Gibney Announces IMAGINING DIGITAL Spring 2023 Season

Gibney, the New York City-based dance and social justice organization, has announced its spring virtual programming featuring Imagining Digital and Black Diaspora, directed and curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Each series provides a forum for the sharing of vital ideas and insightful perspectives through a variety of virtual presentations and discussions. From January 17 through May 24, Imagining Digital features seven online events, as well as the continuation of Imagining: A Gibney Journal, a bimonthly online publication. Black Diaspora, a virtual, peer support program serving up-and-coming, Black and Afro-Latinx-identified dance and performance artists from various cultural backgrounds and aesthetic traditions, also continues February 11 - June 12 with nine sessions, including co-presentations in the 2023 BlackLight Summit.

"The future of arts initiatives and organizations in societies, like ours, that have lost their way requires unfettered courage in thought, speech, and action. This is the artist's role in community-to source from a rich, complex human legacy without fearful retreat into the past in search of a 'safety' that never was and cannot be. The now and future artist risks and dares, representing qualities worth celebrating as we say, This, too, is who we are. This is what we can and must be," Ms. Yaa Asantewaa said. "In my final season as Gibney's curator, I tip my hat to artists who ask us to stretch our minds, our reach, our very being further, asking more, daring more, with integrity and accountability. Let these artists move you."

Gina Gibney, Artistic Director and CEO of Gibney added, "We are committed to connecting our community of artists and audiences with the most provocative, influential, and inspiring minds at work in the arts, humanities, and activism. Eva has used her insightful curatorial expertise to assemble a brilliant season of thoughtful and challenging programs which foster important dialogues around the future of the arts and creativity."

Gibney's Imagining Digital spring season kicks off with a Deeper Lecture by Palestinian dancer and choreographer Sahar Damoni (January 17).

Deeper Duets feature unique pairings engaged in lively and sometimes provocative conversations about artistic life, artistic practice and the urgent social concerns that drive creative expression. The series includes authors and artists Daniel Alexander Jones and jaamil olawale kosoko (January 18), nonprofit leader and arts advocate Alejandra Duque Cifuentes joined by cultural researcher and strategist Carrie Blake (January 31), dancer and choreographer Jean Butler with author and theater professor Patrick Lonergan (February 1), and Kyle Abraham and Sydnie Liggett-Dennis of A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham (March 29).

The series culminates with two live WORD! performances that showcase the art of the spoken word and more: JJJJJerome Ellis (May 2) who will read new poetry; and x (May 24) who will use original soundscapes and lyrics to give a mini overview of their adulthood angst.

Imagining: A Gibney Journal is a free bimonthly digital journal featuring writing from the dance and performance community reflecting the scope and diversity of this field. The next journal will be published on January 10, 2023.

All Imagining Digital events are available virtually live and on demand. General ticket price is $20. Discounted Early Bird pricing of $15 for a single event or $70 season pass for all seven events are available through January 15, 2023. Tickets can be purchased online at GibneyDance.org.

Black Diaspora was conceived by curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter uprising and launched in September 2020. The program supports emerging Black and Afro-Latinx-identified dance and performance artists through a series of peer group discussions, conversations, and workshops led by notable guest artists.

The upcoming season includes its first collaboration with The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland as part of the 2023 BlackLight Summit, led by producer and curator Tariq Darrell O'Meally. These co-presentations include a keynote address by dance artist and educator MK Abadoo; a panel discussion; and a Black Diaspora conversation between up-and-coming curators O'Meally and Kemba Barnes of Black Curators in Dancer and Performance, moderated by BCDP founder Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

For more information on Black Diaspora, visit https://gibneydance.org/programs/black-diaspora-2/.

IMAGINING DIGITAL: CHRONOLOGICAL EVENT LISTINGS

Deeper Lecture: Sahar Damoni
Tuesday, January 17 at 6:00 p.m.

Sahar Damoni is a Palestinian dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher from Shafa-amer in the Galilee. Her body of work deals with the challenges she faces as a woman in an Arab and Palestinian society and of the political status quo on a contested piece of land. As a feminist coming from a traditional Arab society and as an Arab working with Israelis, her identity doesn't fit neatly into society's expectations of her. Her work not only addresses the many contradictions in her life, but also seeks to find freedom in a borderless artistic community. For her, dance is resistance.

Deeper Duet: jaamil olawale kosoko + Daniel Alexander Jones
Wednesday, January 18 at 6:00 p.m.

jaamil olawale kosoko is a Nigerian American author, performance artist, and curator originally from Detroit. Daniel Alexander Jones' body of original work includes plays, performance pieces, music, and essays, where he explores the esoteric and the everyday through his own distinctive dramaturgy. The two multi-hyphenate artists address themes of friendship, grace, and loving as a gesture of self-sovereignty while sharing excerpts from their new book projects - Daniel Alexander Jones' Love as Light and jaamil olawale kosoko's Black Body Amnesia - and discussing the process of creating as a source of healing self and community.

Deeper Duet: Alejandra Duque Cifuentes and Carrie Blake
Tuesday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m.

What role does research and data collection have in arts advocacy? How has data historically represented or underrepresented the arts sector, and what are the impacts of this storytelling? Join Alejandra Duque Cifuentes and Carrie Blake for a conversation on the role data plays in moving resources and creating policy to support artistry in the United States.

Deeper Duet: Jean Butler and Patrick Lonergan
Wednesday, February 1 at 6:00 p.m.

Steeped in the history of Irish step dance, Jean Butler believes in the continual excavation of her past to inform her present and create works that exemplify and safeguard the contemporary expression of the form. The choreographer, dancer and scholar is joined by Patrick Lonergan, an author and professor of drama and theater studies at the University of Galway, to discuss her creative process as a dance artist.

Deeper Duet: Kyle Abraham and Sydnie Liggett-Dennis
Wednesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m.

Artistic Director Kyle Abraham creates transformative choreography that investigates the overarching systems and traditions that connect people from various backgrounds. A.I.M's Executive Director Sydnie Liggett-Dennis will join Abraham for an engaging Duet conversation.

WORD!: JJJJJerome Elis
Tuesday, May 2 at 6:00 p.m.

JJJJJerome Ellis describes himself as a blk disabled animal, stutterer, and artist. He prays, reads, gardens, cycles, wanders, and plays. Through music, literature, performance, and video, he researches relationships among blackness, disabled speech, divinity, nature, sound, and time. Born in 1989 to Jamaican and Grenadian immigrants, he grew up and lives by a heron rookery in Virginia Beach, USA.

WORD!: x
Wednesday, May 24 at 6:00 p.m.

This is x's first attempt at musical comedy as someone who is neither a comic nor a musician. Using original soundscapes and lyrics x gives a mini overview of their adulthood angst. From being an overly-honest, self-diagnosed Autistic to continuously falling for problematic cis boys, x describes their current day-to-day life woes with relatable, awkward anecdotes and catchy songs.

BLACK DIASPORA: CHRONOLOGICAL EVENT LISTINGS

Peer group discussions, conversations, and workshops led by notable guest artists.

Black Diaspora: Tariq Darrell O'Meally and Kembra Barnes
Saturday, February 11 at 12:00 p.m.

The series begins with artist, producer, curator, and community organizer Tariq Darrell O'Meally, who is the creator, curator and lead producer of BlackLight Summit, and Kembra Barnes, an aspiring dance curator and member of Black Curators in Dance and Performance.

Black Diaspora: J. Bouey and Melanie Greene
Monday, February 13 at 2:00 p.m.

The duo of J. Bouey and Melanie Greene was included on Dance Magazine's 2021's "25 to Watch List." Since founding the podcast The Dance Union in 2018, the platform has grown into an indispensable hub where dance artists can find community, conversation, resources, and support.

Black Diaspora: Monica L. Williams
Saturday, March 11 at 10:00 a.m.

Monica L. Williams is a conceptual performance artist and artistic leader who specializes in cross-sector collaborations. Her work has been presented at The Apollo Theater, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, TED Women Conference, the National Black Arts Festival among others.

Black Diaspora: Tanisha Christie
Monday, March 13 at 2:00 p.m.

Tanisha Christie is an interdisciplinary theater artist, producer, filmmaker, artist-educator, and psychotherapist. She believes in the liberation of people through their stories.

Black Diaspora: Beatrice Capote
Saturday, April 8 at 10:00 a.m.

Beatrice Capote is a Cuban American contemporary dancer, choreographer, and teacher immersed in modern, ballet, jazz, salsa, and Afro-Cuban technique.

Black Diaspora: Dani Criss
Monday, April 10 at 2:00 p.m.

Danielle Criss is affectionately known as Dani Criss The Artist; a dancer, actress, activist, creator, and writer, seeking to explore the individuality in humanity, the concept of self-liberation, and the use of ourselves and our work as catalyst for social change.

Black Diaspora: Marýa Wethers
Monday, May 8 at 2:00 p.m.

Marýa Wethers is an award-winning contemporary dance artist and independent creative producer and curator. Her work has been seen at Gibney, Mount Tremper Arts and more.

Black Diaspora: dani tirrell and David Rue
Saturday, May 13 at 10:00 a.m.

dani tirrell is a Black, Trans Spectrum, Queer movement artist and is the artistic director of Dance Place in Washington, D.C. David Rue is a dance artist and creative professional born in Liberia and raised in Minnesota. His work centers on conceptualizing and implementing large scale public programs that celebrate the voices of black and brown artists through the lens of equity, excellence, and joy.

Black Diaspora: Suzen Baraka
Monday, June 12 at 2:00 p.m.

Suzen Baraka is a poet, writer and Emmy Award-winning actor, who trained at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting Conservatory. As an American actress and woman of Black and Korean descent, Suzen prays her work serves as a bridge reimagined.

Suzen starred in Everlasting, winner of the Viewer's Choice Award at the 2020 Cannes Short Film Festival, and won a regional Emmy for VOTE, a lyrical short later published in Kevin Powell's literary anthology.

Most recently, Suzen co-starred on HBOMax's The Other Two and CBS' Blue Bloods. She's the writer and face of Theraflu's Right to Recover Campaign, which advocates for women's right to paid sick leave. Suzen wrapped lead and supporting roles in My Asian, Things That Remain, Two Frozen Turkeys, If You See Something, and Against Protocol.

About Gibney

Founded by Gina Gibney in 1991, Gibney is a New York City-based performing arts and social justice organization that taps into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation. Gibney deploys resources through three strategic and interwoven program areas: Gibney Center, a meeting ground for New York City's artistic community comprising 23 studios and 5 performance spaces that provide critical space for training, rehearsal, professional development, performances, and convenings; Gibney Community, programs that use movement to help address a range of social issues with a focus on gender-based violence and its prevention; and Gibney Company. Gibney supports movement-based artists in every aspect of their creative development: classes, residencies, low-cost rental space, entrepreneurial training and incubation, presentation opportunities, commissioning, and operating a professional dance company.

Photo Credit: JJJJJerome Ellis by Gema Galiana, Jean Butler by Ste Murray, Kyle Abraham by Tatiana Wills, Daniel Alexander Jones courtesy of artist, Alejandra Duque Cifuentes by Jo Chiang, Sahar Damoni by Photo by Tamar Lamm.

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