THREE RITES: Liberty | Photo credit: Lance J. Reha
Buy Tickets: Thu, Oct 5 Buy Tickets: Fri, Oct 6
In this solo performance installation, Edisa Weeks is connected like a puppet to objects that have informed the Black experience in America, alternating between white face, black face and visceral dance to question what liberty means.
THREE RITES: Liberty is an installation which will ultimately be comprised of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five roots, representing the year that legalized chattel slavery ended in America. The roots are made of paper and twine and dangle from the ceiling to the floor. The audience physically separates and moves through the roots to find open spaces containing reflections on liberty. For example: hanging retablos with portraits and quotes by whistle blowers such as Edward Snowden and Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and a totem pole of TV monitors with video of various civic protests in America. The installation includes a performance by Edisa Weeks where she is connected like a puppet to objects that have informed the Black experience in America, alternating between white face, black face and visceral dance to question what liberty means.
General Admission: Seated
Edisa Weeks is a Brooklyn, NY-based choreographer, educator, and founder of Delirious Dances. She creates multi-media interdisciplinary work that merges theater with dance to explore our deepest desires, darkest fears, and sweetest dreams. Her work has been performed at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Emory University, Inside/Out at Jacob's Pillow, Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, Harlem Stage, The Kennedy Center, The Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, Materials for the Arts, The Mermaid Parade, The National Black Arts Festival, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Summerstages Dance Festival, as well as swimming pools, storefront windows, senior centers, sidewalks, and living rooms. She grew up in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Brooklyn, NY. She 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 pleasure of performing with Annie–B Parsons Big Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Dance Brazil, Jane Comfort, Jon Kinzel, Muna Tseng, Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel Performance Group, Sally Silvers, and Spencer/Colton Dance, among others. She teaches improvisation, technique, and choreography at Queens College.
Creative Advisor James Scruggs is a writer, performer, producer and arts administrator who creates large scale topical, theatrical, multi-media work usually focused on inequity or gender politics. He was awarded a 2016 NJSCA Fellowship for artistic excellence, a 2016 Creative Capital Grant, and a 2015 MAP Grant to create 3/Fifths, a piece exploring race and racism today. 3/Fifths was a “Must See” production in The NY Times; Timout stated: “The insidious brilliance of SupremacyLand lies in the way that Scruggs, co-opts the conventions of immersive theater to deliver a powerful message.”It premiered and ran for the month of May, 2017 at 3LD Art & Technology Center in NYC. He conceived, wrote and produced 3/Fifths. It was inspired by Disposable Men, his 2005 multi-media solo performance work, which juxtaposed images from Hollywood monster movies with the harsh reality of the historical treatment of black men in America. It was produced by HERE Arts Center. Previous theatrical works include Touchscape, An Emotional Striptease; Tickets To Manhood and more recently Deepest Man, an experimental work with a 3D holographic projection surface exploring freediving as a cure for grief. He’s a consultant and Fieldwork facilitator for The Field, and is also currently a Professional Development Program facilitator for Creative Capital. James Scruggs has a BFA in Film from School of Visual Arts.
THREE RITES: Liberty is produced as part of the BRIClab Residency. BRIClab is a commissioning and residency program that offers local artists time and space to explore and expand the possibilities of their work in music, dance, theater and multi-disciplinary performance. Work-in-progress showings, presented with moderated artist-audience dialogues, open artists' process and creativity to BRIC's diverse public.
Venue Information:
The intimate, flexible studio space within BRIC House is dedicated to emerging and mid-career artists, with an audience capacity of 50-75 for rehearsals and performances in a workshop setting.
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