Two big announcements:

We are ecstatic to share that we’ve been named a 2023 Lab Artist through Chicago Dancemakers Forum! As a result, we’ll receive financial support, professional mentoring, and studio space through the coming year to help us complete and present our performance World After This One, and to continue our research and collaboration with Black artists in Puerto Rico. Congrats to Enneréssa Davis, Winfield RedCloud WoundedEye, and Zachory Nichol, who share this honor with us. This announcement also includes a call to action, so please consider supporting the causes these artists have chosen to highlight—including our choice, the Chicago Torture Justice Center.

Mid October we’ll travel to Saratoga Springs, New York for our first ever residency at Yaddo! We’ll spend about three weeks revisiting World After This One, with a focus on tightening up the praise dance movement section, and experimenting with the delivery of the spoken elements. After the piece’s reception at La Goyco as part of Navigating Blackness/Navegando lo Negro this summer, we’re excited to have some intentional time to incorporate what we’ve learned into the larger piece.

Before we leave for Yaddo we’ll return for a third visit to the Creating New Anchors course at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Work to discuss the role of youth advocates in demanding police and prison abolition. (Thanks as always to Sharlyn Grace for having us!) We’ll also lead an Intro to Prison Abolition workshop for staff at First Defense Legal Aid, helping them re-root their advocacy work in the end of the criminal justice system.

Thank you sincerely for all the support you’ve provided us along this journey. It’s helped to make some of our biggest dreams come true. See you next month!

BH