Greater Hartford Artists Mash Up Art, Performance, And Spirituality In SHAKING THE CORE

The Autorino Center for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Saint Joseph announced today a dynamic collaboration of Greater Hartford artists in "Shaking the Core," a multi-discipline production connecting ancestral struggle, resistance, resilience, and disruption.

Befitting the spiritual nature of the work, "Shaking the Core" will be performed in USJ's Connor Chapel of Our Lady. The performance is Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m., with tickets available as part of the Autorino Center's Pay-It-Forward program, where the audience selects any amount they would like to pay into the pay-it-forward fund, underwriting future free performances.

Co-conceived by Sageseeker Productions and the RapOet, Self Suffice, in collaboration with the Autorino Center and USJ Campus Ministry, this event invites the audience to experience the spiritual and disruptive through libation, music, poetry, and dance as they ask: "What connects us to our humanity? What fills and speaks to our soul? What shakes us at our core?"

According to event organizers, "Our spirituality is often disconnected and discarded from the colonized religious experience. Across the African diaspora we have been torn from our ancestral and indigenous ways of connecting our visceral experiences with the elements of the earth, the universe, and the experiences of those who came before us, in a long lineage of struggle, resistance, and resilience. In hindsight, we realize our experience of spirituality has been sustained through generations of disruption. Rooting ourselves in the practices of our ancestors and remixing them to our needs, within the contemporary reality of systemic oppression and people-powered protest, we dance in a space of transformation."

Participating Artists

· Jasmin Agosto

· Self Suffice, the RapOet

· Marguax Hayes

· Ro Godwynn

· Savana Jones

· Zulynette

· Gin Lady Gutta

· USJ Dance Ensemble

· Moxie Dance Company

This Pay-It-Forward performance has been made possible by donations made at previous Pay-It-Forward performances. Attendees can choose their own ticket price knowing that their generosity will underwrite future free and Pay-It-Forward performances. Tickets can be reserved by visiting autorino.usj.edu, by calling 860.231.5555, or purchased at the door at the Frances Driscoll Box Office. The Autorino Center is located on the campus of the University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Avenue in West Hartford.

The Autorino Center has inaugurated its new Faculty Fellows program with the 2019-2020 season, an educational endeavor that augments the performances that occur onstage with online content curated by University of Saint Joseph faculty. For "Shaking the Core," Elijah C. Nealy, Ph.D., assistant professor of Social Work and Equitable Community Practice, has assembled supplementary materials that can be found at autorino.usj.edu/facultyfellows.

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