative, and everyone who has supported this process by providing child care, cooking a meal, or attending a session. Gumbo YaYa is such a wonderful way to begin or continue building a healthy relationship between women and girls in our communities."
Ebony Noelle Golden, creative director of Gumbo YaYa, is over-joyed by the response. "Our sessions have been generously attended every week. Mothers have brought their daughters and granddaughters. I can't wait to see what the final performance brings, and what the lasting effect of this 12-week session will be."
The "sista circle" uses improvisation, dance, journaling, meditation, storytelling, photography, theater, poetry, and music to explore the intergenerational relationships among black mothers, daughters, and sisters.
All sessions, materials, performances, and discussions are free for participants and audience members. Gumbo YaYa provides child care and dinner during every "sista circle". Participants do not have to be students, or affiliated with any particular institution to participate.
For more information about Gumbo YaYa visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com, or email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com.
-- Ebony N. Golden, MFA, MA Creative Director bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Hire Betty's Daughter for your arts consulting needs! "creating radical expressiveness in community"
Check out...Gumbo Yaya/or this is why we speak in tongues "Creative Healing and Expression for Women of the Diaspora" www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Gumbo YaYa Celebrates Women's History Month with Love is Radical: Approaches to Mother(ing), Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing): Creative Arts Workshops, Performance, and Panel" (2:00-5:00)
Contact: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Media Alert bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Durham, NC- Feb. 26, 2009
Gumbo YaYa, ushers in Women's History Month with a series of creative arts workshops, performances, and community-wide discussions about the beautiful complexity of relationships among women of the African diaspora.
Gumbo YaYa Dates of Importance: March 1: Alt(a)rations: Building Sacred Space in Community with SpiritHouse (this session will begin at CAARE and move to other sites.) March 8: The Aesthetics of Intimacy: Daughter(ing) as Communal Performance with Ebony Noelle Golden March 15: Love is Radical: Performing Mother(ing), Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing) with Gumbo YaYa Sister Circle March 22: Performance Rehearsal March 29: Community Performance and Panel Discussion with the Gumbo YaYa Sister Circle (this performance is open to the entire community)
Nancy (Nia) Wilson, executive director of SpiritHouse-NC, shares, "Thank you to our sponsors: The North Carolina Humanities Council, Healing with CAARE, Inc., betty's daughter arts collaborative, and everyone who has supported this process by providing child care, cooking a meal, or attending a session. Gumbo YaYa is such a wonderful way to begin or continue building a healthy relationship between women and girls in our communities."
Ebony Noelle Golden, creative director of Gumbo YaYa, is over-joyed by the response. "Our sessions have been generously attended every week. Mothers have brought their daughters and granddaughters. I can't wait to see what the final performance brings, and what the lasting effect of this 12-week session will be."
The "sista circle" uses improvisation, dance, journaling, meditation, storytelling, photography, theater, poetry, and music to explore the intergenerational relationships among black mothers, daughters, and sisters.
All sessions, materials, performances, and discussions are free for participants and audience members. Gumbo YaYa provides child care and dinner during every "sista circle". Participants do not have to be students, or affiliated with any particular institution to participate.
For more information about Gumbo YaYa visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com, or email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com.
-- Ebony N. Golden, MFA, MA Creative Director bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Hire Betty's Daughter for your arts consulting needs! "creating radical expressiveness in community"
Check out...Gumbo Yaya/or this is why we speak in tongues "Creative Healing and Expression for Women of the Diaspora" www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Gumbo YaYa Continues Feb. 22 with "Meditation and Creative Visioning: Building Intergenerational Bridges Among Black Women and Girls" led by Kenya Harris (3:00-5:30)
Contact: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Media Alert bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Durham, NC- Feb. 17, 2009
The North Carolina Humanities Council and SpiritHouse-NC sponsor a creative healing and expression process for women and girls of the African diaspora in Durham, NC. We are pleased to announce that Kenya Harris, Gumbo YaYa's Intern, will lead this session along with two youth participants Bryonna and Nadirah.
The 12-week process, Gumbo YaYa, began January 4 and as is now gearing up to enter its third month with a series of performance workshops that will lead up to the final performance, March 29. Gumbo YaYa continues to incorporate methods for growth,expression, and community-building to actualize individual and artistic processes. The theme of this session is "Love is Radical: Approaches to Mothering, Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing)".
The "sista circle" uses improvisation, dance, journaling, meditation, storytelling, photography, theater, poetry, and music to explore the intergenerational relationships among black mothers, daughters, and sisters.
All sessions, materials, performances, and discussions are free for participants and audience members. Gumbo YaYa will provide child care and dinner during every "sista circle". Participants do not have to be students, or affiliated with any particular institution to participate.
Ebony Noelle Golden, Creative Director of Gumbo YaYa thanks the North Carolina Humanities Council, SpiritHouse-NC, and Healing with CAARE, Inc. for their generous sponsorship.
Nancy "Mama Nia" Wilson, Executive Director of SpiritHouse-NC said, "We are really looking forward to hosting Gumbo YaYa. This process will definitely help to continue conversations black women and girls are having about how we relate to each other. We hope this process helps mothers, daughters, and sisters strengthen their relationships with each other and the larger communities."
For more information about Gumbo YaYa visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com, or email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com.
-- Ebony N. Golden, MFA, MA Creative Director bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Hire Betty's Daughter for your arts consulting needs! "creating radical expressiveness in community"
Check out...Gumbo Yaya/or this is why we speak in tongues "Creative Healing and Expression for Women of the Diaspora" www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Gumbo YaYa "Sista Circle" Continues with Feb. 15 with "Dancing with Our Spirits: Understanding Our Lives Through Rhythm" with Mabinti Shabu (3:00-5:30)
Contact: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Media Alert bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Durham, NC- Feb. 12, 2009
The North Carolina Humanities Council and SpiritHouse-NC sponsor a creative healing and expression process for women and girls of the African diaspora in Durham, NC. We are pleased to announce that Mabinti Shabu of The Magic of African Rhythm will lead the Gumbo YaYa Sisters in a 4-session choreolab that will inform and enhance the participants individual lives and craft the choreography for the final community performance, March 29.
The 12-week process, Gumbo YaYa, began January 4 and as is now in its second month. Gumbo YaYa continues to incorporate methods for growth,expression, and community-building to actualize individual and artistic processes. The theme is "Love is Radical: Approaches to Mothering, Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing)".
Up-coming Sister Circles Include
Feb. 22, "Meditation and Creative Visioning: Building Intergenerational Bridges Among Black Women and Girls"
The "sista circle" uses improvisation, dance, journaling, meditation, storytelling, photography, theater, poetry, and music to explore the intergenerational relationships between black mothers, daughters, and sisters. The "sista circle" series culminates in multimedia theater performance March 29.
All sessions, materials, performances, and discussions are free for participants and audience members. Gumbo YaYa will provide child care and dinner during every "sista circle". Participants do not have to be students, or affiliated with any particular institution to participate.
Ebony Noelle Golden, Creative Director of Gumbo YaYa thanks the North Carolina Humanities Council, SpiritHouse-NC, and Healing with CAARE, Inc. for their generous sponsorship.
Nancy "Mama Nia" Wilson, Executive Director of SpiritHouse-NC said, "We are really looking forward to hosting Gumbo YaYa. This process will definitely help to continue conversations black women and girls are having about how we relate to each other. We hope this process helps mothers, daughters, and sisters strengthen their relationships with each other and the larger communities."
For more information about Gumbo YaYa visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com, or email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com.
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative is now accepting poetry, residency, and performance bookings for Black History, Women's History, and National Poetry Months.
If your organization, non or for profit, is located in New York and California, as well as in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington D.C, you are in luck! Poets & Writers, an organization dedicated to bringing literary arts to communities across the country, will help pay the honorarium. Just visit http://www.pw.org/funding for more information.
Here is a short list of what I can offer:
1. Residencies: Poetry, Spoken Word, Performance Poetry, Experimental and Community-Based Performance 2. Readings: Poetry, New Works, Performance Works (original works) 3. Workshops: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs 4. Combos: Performance and Workshop 5. Teacher/ Artist Trainings: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs
Visit http://bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com/a-poetics-of-process.php for teaching philosophy and sample lesson plan.
Bio: Ebony Noelle Golden is the daughter of Pearl Glover, Bertha Sims and Betty Sims. She is a native of Houston, TX. Ebony holds a BA in English Literature and Poetry from Texas A & M University an MFA in Poetry from American University and a MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Ebony is an artist and cultural worker who has been awarded grants from the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fund for Southern Communities, North Carolina A & T University and New York University. She has been published by Black Issues and Books Review, American Book Review, Obsidian, Pluck, and Third World Press. Ebony serves as the creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, a boutique arts consulting group, based in NYC and NC. Her current projects include, “Gumbo Ya/Ya or This is Why We Speak in Tongues”, Images: for Younger SiStars, The Community Writing Intensive, i hear you breathing for me/ an embodied blues for meagan williams (multi-media performance) and “again, the water carriers” (a full length book of poetry). Ebony’s work is informed by her ancestral and spiritual family, guides, and homes, primarily. She can be reached at bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com or ww.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com.
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative looks forward to working with you to create "radical expressiveness in community".
Yours truly in the arts,
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative is now accepting poetry, residency, and performance bookings for Black History, Women's History, and National Poetry Months.
If your organization, non or for profit, is located in New York and California, as well as in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington D.C, you are in luck! Poets & Writers, an organization dedicated to bringing literary arts to communities across the country, will help pay the honorarium. Just visit http://www.pw.org/funding for more information.
Here is a short list of what I can offer:
1. Residencies: Poetry, Spoken Word, Performance Poetry, Experimental and Community-Based Performance 2. Readings: Poetry, New Works, Performance Works (original works) 3. Workshops: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs 4. Combos: Performance and Workshop 5. Teacher/ Artist Trainings: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs
Visit http://bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com/a-poetics-of-process.php for teaching philosophy and sample lesson plan.
Bio: Ebony Noelle Golden is the daughter of Pearl Glover, Bertha Sims and Betty Sims. She is a native of Houston, TX. Ebony holds a BA in English Literature and Poetry from Texas A & M University an MFA in Poetry from American University and a MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Ebony is an artist and cultural worker who has been awarded grants from the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fund for Southern Communities, North Carolina A & T University and New York University. She has been published by Black Issues and Books Review, American Book Review, Obsidian, Pluck, and Third World Press. Ebony serves as the creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, a boutique arts consulting group, based in NYC and NC. Her current projects include, “Gumbo Ya/Ya or This is Why We Speak in Tongues”, Images: for Younger SiStars, The Community Writing Intensive, i hear you breathing for me/ an embodied blues for meagan williams (multi-media performance) and “again, the water carriers” (a full length book of poetry). Ebony’s work is informed by her ancestral and spiritual family, guides, and homes, primarily. She can be reached at bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com or ww.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com.
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative looks forward to working with you to create "radical expressiveness in community".
Yours truly in the arts,
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative is now accepting poetry, residency, and performance bookings for Black History, Women's History, and National Poetry Months.
If your organization, non or for profit, is located in New York and California, as well as in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington D.C, you are in luck! Poets & Writers, an organization dedicated to bringing literary arts to communities across the country, will help pay the honorarium. Just visit http://www.pw.org/funding for more information.
Here is a short list of what I can offer:
1. Residencies: Poetry, Spoken Word, Performance Poetry, Experimental and Community-Based Performance 2. Readings: Poetry, New Works, Performance Works (original works) 3. Workshops: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs 4. Combos: Performance and Workshop 5. Teacher/ Artist Trainings: 1 hr, 1 1/2 hrs
Visit http://bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com/a-poetics-of-process.php for teaching philosophy and sample lesson plan.
Bio: Ebony Noelle Golden is the daughter of Pearl Glover, Bertha Sims and Betty Sims. She is a native of Houston, TX. Ebony holds a BA in English Literature and Poetry from Texas A & M University an MFA in Poetry from American University and a MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Ebony is an artist and cultural worker who has been awarded grants from the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fund for Southern Communities, North Carolina A & T University and New York University. She has been published by Black Issues and Books Review, American Book Review, Obsidian, Pluck, and Third World Press. Ebony serves as the creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, a boutique arts consulting group, based in NYC and NC. Her current projects include, “Gumbo Ya/Ya or This is Why We Speak in Tongues”, Images: for Younger SiStars, The Community Writing Intensive, i hear you breathing for me/ an embodied blues for meagan williams (multi-media performance) and “again, the water carriers” (a full length book of poetry). Ebony’s work is informed by her ancestral and spiritual family, guides, and homes, primarily. She can be reached at bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com or ww.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com.
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative looks forward to working with you to create "radical expressiveness in community".
Yours truly in the arts,
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
"Mother. Ourselves" Interactive Workshop led by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and
Zachari Curtis (3:00-5:30)
Contact: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Media Alert bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com www.bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Durham, NC- Jan. 28, 2009
The North Carolina Humanities Council and SpiritHouse-NC sponsor a creative healing and expression process for women and girls of the African diaspora Durham, NC. The 12-week process, Gumbo YaYa, began January 4 and will continue to March 29 with a creative performance. Now in its second month, Gumbo Yaya continues to incorporate methods for growth,expression, and community-building to actualize individual and artistic processes. The theme is "Love is Radical: Approaches to Mothering, Daughter(ing), and Sister(ing)".
Up-coming Sister Circles Include
Feb. 1, "Mother. Ourselves." with Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Zachari Curtis. Feb. 8, "In The Beginning Was Her Word: Empowering Women One Story At A Time", with Dr. Anjail Rashida Ahmad.Feb. 15, "The Healing Practice of Dance" Feb. 22, "Meditation and Creative Visioning: Building Intergenerational Bridges Among Black Women and Girls"
The "sista circle" uses methods such as improvisation, dance, journaling, meditation, storytelling, photography, theater, poetry, and music to explore the intergenerational relationships between black mothers, daughters, and sisters. The "sista circle" series culminates in multimedia theater performance at the end of March.
All sessions, materials, performances, and discussions are free for participants and audience members. Gumbo YaYa will provide child care and dinner during every "sista circle". Participants do not have to be students, or affiliated with any particular institution to participate. Ebony Noelle Golden, Creative Director of Gumbo YaYa thanks the North Carolina Humanities Council, SpiritHouse-NC, and Healing with CAARE, Inc. for their generous sponsorship. Nancy "Mama Nia" Wilson, Executive Director of SpiritHouse-NC said, "We are really looking forward to hosting Gumbo YaYa. This process will definitely help to continue conversations black women and girls are having about how we relate to each other. We hope this process helps mothers, daughters, and sisters strengthen their relationships with each other and the larger communities."
For more information about Gumbo YaYa visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com, or email bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com.
-- Ebony N. Golden, MFA, MA Creative Director bettysdaughterarts.synthasite.com
Hire Betty's Daughter for your arts consulting needs! "creating radical expressiveness in community"
Check out...Gumbo Yaya/or this is why we speak in tongues "Creative Healing and Expression for Women of the Diaspora" www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Last week's session "Brilliant Tomorrows: Sister(ing) as Communal Creative Performance" was a success! We had 20 women in attendance as we engaged diverse ways of practicing sisterhood.
This sunday features an extended gourd making and percussion workshop, HandWork to HeartWork" led by Connie Leeper of Kannapolis, NC. The session will begin at 2:30 and end 6:30. All programs happen at Healing with CAARE, Inc on 214 Broadway St in Durham, NC.
We are also pleased to announce that two of our youth, Nadirah and Bryonna, will lead us in a meditation and visualization activity to start the workshop.
As always, dinner and child care will be provided.
Additionally, please see the link to more pictures of the Everlasting Life workshop from our second week. Thank you sister Courtney Powell-X for the photography work.
Below you will find upcoming Sister Circle information. Please forward to Black women and girls you think may be interested in coming.
As with all circles, refreshments and child care are provided. For more information, visit www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com or bettysdaughterarts@gmail.com
Jan. 18. “Brilliant Tomorrows: Sister(ing) as Communal Creative Performance” Ebony Noelle Golden
Workshop Description- How are black women taught to sister? What are the some of the rites, rituals, and performances of sistering? How can we honor the space and practice of sistering? In this session, participants will engage in poetry, performance, music, and movement activities that help us create a vocabulary for active, present, and radical sistering.
The workshop is informed by the work and scholarship of Alice Coltrane, Romare Bearden, Ntozake Shange, Augosto Boal, Anna Deveare Smith, Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Soyini Madison, among others.
Jan. 25 “HandWork to HeartWork” Gourd Making & Percussion Connie Leeper
On the surface, this workshop is about music and gourd making. On a deeper level, it is more about connection…connection to ourselves, playfulness, imagination, culture, health and community. No experience necessary. Must be willing to be open, welcoming & ready to learn and teach. This workshop only requires that you bring your whole self into a process of intentional creativity.
Feb. 1 “Mother. Ourselves.” Alexis Pauline Gumbs & Zachari Curtis What happens when a life’s work stretches to include many lifetimes and multiple bodies? What models of communication allow those of us living in the flesh on this plane to access the imperatives of ancestors and the unborn? This exploration of the practice of spiritual daughterhood demonstrates and investigates radical connection as a calling and a strategy for healing and action.
Presented by three spiritual daughters of Durham visionary artist, educator and now ancestor Nayo Watkins, “Mother. Ourselves.” is both a performative tribute to Mama Nayo’s life and energy and a model for communication across the presumed limits of life itself. Mama Nayo understood the necessity of the creative process to radical political struggle and healing. This is how she lives with us now; reaching forward and back, moving away and drawing us together.
Time, distance, dis(ease), death, scarcity if asserted as essential, linear, terminal, logical, confine individuals and disrupt communication across seemingly impermeable barriers. What we know already is that we already have everything we need in order to reclaim, remember, revision ourselves, together, free. As Nayo put it, “You already know all you need to know… It’s in your bones.”
Feb. 8 “In The Beginning Was Her Word: Empowering Women One Story At A Time”
Dr. Anjail Rashida Ahmad
Over the millennia, women have held societies together word of mouth, hand to hand and vision by vision simply by the words issued from their tongues. The word or the power of one’s intention spoken into existence is the essence of who we are and can be a force that drives the unfolding of our life experiences. This speaking often takes the shape of stories both narrative and poetic. It’s the power of one’s own story articulated and shared that can have a most transforming effect throughout our societies both private and public.
In this workshop, Dr. Ahmad will lead us in uncovering the essence of the words lying at the bottom of our own hearts and use them to formulate our stories/poems/womanifestas-what desires to be spoken that has not yet been uttered.
Participants should bring a photograph of themselves preferably from the remote past. Use black and white if you have it or copy with a black and white copier. Together we will write autobiographically/biographically, herstorically inspired poems. Come prepared to be reaffirmed, to search-out the words and images, to gather and shape them and to share that which has the power to make us whole.
Get Hip and Get Your Necessary Dose of Gumbo YaYa!
January 5, 2009 –A New Year and new process to get the job done On this new show in the New Year, we talk about upcoming events and setting goals for 2009. Phyllis Coley, editor of Spectacular magazine and Ebony Noelle Golden creative director of Gumbo Yaya gives us a lot of new information to think about. Phyllis shares info on the upcoming Jan 31 celebration of Martin Luther King in Durham. Ebony tells us about the weekly sisterhood circles that she is guiding. Each of my guests use a process unique to them that I know you will find interesting and can be used as a guide to strengthen your own goals in 2009. Join the conversation and send me your goals that you have set for 2009.
Visit at www.richardbrownshow.com to listen to and download the podcast.
Visit Gumbo YaYa at www.iamnotaproject.wordpress.com
Because We Still Are Here: Radical Women of Color in Solidarity with Palestine
Mai'a Williams and Alexis Pauline Gumbs invite you to participate in a new website documenting and continuting the solidarity of women of color in the United States with the people of Palestine.
email brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com with any statements of solidarity or documentations of solidarity in action that you would like to share. below is an a excerpt from the site. www.becausewestillarehere.wordpress.com
we still are here
with our words and with our actions.
on January 3rd, 2009 UBUNTU a women of color/survivor led coalition in Durham North Carolina organized a vigil in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Here are some captioned images from the event.
Rachael Derello, the organizer who first voiced the need for a vigil in Durham, sings "We Shall Be Released"
Manju Rajendran, one of the main organizers who MC'd the event reminds the crowd of the need for aid and medical supplies inside blockaded Gaza.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Racheal Derello and Kriti Sharma (speakers from UBUNTU) listen as Laylah Haddad describes the violence her family is experiencing in Gaza due to the Isreali bombings.
Laylah Haddad told the crowd that her cousins witnessed children bombed to death while playing dice in front of their home in Gaza.
Theresa El-Amin formerly of SNCC and currently organizing with Solidarity reminded the crowd that the City of Durham had once divested from all connections to Apartheid South Africa and must now divest from the Isreali Aparthied state.
Nadeen Bir and Kifu Faruq hold signs reminding us that "Until Palestine is Free, None of Us Are Free"...and connecting the occupation of Palestine and the occupation of Iraq.
Fall in love with an ever growing selection of interactive workshops developed by the UBUNTU Arts Collective. Get inspired, invite us over to create with you, or use these ideas and tell us how it goes.
Also feel free to share your workshop and exercise ideas.
