The Shed Announces GO OFF! JOY IN DEFIANCE By DJ April Hunt And Rashaad Newsome

DJ April Hunt and artist Rashaad Newsome premiere their new project Go Off! Joy in Defiance as the fifth commission of The Shed's Up Close series on Sunday, June 14 at 6 pm EST.

Go Off! Joy in Defiance is a celebration of Black queer sonic, visual, and performative traditions. The two-part project begins with a prerecorded video piece on The Shed's Instagram and Facebook accounts (@theshedny), website (theshed.org), and YouTube channel and concludes with a live DJ set on The Shed's Instagram Live.

The prerecorded video opens with a memorial to a fraction of the countless Black lives that have been lost at the hands of systemic racism across the world before compiling and layering performances recorded by each of the artists across different social media platforms in an effect similar to a palimpsest.

In the video, April is joined in the video by performers, including kiki scene icon Justin Gomez, also known as Legendary Monster Mon_Teese, and ballroom commentator Precious. Connected by the rhythmic beat of Hunt's set, Newsome, Monster, and Precious each add to the video, taking the event from Instagram and Snapchat to Facebook Live.

The virtual turn-up shifts from partiers on a dance floor punctuated by neon lights and colors to a digital space of mesmerizing visual effects. As the video concludes, a digital dance floor opens with a live-streamed DJ set for the audience to join the artists in joyful defiance of systems of oppression. When the story of this celebration flows into the Instagram Live after-party, the artists welcome viewers to join the digital dance floor as Go Off! reimagines what a social experience can be in this moment of sheltering in place and reliance on social media. The artists play with the transitions and interruptions that happen as they move from one digital platform to another. And, they share radical joy as a form of defiance of oppressive systems that are crumbling around us.

To set the tone ahead of the Sunday, June 14 premiere, DJ April Hunt created BLACK JOY In Defiance, her latest Soundcloud project for the audience to listen to here. Go Off! is part of April Hunt's latest project, POCC (People of Color Create), a new virtual home for POC creative practitioners that connects them with the community in a powerful way.

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