The Shed

Get to know Kayla Hamilton, a performance-maker and Bessie Award–winning dancer, educator, and cultural consultant from Texarkana, Texas.. Hamilton presents a new work, “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up,” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, August 15 – 17. _______________ In “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up,” Kayla Hamilton explores lineages of Black disabled imagination and alternative world-building through an immersive, community-specific, multidisciplinary dance performance. The performance moves through three historical spaces—the cotton field, the Black church, and the freakshow/circus—where disability was hidden, deemed unproductive, reduced to spectacle, or asked to be prayed away. “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up” offers an archival exploration of these spaces and a reclaiming of agency, recentering the parts of the self that were discarded or suppressed in those settings while carrying forward the ancestral task of envisioning a future where every-body is free. The production makes use of multiple audio descriptors and a performance structure that can reconfigure every night based on the performers’ changing needs. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #KaylaHamilton #TheShed #OpenCall #Dance #Performance #DisabilityArts

Get to know Kayla Hamilton, a performance-maker and Bessie Award–winning dancer, educator, and cultural consultant from Texarkana, Texas.. Hamilton presents a new work, “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up,” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, August 15 – 17. _______________ In “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up,” Kayla Hamilton explores lineages of Black disabled imagination and alternative world-building through an immersive, community-specific, multidisciplinary dance performance. The performance moves through three historical spaces—the cotton field, the Black church, and the freakshow/circus—where disability was hidden, deemed unproductive, reduced to spectacle, or asked to be prayed away. “How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up” offers an archival exploration of these spaces and a reclaiming of agency, recentering the parts of the self that were discarded or suppressed in those settings while carrying forward the ancestral task of envisioning a future where every-body is free. The production makes use of multiple audio descriptors and a performance structure that can reconfigure every night based on the performers’ changing needs. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #KaylaHamilton #TheShed #OpenCall #Dance #Performance #DisabilityArts

Get to know NIC Kay, an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and conceptual choreographer who works with movement to explore relationality and yearning. Kay presents a new work, “must have character,” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, August 1 – 3. _______________ In NIC Kay’s “must have character,” two performers—a mascot and a drag performer—engage in a duet, staggering through The Shed’s public spaces throughout the day. As they move, the duo engages in a nonverbal dialogue about motivation and desire. The performance is a snapshot of performers facing their anxieties around entertaining, and restless audiences eager to escape the world of the pandemic and other crises. must have character includes performances on August 1 and 2 and a public program on August 3. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #NICKay #TheShed #OpenCall #PerformanceArt #Performance

Get to know Nile Harris, a performer and director of live works of art. Harris presents a new work, “minor b,” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, August 9 and 10. _______________ “minor b” is a workshop production of a performance for four bodies that inquires about a minor black behavior that refuses capitalization and respectability. Nile Harris and his ensemble use the biography of jazz cornetist Buddy Bolden, who was making music at the turn of the 20th century and spent the majority of his life in a mental asylum, as a theoretical launching point to stage a series of discreet events rejecting and subverting what audiences expect to find in a black box theater. For Harris, the black box theater serves as a metaphor for containment. Playing with theatrical traditions which have sought an imposed neutrality, the work is, in part, a response to institutional constraints that resonate with the asylum where Bolden was confined. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #NileHarris #TheShed #OpenCall #PerformanceArt #Theater

Get to know Asia Stewart, a Brooklyn-based performance artist whose conceptual work centers the body as a living archive. Stewart presents a new work, “Fabric Softener” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, July 25 – 27. _______________ Asia Stewart’s “Fabric Softener” is a theatrical response to Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon,” offering an imagined ritual with the power to revive young Black women and insist on their survival. Stewart draws on three characters from the many who populate Morrison’s 1977 novel: Pilate, her daughter Reba, and granddaughter Hagar. In the original text, Hagar dies of a broken heart after deeming herself unworthy of love, beauty, and acceptance. In her performance, punctuated by musical outbursts of spirituals and passages from the novel, Stewart presents three new characters who are not recreations of these women but are instead archetypes: The Laundress, The Celebrant, and The Witness. The performance begins as The Celebrant and The Witness prepare The Laundress for an intervention: a baptism, a becoming, and a funeral for what used to be and can no longer exist. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #AsiaStewart #TheShed #OpenCall #PerformanceArt #Theater #Music

Get to know Cain Coleman, an award-winning, multi-hyphenate performer and creator based in Brooklyn. Coleman presents a new work, “New Information” as part of “Open Call” at The Shed, July 18 – 20. _______________ In “New Information,” Cain Coleman takes the audience on a journey of self-exploration and the relentless pursuit of artistic expression. An immersive environment pulls the audience into an unforgettable evening, featuring original music, live instrumentation, performance art, and captivating visual art. Building off Coleman’s roots in Brooklyn’s queer nightlife scene, “New Information” combines the artistry of a concert or theater performance with the energy and community of a vibrant dance party. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #CainColeman #TheShed #OpenCall #PerformanceArt #QueerArtists #Music #Drag