OYE! Avant-Garde Night Returns to JACK Next Month

Part of JACK's year-long series, Reparations365 The multi-disciplinary performance collective Oye Group (formerly Brooklyn Gypsies) returns to JACK with OYE! Avant-Garde Night, their annual festival curated by Modesto Flako Jimenez and devoted to the development of new performances by artists from Brooklyn and surrounding areas. Join Oye Group for a night of eclectic theater, dance and film, with performances followed by music, conversation, food and dancing. This year's artists will use the theme of reparations as a jumping-off point (as part of JACK's year-long Reparations365 series) and will feature work by actors Chelsea D. Harrison and Sam Silbiger, writer & filmmaker Maya Macdonald, Jerry Aquino and dancer/choreographer Beth Graczyk, among others.

Dates/Times:
Thursday, Sept. 21 at 8 pm
Friday, Sept. 22 at 8 pm
Saturday, Sept. 23 at 8 pm (followed by a party at 10 pm, $10 entry for non-ticket-holders)
Sunday, Sept. 24 at 6 pm

Tickets: $18 advance (www.jackny.org), $20 door

LOCATION: JACK | 505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 | C or G train to Clinton-Washington | www.jackny.org

MORE INFO

Oye Group (formerly Brooklyn Gypsies) is an artist collective made up of New Yorkers both native and immigrant to the city. They present annual showcases of new work in theater, dance, poetry and film that spark dialogue on critical issues such as immigration, gentrification, economics, and urban survival, curating a mix of established and emerging artists and giving them a platform to share their art in a stimulating environment. Their work has been presented at JACK, The Bushwick Starr, The Performing Garage and elsewhere. Oye Group is a playground to celebrate what is unique about New York City's eclectic and converging art communities.

REPARATIONS365

Reparations365: From Memory To Movement is JACK's year-long series of performances, workshops and discussions around the topic of distributive justice for Black Americans. Launched in February 2017, the series consists of at least 20 public offerings featuring a convergence of scholars, artists and activists. Through the series, participants will discover multiple ways to engage with the topic, all with an intention of offering tangible take-ways for participants and a concrete movement forward.

The performances feature a host of artists in dance, theater and music exploring the topic of repairing racial injustice. The series also includes several community conversations, panel discussions and interactive workshops curated with the participation of our neighbors and members of the artistic and activist community in New York.

BACKGROUND

The transatlantic slave trade has forever shaped the lives of global peoples in systematic and personal ways. Millions of Africans and their descendants have experienced trauma to their bodies, minds, hearts, homes, families and work as a result of the atrocities inherent to the design and execution of the slave trade. Those who participatEd Loudly, quietly, actively and passively in the systematic enslavement of African peoples and the economy rooted in their degradation and denunciation have exponentially benefited and accumulated an extraordinary debt.

Questions, debates and energy around the topic are resurgent -- through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Georgetown University's reparations efforts, the platform of The Movement for Black Lives and the United Nations call for the U.S. to consider reparations. Momentum towards action is brewing.

The series has expansive implications that reflect JACK's desire to contribute to the co-creation of a more just society, and to offer our space for conversation and imagination about how to get there. JACK is situated in a diverse neighborhood among other diverse neighborhoods - all of which are rich with Blackness and have varying degrees of trials, tensions and triumphs concerning black humanity, displacement, legacy and self-determination. This and many other factors affirm that the reparations series is well suited to our beloved Brooklyn.

Reparations365: From Memory to Movement is made possible by a Humanities New York Action Grant, by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature, and from many individual donors.

JACK is an OBIE-winning performance venue founded in 2012 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn by theater-maker Alec Duffy and several co-founders. Our mission is to fuel experiments in art and activism, collaborating with adventurous artists and our neighbors to bring about a just and vibrant society. We present about 200 theater, music and dance performances a year and hold community forums on racial justice, gentrification, and police/community relations. In 2016, DeeArah Wright joined Duffy as Co-Director. JACK's season is made possible by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature, M & T Charitable Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Mental Insight Foundation and The Lida Foundation.

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