Premiere of 20/20 VISION Celebrates the Lives of Women Of Color in The Berkshires

Signifying the return to live indoor performances, the much-anticipated Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision - a large-scale collaborative art & performance project focusing specifically on the lives and visionary futures of Black, Indigenous, Immigrant, (cis and trans) Women of Color in America - is finally set to have its premiere after postponing its original 2020 opening due to the pandemic from August 13th through 17th for 10 performances at the Whitney Center for the Arts.

Staged at the historic Wendell Avenue mansion once home to The Women's Club of the Berkshires, 20/20 Vision was created in collaboration with 65 Women of Color from around the country and will see patrons traveling through 21 rooms in the house, experiencing each room as a "rite of passage" in the lives of Women of Color from birth to death. The live performances will occur in accordance with state guidelines for Covid-19 safety for distancing, gathering, mask requirements, and venue limits at the time.

 

Conceived and developed by Founder & Artistic Director Pooja Prema, Rites of Passage originally debuted in 2013, mixing the concept of ritual healing with multimedia art installation and performance as a means to celebrate the lives and initiatory experiences of all women. With this reimagining of the project, Prema has centered the work of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists, providing platforms for their stories to be told and archived. This iteration of Rites of Passage is a vital co-creation with other women and femme artists, healers, activists and visionaries, bringing together multiple lineages, histories, and reclamations of ancestral resilience and power, along with diverse freedom movements from Black Lives Matter, immigration justice, #metoo, reproductive and LGBTQ rights- all under one roof.

 

"After a year of unprecedented challenge on every (un)imaginable level, Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision emerges as a space for healing, remembering and reconnection in real space & time. It's an invitation for all of us to reflect on our shared past, present and future through the lens of Women of Color. We call it 20/20 Vision because it's a collective experiment in cultivating clear sight. How did we get to this moment and where do we go from here- as a nation, as a people?" said Prema. "This show is an invitation for us as BIPOC women to literally 'Take Up Space' by 'cure-ating' rooms that can hold our grief, our anger, our joy, and our pleasure, and allow us to see and be seen. Ultimately, I hope for Rites of Passage to be a movement that will enable women around the country to create their own local living museums because there are endless versions of what the concept of 'initiation' means to each of us."

 

Additionally, Prema wants to ensure that 20/20 Vision is fully accessible to both People of Color who have not yet visited the Berkshires, as well as those who reside in the surrounding community who have historically felt underrepresented in the Arts.

"As a radical re-imagining of the 2013 experience, Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision is the first project of its kind bringing together women from so many diverse diasporas into one house in this area where one might not expect something like this to happen. Yet there are so many histories right here in the Berkshires waiting to be explored and celebrated," said Prema. "As an example, many people do not realize that African-Americans have an incredibly deep-rooted history in Berkshire County and it has served as a home to some of the most notable figures in American history - from Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman, who became the first African American woman to sue for her freedom in Massachusetts and win to Civil Rights icon W.E.B. DuBois to famed Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee. And Rites of Passage is about telling our stories and celebrating our ancestors."

She continues, "It is BIPOC speaking to other BIPOC about our own life experiences and our ancestors' legacies and the primary intended audience are those who do not get out to see the arts in Berkshire County. These are Black and Latinx people in the Berkshires and in other areas, they are working-class people of all ethnicities, immigrant women, queer women, and this house is meant to speak directly to them. It's not an elite arts experience. This is art by the people, for the people."

Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision featured rooms will include: "Migration/Diaspora", "No Longer Silent", "Sustenance", "Trans-cendance", "The Living Womb", "Legacy" and "Adolescence", which was created in collaboration with local young women from R.O.P.E. The show will also feature nightly talk-backs facilitated by Rites of Passage artists and partner organizations, creating an interactive space for audiences to reflect.

 

The Rites of Passage Project was founded by Pooja Prema, also founder and director of The Ritual Theatre - the only site-specific theatre company in the Southern Berkshires. Local Berkshire organizations partnering with Rites of Passage include Multicultural BRIDGE, R.O.P.E., Latinas 413 and Bard College at Simon's Rock.

Tickets for Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision are by sliding-scale donation and will be available beginning July 1st. Registration is required. For more info, please visit: ritesofpassageproject.org/

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