Ping Chong Named Ford Foundation's 2017 Art of Change Fellow

Ping Chong + Company has announced that founder and artistic director Ping Chong is one of the recipients of the 2017-2018 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship.

The Ford Foundation believes that artists are essential to a free and flourishing society, and are critical agents in the work of overcoming inequality. The Art of Change Fellows program recognizes artists and cultural leaders who blend artistic brilliance with commitment to social justice, and pursue their creative lives in a spirit of generous collaboration. The Fellowships will enable these creative innovators to pursue work that illuminates these connections. This cohort of leaders illustrates the powerful diversity of American experiences and creative voices at work in our country today.

Ping Chong's newest theatrical work, ALAXSXA | ALASKA will make its New York premiere at La MaMa, October 12-29 2017. Tickets are available at lamama.org/alaxsxa.

"I am truly honored to receive an Art of Change Fellowship from the Ford Foundation and to be in such illustrious company," said Ping Chong. "Art is not created in a vacuum. This is especially tr?ue for the art I create, which aspires to examine and challenge the social and political conditions in which we live. So I share this honor with my colleagues at Ping Chong + Company and with the many communities and organizations with which we work."

The yearlong fellowship comes with unrestricted stipends of $50,000 for individuals, and $75,000 for collaborative teams. Fellows will create work exploring questions of freedom and justice, which they will showcase in late 2018.

The 2017-2018 Fellows include Luis Alfaro; Mikhail Baryshnikov; Camille Brown; P. Carl; Ping Chong; Sandra Cisneros; Edwidge Danticat; Michelle Dorrance; Gustavo Dudamel; Ava DuVernay; Mohammed Fairouz; Nikky Finney; Joy Harjo; Samuel Hoi; Robin Coste Lewis; Deborah Luster; Jason Moran & Alicia Hall Moran; Dominique Morisseau; Mira Nair; Las Nietas de Nonó: Lydela Nonó & Michel Nonó; Postcommodity: Raven Chacon, Kade Twist, & CristobAl Martinez; Lori Pourier; Esperanza Spalding; Carlton Turner; and FrEd Wilson.

Ping Chong is currently co-directing ALAXSXA | ALASKA with Ryan Conarro, which features Conarro, Gary Upay'aq Beaver, and puppeteer Justin Perkins. ALAXSXA | ALASKA weaves text and movement with striking design elements in a collage of contemporary and historical collisions between indigenous Alaska Native communities and newcomers to "The Last Frontier." ALAXSXA | ALASKA just wrapped an Alaskan tour and will come to New York for a three-week engagement at La MaMa ETC from October 12-29, 2017.

Tickets for ALAXSXA | ALASKA at La MaMa range from $20 to $25 dollars and are available by visiting lamama.org/alaxsxa. The performance schedule is as follows: October 12 at 7pm, October 13 at 7pm, October 14 at 7pm, October 15 at 2pm, October 16 at 7pm, October 18 at 7pm, October 19 at 7pm, October 20 at 7pm, October 21 at 7pm, October 22 at 7pm, October 25 at 7pm, October 27 at 7pm, October 28 at 2pm and 7pm, October 29 at 2pm. Talkbacks with the creators of ALAXSXA | ALASKA will be held after performances on Oct 15 at 2pm, Oct 19 at 7pm, Oct 21 at 7pm, and Oct 27 at 7pm.

For more about Ping Chong & Co, visit www.pingchong.org, and for more about the Ford Foundation, go to www.fordfoundation.org.

Ping Chong + Company produces theatrical works addressing the important cultural and civic issues of our times, striving to reach the widest audiences with the greatest level of artistic innovation and social integrity. The company was founded in 1975 by leading theatrical innovator Ping Chong with a mission to create works of theater and art that explore the intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. Today, Ping Chong + Company produces original works by a close-knit ensemble of affiliated artists, under the artistic leadership of Ping Chong. Productions range from intimate oral history projects to grand scale cinematic multidisciplinary productions featuring puppets, performers, and full music and projection scores. The art reveals beauty, precision, and a commitment to social justice. In 2014, Ping Chong received the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor from the United States government.

Ping Chong + Company is a resident theater company of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Since 1978, Ping Chong and La MaMa have produced over 25 shows together at the world-renowned East Village experimental theaters, from "Nosferatu" (1985, revival 1991) to "Kwaidan" (1998) to "Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo" (2012).

La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. The organization has a worldwide reputation for producing daring performance works that defy form and transcend barriers of ethnic and cultural identity. Founded in 1961 by award-winning theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations. A recipient of more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has helped launch the careers of countless artists, many of whom have made important contributions to American and international arts milieus. La MaMa's 56th season highlights artists of different generations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds, who question social mores and confront stereotypes, corruption, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in their work. Our stages embrace diversity in every form and present artists that persevere with bold self-expression despite social, economic, and political struggle and the 56th season reflects the urgency of reaffirming human interconnectedness.

Ping Chong is a theater director, choreographer, video installation artist. Born in Toronto, Canada and raised in New York City's Chinatown, he is a seminal figure in Asian American arts movement and a pioneer in the use of media in theater. His theatrical works bring his unique artistic vision to bear on major historical issues of our times, and focus on bringing unheard voices and under-represented stories to the stage. Encompassing puppetry, dance, documentary theater, sound, media and other experimental theater forms, his works have explored a wide variety of subjects from a hidden genocide in Africa to modernization in China to the experiences of Muslim youth in post 9/11 America. Throughout, the common thread has been a unifying commitment to artistic innovation and social responsibility. Since 1972, as founder and artistic director of Ping Chong + Company, he has created over 100 productions which have been presented at major theaters, festivals and museums worldwide. Major interdisciplinary works include Collidescope: Adventures in Pre and Post Racial America (with Talvin Wilks, 2013 University of Maryland, 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2017 Wake Forest University), Throne of Blood (2010 Brooklyn Academy Of Music and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Cathay: Three Tales of China (2005 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Kwaidan (1998 Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Festival), Deshima (1990 The Mickery Workshop), Nosferatu (1985/1991 La MaMa), Angels of Swedenborg (1984/2011), among many others.

In 1992, he created the first Undesirable Elements production, an ongoing series of community-based oral history projects, working with real people to explore issues of culture and identity. Representative works in the UE Series include BEYOND SACRED: Voices of Muslim Identity (2015, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and touring) INSIDE/OUT: Voices of the Disability Community (2008, Kennedy Center), CRY FOR PEACE: Voices from the Congo (2010 Syracuse Stage) and GAIJIN (1995 Yomiuri Prize, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.) His puppet theater work ALAXSXA|ALASKAl premiered in August 2017 at the University of Alaska Anchorage and will be presented at LaMaMa in October. Theatre Communications Group has published two volumes of his plays "The East West Quartet" and "Undesirable Elements: Real People, Real Lives, Real Theatre". Ping Chong is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Artist Fellowship, two BESSIE awards, two OBIE awards, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2014 National Medal of Arts. Ping lives in New York City.

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