SOUL'D: The Joy Edition Announced As Part Of The 2022 Fertile Ground Festival

The Vanport Mosaic with The Project presents SOUL'D: the economics of our Black body (the joy edition), a new performance piece adapted for film, engaging questions of how our Black bodies have participated in the American Economic Dream. Conceived by Damaris Webb and devised by a cohort of local Black performers, designers and filmmakers.

After a year of protests, and the intensified isolation of quarantine felt in our Black and brown bodies, we returned to the material, and found great joy in being together and sitting with our questions. The necessity of working in small bubbles, often simply recording on our phones, or gathering outside when we could, supported an intimacy and directness that the live theater space could not afford.

Sourcing first hand narratives, legislation, iconic tropes, current events and personal stories, we position ourselves to gaze through the macro-cosims of slavery to present day post-Obama backlash. What is Black wealth? What is Black joy? How has Black American growth manifest - despite disenfranchisement in passing on wealth through land ownership, knowledge of lineage, and financial freedom?