Bag Lady Manifesta

HABITS. RELATIONSHIPS. BELIEF SYSTEMS. MEMORIES – OUR HISTORIES WALK AMONG US. AND TO IGNORE THEM IS TO BE HAUNTED BY THEM. TAJA LINDLEY’S THE BAG LADY MANIFESTA IS AN IMMERSIVE, PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCE FILLED WITH STRIKING VISUALS AND DYNAMIC MOVEMENT. 

Audiences are invited to (re)consider what to let go of, and what to remember. The Bag Lady is a living Sankofa, of movement, song, theater, and ritual – with the intention to build a collective memory and to create a just future for all.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS

Taja Lindley is a healer, artist and activist, creating socially engaged artwork that reflects and transforms audiences, shifts culture and moves people to action. She uses movement, text, installation, ritual, and burlesque to create immersive works that are concerned with freedom, healing and pleasure. Her artwork has been featured at Spring/Break Art Show, Brooklyn Museum, New York Live Arts, La Mama Theater, in living rooms, classrooms, conferences and public spaces. She has received coverage in ELLE, NY Times, VICE, Blouin Art Info, Afropunk and Colorlines.

Tanisha Christie is an interdisciplinary performing artist and filmmaker. She has performed, produced, directed and taught in traditional and non-traditional spaces in the U.S. and Panama. A member of Actors Equity m. She holds a BFA Theatre (Arizona State University), an MA-Media Studies (The New School) and has an LMSW in Clinical Practice (Hunter College). She was a 2015 Target Margin Institute Fellow and is currently an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She is a 2017 MAP grantee for bathtub a performance installation tackling state sanctioned violence, collective grief and intimacy.

Bathtub

BATHTUB IS A MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION EVENT OF RADICAL INTIMACY AND SURRENDER BY INVITING AN AUDIENCE TO EXPERIENCE A BATH WITH A BLACK WOMAN. TANISHA CHRISTIE IS A 2017 MAP FUND GRANTEE FOR THIS PROJECT.

THERE ARE FEW SPACES AS PRIVATE AS THE BATH. IT IS HERE I HAVE PONDERED THE COMPLEXITY OF MY EMOTIONS, MY FEMININITY, MY SORROW AND BLACKNESS UNMEDIATED BY OTHERS. IT IS THE PLACE WHERE I BECOME INTIMATE WITH MY RAGE AND ANGUISH. IT IS HERE THAT I REPLENISH AND REFUEL. WITH THIS WORK, I AM INVITING OTHERS INTO THIS SPACE AND INTO A CONVERSATION OF VULNERABILITY. I’M CURIOUS TO KNOW HOW OTHERS ARE FEELING AND BEING IN LIGHT CURRENT EVENTS - BEYOND SOCIAL MEDIA. IS IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO EXPERIENCE OURSELVES AND OTHERS UNMEDIATED? IS SKIN-COLOR A BARRIER TO COMPASSION? CAN WE RESPECT EACH OTHER’S SORROW? IS THE EXPRESSION OF GRIEF ONLY OF VALUE IN A CONSENSUS OF OPINION? OR IS IT ONLY TO BE CONSUMED? HAVE WE COLLECTIVELY MOURNED OUR INABILITY TO BE HUMANE TO ONE ANOTHER? #THESKINIMIN

MEDIUMS: PHOTOGRAPHY / VIDEO / AUDIO / INSTALLATION / COLLAGE / PARTICIPATORY PERFORMANCE

CONCEIVED AND PERFORMED BY TANISHA CHRISTIE

WITH CONSPIRATORS:

JD URBAN - VIDEO/AUDIO/PHOTOGRAPHY/BUILDER/DESIGN

CLAUDIA CINQUEGRANA - BUILDER/DESIGN ASST.

STACEY BERRY - DRESS DESIGN / FABRICATION

DRESS FABRIC COLLAGE: THE ARTIST 

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KRISTIN HORTON - DIRECTION CONTRIBUTION

JASON MINNIS, EDSON SEAN, CASEY STRATTON - MUSIC CONTRIBUTION

LIZ LERMAN, LIZ WOLFF - MOVEMENT/DANCE CONTRIBUTION

DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES, DEB O, SUE MAKKOO, ADAM HARRISON, ELISE TIRELLI, CHAZZ PADILLA - PROJECT CONTRIBUTION

ITERATION #1, #2 AND #3 @ BROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE (BAX), BROOKLYN, NY (2016, 2017)

ITERATION #4 @ THE SECOND WARD FOUNDATION, HUDSON, NY (2018)

INSTALLATION FOR NFINIT FOUNDATION, EXHIBITION: BANG TEMPLE BROOKLYN, NY (2019)

Iona Flies Away

IONA FLIES AWAY is a audio/storytelling/work in progress.  A story of a girl from a family who becomes a woman because that's what happens.

Iona’s favorite place is the beach where the seagulls swirling satiates her young soul. But when she’s at home, the Voices – her conscious/unconsciousness – are learning that relationships can be challenging. Iona’s younger Brother can ‘do no wrong’, her Uncle is always around helping Mama who is mostly unforgiving, but Daddy is a respite. As Iona comes of age, one argument with Mama too many sends her flying into the unknown chapters of her life.

A story told with song Iona Flies Away is a 14-episode narrative, storytelling music podcast series about a black girl who uneasily grows into a woman. She’s seeking love and significance because in life that’s what should happen.

The work has previously had a workshop reading in a different iteration at Horizon’s Theater (Washington, DC). I am now working with singer/songwriter Kelly Sloan  to reconfigure the piece to create a concert/storytelling/theatrical experience.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS

Kelly Sloan is a singer/song writer and actress that hails from Detroit Michigan. As music has constantly been an inspiration in her artistry, she is beyond excited to be taking part in the Poets and Writers Seventh Annual Cross Cultural Reading.  Her recent New York credits include, "Both my Grandfathers" at Lincoln Center Education, "SANDBOX" at The Fire This Time One Act Play festival. "That Black Mermaid Man Lady" at New Dramatists. As well as music venues Prohibition and Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre. 

Chris Vega who is the son of Latin dance legend Joe Vega, had an early exposure to live music as he watched the famous Latin big bands led by Tito Puente and Machito performing behind his father. There were always various toy instruments around the house, such as a guitar, bongos, a recorder and an organ. The first time Chris would pick up a real instrument was in 5th grade. Wanting to play the cello but being too small to handle the instrument comfortably, he settled on the violin. This would be his musical path until hearing "Good Times" by Chic and it's iconic bass line played by Bernard Edwards. From that moment, Chris was obsessed with learning the bass guitar. 

Shortly after graduating college with a degree in music theory and composition, Chris hooked up with a popular NYC band called Bang The Drum, which featured current Blues sensation Regina Bonelli as lead vocalist and songwriter that fused pop, rock, funk and Afro/Cuban rhythms for five years. He then crossed paths with vocal powerhouse Amy Douglas for the next ten years and enjoyed regional acclaim for their live shows, traveling around the Northeast music scene and headlining several music festivals. During this time, Chris also played on the club hit "Let It Rain" by Soul Solution featuring dance music icon Carolyn Harding. He also performed at the 1999 Espoo Jazz Festival in Finland, which featured Ray Charles as well as The Yellow Jackets as the headlining artists.

The last few years has found Chris working with various artists around New York City, including Kelly Sloan as her music director for her backing band The Melodics. He serves as the musical director for her backing band, The Melodics. In addition to working with Kelly, Chris has also been doing a lot of corporate work locally, nationally and abroad, teaching and promoting the message of music and the importance of the bass. He considers himself immensely blessed to be able to have a career doing what he loves and gets great joy from giving back and sharing his talent with the world. 

Christine Joseph (additional lyrics & melodies): Christine is a singer, songwriter living in Brooklyn.

  

Memory Is A Body Of Water

MEMORY IS A BODY OF WATER is a dance-theater play for two women and a dancer. Created with video, the play chronicled a night in the life a Kim, a young ‘vigilante artist’ who has been spray painting R.I.P. on the sidewalk where her brother was killed. Through a journey in time and a constellation of characters, Kim learns that even through the protracted history of violence for African-Americans, the will to survive is always present, and a possibility for her future. Written by Lisa Biggs and Tanisha Christie

MEMORY IS A BODY OF WATER – PRODUCTION HISTORY

QUOTES

“…[a] defiant lamentation…” New York Times 8/8/03

“ ...[an] eloquently passionate excavation of history…” nytheatre.com 8/10/02

“…dynamic…” The Chronicle 8/7/03

Memory Is A Body Of Water has been developed through Equity staged readings and workshop productions at:

• Baltimore Theatre Project – Baltimore, MD

• The Living Stage Theatre Company – Washington, DC

• The All Nation’s Studio – Washington, DC

• Joe’s Movement Emporium – Mt. Rainer, MD

• 2000 Source Theatre Festival – Washington, DC

• Art-O-Matic! – Washington, DC

Excerpts performed at:

• Cultural Odyssey – San Francisco, CA

• Links Hall – Chicago, IL

Full Equity productions:

• New York International Fringe Festival, a production of The Present Company in New York City, The CSV Milagro Theatre (August 2002).

• Amherst College (September 2002)

• Goucher College (September 2002)

• District of Columbia Arts Center (October 2002)

• National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (August 2003)

The play had the following cast:   

Performer/Playwrights

Lisa Biggs*
Tanisha Christie*

Ancestor/Dancer Rita Jean Kelly Burns Directed by Kristin HortonOriginal Music and Sound Design Grant Matthew SmithChoreography Rita Jean Kelly BurnsVideomaker French JouffriaultLighting Design Lakia GreenSet Design William WurtzVoiceovers Kelly Gardner, Vanessa Thomas, Jonathan ZuckMen In Video Sam Delmore, Greg A. Reid

Technical requirements:

• Minimal set and utilitarian costumes are employed. Possibly a few distinctive props, such as an aluminum tub and a small bench, in addition to a backdrop upon which the video plays, are on stage.

Length: 90 minutes.  No intermission.  Not suitable for children under 17.

Collaborator:  Dr. Lisa Biggs is a performing artist and performance scholar with over fifteen years worked as a performing artist, playwright, educator and arts administrator.  A former member of the Living Stage Theatre Company, she helped to co-found Medusa Speaks: An Artists’ Collective in 1999, and has helped produce the work of emerging women performing artists of color in venues New York to San Francisco.  Her own work has been performed at Cultural Odyssey, Baltimore Theater Project, Links Hall, the NY International Fringe and Hip Hop Theater festivals, the National Black Theater Festival, Brooklyn Arts Exchange and many more.  She holds a BA in Theater & Dance from Amherst College and an MA in Playwriting & Performance Studies from the Gallatin School at New York University. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and teaches theatre and performance studies at Michigan State University in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.