FRIDAY, APRIL 26
On day three, practice radical self-care with Harriet’s Apothecary, catch Phillip Howze’s play, take a walk with artist/historian Kamau Ware around Fort Greene, and express yourself at an open mic with Mahogany L. Browne. Click here to learn more about the artists, panelists, and other participants.
Healing Justice Workshop with Harriet's Apothecary
Trauma and violence, proximity to hostility and oppression—whether imposed directly or indirectly—impact our ability to live meaningful and sustainable lives. This introductory and interactive healing justice workshop will explore the question: what is the role of healing, wellness, and radical self care in building and sustaining ourselves individually and collectively? Come learn and share tools and practices to cultivate our well-being and resilience.
Reservations for Healing Justice Workshops with Harriet's Apothecary are currently at capacity. Waitlists will begin one hour prior to the event at BRIC House.
2:30-7PM
Teen Justice Summit
Refreshments and dinner for participants provided. Groups and attendees can RSVP for each event here.
| 2:30-4PM | Know Your Rights Workshops Through interactive conversations and workshops, learn about your constitutional and civil rights, along with how to navigate various legal issues, including how to find out if you are impacted by New York City’s Gang Database and what to do if you are stopped by the police. Presented in collaboration with Legal Aid NYC. To learn more about the NYPD's Gang Database, watch BRIC TV's #BHeard documentary here. |
| 4-7PM |
Screen Printing |
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4:30-6PM |
Town Hall Sometimes only your peers can truly understand what it’s like to live as a teenager, especially when it comes to understanding your place in the world and finding ways to make your voice heard loud and clear. Get real and dig deep with friends old and new about what justice means to you. Moderated by poet and activist Najee Omar. |
5PM & 9PM
Self Portraits
By Phillip Howze
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
A man on a mountaintop confronts the fear of his own mortality. A mother instructs her son to be more careful walking the streets. A video shares a terrifying truth. Self Portraits is a site-driven theatrical event made up of intimate, experiential moments. This inventive new play reframes the political as personal to reflect on the unpredictable state of the Black body in America. Suspended at the edge of confrontation and contemplation, beauty and brutality, together these theatrical portraits share an expansive vision to provoke personal journeys towards collective possibility.
Space is limited and reservations are required to attend Self Portraits.
6:30PM
Kamau Ware, featuring poetry by Cyrus Aaron: Who Is Fort Greene? | WALK
Join artist and historian Kamau Ware, founder of the Black Gotham Experience, on a walk that explores a neighborhood defined by flux. Ware will lead participants on a 90-minute journey through Fort Greene, traversing both physical space and time, informed by the often unseen stories of Black residents from the 19th century to the present. These walks are part of the larger project Who is Fort Greene? which offers an interlocking set of artistic experiments that create a visual story about this area. Along with poetry by Cyrus Aaron, Ware uses historical research and interviews with contemporary and once residents as source material for walks, photographic portraits, a poem cycle, video, and public discussion, all engaging with the title’s central question.
Reservations for Who is Fort Greene? WALK are currently at capacity. Contact NSmith@bricartsmedia.org to join the waitlist.
6:30-8:30PM
Collaborative Podcasting on Justice
What kind of justice would you like to see in the world? How could someone else better understand your lived experience? Join us and make your voice heard during our collaborative podcasting sessions, when we invite festival goers to share their stories, thoughts, and experiences around themes of justice and empathy through a brief interview.
7-9PM
Open Mic: Voices of the Next Generation
Are you a singer, poet, or musician? Step up, the mic is yours! Perform and enjoy creative and inspiring live performances that will propel you into action in your community. Featuring NYC Teen Poet Laureate Camryn Bruno and youth poets from Urban Word NYC. Curated & hosted by poet, author, and activist Mahogany L. Browne. Youth ages 12-24 are encouraged to perform.
7:30PM
Black TV Matters: The SOUL! of Today
This performance and conversation with Greg Tate, Sophia Dawson, and Kendra Foster explore how artists across disciplines use art as a strategy for social change and how independent media amplifies their message and documents the movements. With a nod to SOUL!, a 1970s WNET variety-talk show featuring African-American art, community and culture that was also a platform for political expression and the fight for social justice, the conversation will be captured by and aired on Brooklyn Free Speech, BRIC’s Emmy Award-winning community TV and podcast network.
Ongoing
The Portrait is Political
The recognition of the individual is the first step in justice; for this reason, we curated The Portrait is Political, a series of three exhibitions related by their unique deployment of the genre of portraiture to make a political impact. A solo exhibition of small-scale, circular and triangular panel paintings by noted Brooklyn-based artist Jaishri Abichandani, Jasmine Blooms At Night, portrays South Asian American feminists in the local community who are making a large social impact. These jewel-like paintings are elaborated with decorative elements drawn from South Asian visual traditions. Dear Los Angeles, Love, Brooklyn, is a selection of photographs by Texas Isaiah, a visual narrator from Brooklyn, that explores gender, race, and sexuality by inviting the sitters to participate in the photographic process. The invitation constructs a space to begin and continue collaborative visual dialogues about legacy, self-empowerment, emotional justice, protection, and topophilia (the affective bond between people and place). The Other Is You: Brooklyn Queer Portraiture, curated by Liz Collins with assistant curators Anna Parisi and Sol Nova, is an exhibition of portraits by some 37 Brooklyn LGBTQ artists, displayed salon style on the large center wall of BRIC’s gallery. In addition, Collins, who is both an artist and designer, designed a gathering space/viewing lounge in the center of the Gallery. This exhibition contains nudity.
Future Historical Society HQ
The Future Historical Society is a community storytelling project created by a multi-generational collective of Fort Greene neighbors, and led by artist Yazmany Arboleda. At businesses, churches, and parks throughout Fort Greene, personal histories of this community come to life through podcasts, performances, and visual installations created by FHS members. The stories illuminate untold histories of the neighborhood, while envisioning a more connected, interdependent future. Stop by the HQ to pick up your map, meet FHS members, and learn more about the groups' creative process. The Future Historical Society is commissioned by BRIC. To learn more, visit bricartsmedia.org/fhs.
Macon Reed: A Pressing Conference
Focused on providing truth in a world of fake news, A Pressing Conference is an immersive installation, participatory project, and resource guide for those interested in resisting and responding to the current political crisis. The installation is based on the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House and recreates the podium, presidential backdrop, flags, columns, microphones and seating chart. Performances and readings will take place throughout the festival, and the public is also invited to step up to the podium to share visions of what news briefings might sound like from their perspective. We encourage visitors to share their thoughts and photos on social media, by including #apressingconference in the caption.
Laura Hadden & Tennessee Watson: Wage/Working
Wage/Working explores income inequality and the concept of wage by asking participants to spend one dollar to hear a dollar’s worth of a worker’s time. A jukebox holds a collection of audio portraits of individuals reflecting on labor and compensation. Each of those portraits are edited to a length which corresponds with the amount of time it takes the profiled worker to earn $1. Those who earn the least are given the most time to speak.
Harriet's Apothecary Healing Space
A space for self-guided reflection and sanctuary, with materials and instructions provided by Harriet's Apothecary.
The BRIC OPEN is an arts and ideas festival that converges around BRIC’s core values of creativity, inclusion, participation, and community, bringing people together to radically imagine a more equitable, liberated future. This year’s festival theme, JUSTICE, interrogates the possibilities of justice and empathy and creates space to find freedom in self-expression and to witness others in their full humanity. Click here to learn more about the artists, panelists, and other participants.
BRIC OPEN Sponsor:
Venue Information:
BRIC House is Brooklyn’s cultural living room: a 40,000 square foot multi-disciplinary arts and media complex in the former Strand Theatre, where emerging and established artists can create work that deepens their practice and engages the diverse communities of the borough.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org
BRIC is committed to welcoming people of all abilities. BRIC's main entrance, located on Rockwell Street, is fully accessible. In addition the main floor of BRIC House has an accessible, all-gender bathroom. The BRIC Media Center, located on the 2nd floor, is accessible via elevator. The Gallery level is accessible via a wheelchair lift. Portable FM assistive listening devices are available for programs on the Stoop and in the Ballroom upon request. To make a specific access request, or to let us know other ways we can provide you with a welcoming experience, please contact Benno Orlinsky at borlinsky@bricartsmedia.org or (718) 683-5637.