HERE to Present PRIESTESS OF TWERK: A BLACK FEMME STAR TEMPLE + WISDOM SCHOOL

HERE Will Close close its women-led, 30th anniversary season with the world premiere of Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School by Nia O. Witherspoon, a 2023-2024 Tow Foundation Playwright in Residence at HERE. Running May 18 – June 8, 2024, at The Space at Irondale and presented with Irondale, Priestess of Twerk, which is set to open on May 26, is the second of two premieres this season that have been developed through HARP, HERE's nationally recognized $125,000 artist residency program. Tickets go on sale on April 19.

Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School is a ritual-opera and a temple that merges African traditional religious approaches to healing and Black feminist theologies to both envision and enact a more evolved world through embodied experiences. By centering all radical forms of Black femme agency across time, including dreamwork, coming to voice, creative expression, sacred sexuality, and gender affirmation, Priestess of Twerk takes witness-participants on a journey populated with glorious music, spell-casting choreography, and their own personally tailored guidance throughout the piece, teaching the inter-relationship between Black Femme health and the health of our planet.

Priestess of Twerk is a ritual re-telling of ancient Egyptian goddess Isis' journey to the underworld, told through the lens of contemporary Black feminist text, The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, and narrated by The Mothermind, the collective consciousness. It can be experienced in two ways.

After a unique divination experience during their ticket purchase, audiences on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays will be guided into a functional temple to participate in a 4-hour long ritual opera event that places them in one of the temple's seven chambers. Here, they will take part in intimate experiences with the priestesses of the temple that include twerk meditations, radical runway processions, sonic journeying, sacred partying, and an array of cleansing, grieving, and praying rituals. The temple's seven chambers are: Death, Birth, Erotica/Warrior, Inner Child, Voice/Naming, Dream, and Love. All of these elements are woven into the larger ritual-opera that journeys along with Isis, her twin sister Neb-Het, Queen of the Underworld, and The Mothermind.

Audiences on Wednesdays and Thursdays will experience a two-hour Song Circle of Priestess of Twerk that highlights music from the ritual-opera inside participatory communal ceremony. Song Circles call us to use our voices in community as a way to heal, to ask and answer questions, and to remember our gifts and collective power.  They also allow us to step into joy, embodiment, praise, and a little twerk!

Affinity performances for Black Folks will take place on May 18, June 1, and June 8. Affinity performances for BIPOC audiences will take place on May 26 and June 5.

“As a student of African philosophies and a child of hip-hop culture, my work creates collisions between sacred and secular worlds too often set apart,” says Witherspoon. “I create ritualistic theatre and performance spaces to help us move through intergenerational trauma, experience wonder at our magnificent creation, and connect with our audacity as Black femmes to continue surviving. Priestess of Twerk realizes the influence of my lineage and artistry while creating Black femme-centered ritual performance. I am honored by my ancestral calling  to uplift and center Black feminist wisdom at a time when our society deeply needs it.”

“As a writer, composer, director, and performer, Nia is the quintessential boundary pushing HERE artist,” says HERE's Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting. “Her hybrid approach to creating ritualistic theatre not only expands what is possible in live performance, but with Priestess of Twerk, Nia has crafted an event that I know audiences from many communities will find healing and transformative. I'm honored to have commissioned Priestess of Twerk as part of my final season at HERE.”

The 16-member company of Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School consists of priestesses and practitioners of African Traditional Religions, Reiki masters, yoga teachers, sound healers, educators, vogue mothers, and doulas. They include Nia Calloway, Nala Duma, Fana Ife Hilarie Fraser, Jack Fuller, Mawu Ama Ma'at Gora, Keyontia Hawkins, Keyanna Hutchinson, Chanon Judson, Linda LA, Serena Ebony Miller, Desiree Mwalimu-Banks, Shelley Nicole, Synead Cidney Nichols, Lucianna Padmore, Tieisha Thomas, and Nia O. Witherspoon. 

Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School is written, directed, and composed by Nia O. Witherspoon. Core Priestess collaboration by Jack Fuller, Shelley Nicole, and Serena Ebony Miller. It features choreography by Chanon Judson, dramaturgy by associate director abigail jean-baptiste, music direction, arranging, and compositional support by Fuller, scenic design by Maamoun Tobbo, costume design by Rashidah Nelson, lighting & projection design by Hao Bai, and XR direction by LaJuné McMillian. Priestess of Twerk is line produced by Marie Cisco and Maya Simone.

Sixteen performances of Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School will take place May 18 – June 8, 2024, at The Space at Irondale, located at 85 S Oxford St in Brooklyn. Critics are welcome as of May 19 for an opening on Sunday, May 26. 

Performances of Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School, which consists of  the full ritual opera experience and runs for  4 hours, take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 6pm and Sundays at 4pm. Performances of the Song Circle, which centers the music and runs for 2 hours, take place on Wednesday and Thursdays at 7:30pm.

Tickets, which range from $36-$222, can be purchased by visiting www.here.org. For Group Sales, contact tickets@here.org. Students and seniors can access free tickets on a rush basis, subject to availability for each performance, and must be redeemed at the box office. Standard ticketing fees apply.

Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School was commissioned, developed, and produced by HERE Artist Residency and is presented with Irondale.

Please visit https://here.org/shows/priestess-of-twerk/ for more information.

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