Content Warning: This program contains explicit language.
On January 30, 2021, the Frye Art Museum celebrated the opening of Anastacia-Reneé: (Don’t be Absurd) Alice in Parts. The program included a virtual tour of the exhibition, followed by the presentation of a choreopoem co-presented in partnership with the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Following the performance, Dani Tirrell, Programming Curator at CD Forum, moderated a conversation with the artists on the themes of the exhibition and performance.
Inspired by the exhibition’s central character Alice Metropolis as well as the spirit and work of Audre Lorde, the choreopoem is read by a chorus of seven artists and poets selected by Anastacia-Reneé: librecht baker, Kamari Bright , Randy Ford, Reagan Jackson, Jessica Rycheal, Imani Sims, and Storme Webber.
The choreopoem is written by Anastacia-Reneé and incorporates many of the poems included in the exhibition. The choreopoem also includes brief excerpts from and was inspired by Audre Lorde’s Need! A Chorale for Black Woman Voices, a poetic text written by Lorde in 1979 that was meant to be read aloud as a discussion and organizing tool among Black men and women. The term choreopoem was first coined in 1975 by American writer Ntozake Shange in a description of her work, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which also serves as a touchstone for the artist and this exhibition.
Time stamps:
Virtual Exhibition Tour: 22:20
Choreopoem: 31:05
Moderated Conversation with Dani Tirrell: 43:42
About the Choreopoem artists
librecht baker authored vetiver (Finishing Line Press), journeyed with Radar Productions’ Sister Spit 2020 tour, and is an English professor. baker’s full-length play, “Taciturn Beings,” was a semi-finalist for the 43rd annual Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and part of The Vagrancy’s Blossoming: A New Play Reading Series, 2019. Other writings appear in ACCOLADES: A Women Who Submit Anthology, Cultural Weekly, Solace: Writing Refuge, & LGBTQ Women of Color, and other publications, but can also be experienced via Women Who Submit’s IGTV for their ACCOLADES online reading series and The Vagrancy's "The Life and Dead Of," written by June Carryl, via The Vagrancy's webpage.
Kamari Bright is an emerging creative with poetry featured in “NILVX: A Book of Magic,” “2018 Jack Straw Writers Anthology,” “Moss,” and Bellwether Arts Week. Her videopoems have screened at 8th International Video Poetry Festival, Seattle Black Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival and the Film & Videopoetry Symposium. The 2018 Jack Straw Writers fellow is working on a manuscript connecting the influence of Christian folklore on present-day misogyny, and fundraising for The People’s School in Ghana.
Randy Ford is a Seattle-born dancer, choreographer, actor, and activist. She has been featured in Velocity Dance Center’s Next Fest NW, CD Forum’s Showing Out: Contemporary Black Choreographers (2016, 2018), Bumbershoot Festival, Birthday Girl Series #5, Legendary Children at Seattle Art Museum, and Beacon Hill Block Party, among other community events. Identifying as a Black non-binary Transfemme, her work continues the conversation about and centering intersectionality. When not onstage she's a program leader through ArtsCorps at Dimmit Middle School and Meeker Middle School. She's a guest teacher at Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a MixxedFit Instructor at the Northwest African American Museum.
Reagan Jackson is the Program Director for Young Women Empowered. She is a multi-genre writer, activist, podcast host and producer and international educator with an abiding love of justice, spirituality, and creating community. Her published works include three collections of poetry: God, Hair, Love, and America, Love and Guatemala, and Summoning Unicorns and two children’s books Coco LaSwish A Fish From A Different Rainbow and Coco LaSwish: When Rainbows Go Blue. Her latest book Still Here: A southend mixtape from an unexpected journalist (Menrva Press 2021) is available for pre-order on her website www.reaganjackson.com.
Jessica Rycheal is a multi-disciplinary artist and creative director based in Seattle, Washington. Bearing the influence of Southern Black culture and tradition, Rycheal's creative practice juxtaposes intuitive storytelling and historical context to honor the Individual and collective humanity of Blackness. Her work explores themes of culture, identity, and intergenerational healing through the mediums of creative writing, portraiture, and public speaking.
Imani Sims is an alchemist and author. She believes in the power of community ritual and performance art, in public space, to shift social narratives around the magic of blackness, queerness, and femme identity. Over the past two decades Imani has collaborated with community organizations and independent artists to deliver arts programming all over the nation. Her heart soul love work is elevating the voices of QTPOC folk in public and virtual space. Sims' book (A)live Heart is available on Sibling Rivalry Press.
Storme Webber is a Two Spirit Sugpiaq/Black/Choctaw poet and interdisciplinary artist. Her work is cross genre, incorporating text, performance, audio and altar installation, archival photographs and collaboration in order to engage with ideas of history, lineage, gender, race and sexuality. Her practice explores liminal identities, survivance and decolonization, and does so in a blues/jazz-based experimental manner, often incorporating acapella vocals. She has received numerous honors and residencies; including from Hedgebrook, Ragdale and Banff Arts Centre, and recently was honored with the James W Ray Award. Her first solo museum exhibition, Casino: A Palimpsest, was presented at Frye Art Museum in Seattle.
Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas is a nonprofit organization solely dedicated to presenting emerging Black arts, artists, and ideas in the Seattle area. We believe in the value of community, creativity, identity and passion. These values serve as our strategic frame and guide day-to-day operations and program decisions.