651 ARTS and DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks present Roots Party Zine Release!
Join multi-disciplinary artist Edisa Weeks in the journey of making 1,865 roots out of paper and twine, for the installation and performance of 3 RITES: Liberty. 1865 represents the last year of legalized chattel slavery in America.
651 ARTS in collaboration with Edisa Weeks/DELIRIOUS Dances will also be releasing the Roots Party Zine, which is the first of four zines about the 3 RITES project.
Come and go as you please and engage in whatever capacity you feel comfortable – make a root, enjoy a meal, participate in and/or listen to the conversation, purchase a zine!
SCHEDULE
- 12pm-2pm — Root Making
- 2pm — Food & Drinks
- 3pm-4pm — Roots Party Zine release + conversation with Edisa Weeks
Attending the event is free and children are welcome!
Food by: Royal Rib House
Roots Party Zine = $25
About the 3 RITES Project
3 RITES features three interactive performance rituals that interrogate why life, liberty and happiness were included as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence; who has access to these rights; and how the rights manifest in the body. Since 2017 Edisa Weeks has been hosting Roots Parties which are a making a conversation space. People are invited to join Edisa in the journey of making 1,865 roots for the installation and performance of 3 RITES: Liberty. 1865 represents the last year of legalized chattel slavery in America.
The 3 RITES zines are a limited-edition art project. Each zine is assembled into an accordion fold that includes photos, drawings, and writing contributions by Thomas DeFrantz (Happiness), Jerome Dent (Liberty), Jasmine Johnson (Roots Party), and James Scruggs (Life). The Roots Party Zine includes images from various Roots Parties, and the essay “leaving don’t mean gone” by Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson. The essay reflects on the release from prison of the man who murdered her brother, and her family’s involvement in advocating for his clemency.
ABOUT THE ARTIST – Edisa Weeks
Edisa Weeks (she, her) with her company DELIRIOUS Dances, creates multimedia interactive work that explores our deepest desires, darkest fears and sweetest dreams. She seeks to erase the barriers between art and life, between performance space and audience space, and between mediums. Edisa is a 2022 Harlem Stage Emerging Artist and a 2022 Creative Capital awardee. Her work has been performed in a variety of venues including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, and The Kennedy Center; as well as in swimming pools, storefront windows, senior centers, sidewalks and living rooms, including living rooms in Berlin, Germany, as part of Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s 50th anniversary celebration. Weeks grew up in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Brooklyn, NY, and has a BA from Brown University, and received a full fellowship to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where she obtained an MFA in choreography. She has had the joy of performing with Annie–B Parson’s Big Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Dance Brazil, Homer Avila, Jane Comfort, Jon Kinzel, Muna Tseng, Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel Performance Group, Sally Silvers, Spencer/Colton Dance, among others. In addition, she danced in the 2016 Bessie award-winning performance by The Skeleton Architecture. She is on the Board of Directors for Movement Research, and is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Queens College CUNY, where she teaches modern technique, improvisation, choreography, the collaborative process and mentors emerging artists. Learn more at deliriousdances.com.
Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson
Jasmine Elizabeth Johnson is a scholar-practitioner and an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work explores the politics of Black movement including dance, performance and diasporic travel. Johnson’s interdisciplinary research and teaching are situated at the intersection of diaspora theory, dance and performance studies, ethnography, and Black feminisms. Johnson has received a number of fellowships and grants including those from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her first book project, Rhythm Nation: West African Dance and the Politics of Diaspora, is a transnational ethnography on the industry of West African dance. Her work has been published by The Black Scholar, The Drama Review, ASAP Journal, Dance Research Journal, Africa and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, Theatre Survey, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, Aster(ix) and elsewhere. She serves as a Board Director for the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance.
About the 3 RITES Zines
Concept: Edisa Weeks
Creative Producer: Marýa Wethers
Community Engagement Coordinator: Rebecca Fitton (2017-2021), Maya Simone Z (2021 – current)
Graphic Design: Natalia Viteri
Writing Editor: Nina Angela Mercer
Printing: Smartpress
Fonts: Velvetyne Type Foundry
The writing and publication of the 3 RITES Zines are made possible by the National Performance Network (NPN) Documentation & Storytelling Initiative; the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University through a Spring 2020 MANCC residency and Embedded Writer and Commissioning Programs, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and, additional support from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Durst Organization, and the generosity of individuals.