The Geneva Project

By ​Jennifer Harrison Newman
In collaboration with Charlotte Brathwaite, Justin Hicks, Abigail DeVille and Paul Leiber
May 19 - 21, 2016

For one week, the inside of JACK is transformed into a tangled southern wilderness, inspired by photographs that dancer and choreographer Jennifer Harrison Newman found in the Library of Congress of her great-aunt, Geneva Varner Clark, and her family on their farm in Depression-era South Carolina. The photographs, taken by New Deal era photographer Marion Post Wolcott with captions such as “negro”, “mixed race” and “Indian,” provide more than simply a visual backdrop, inspiring an emotional and visceral conjuring of the ghosts of our shared social past. In collaboration with visionary director Charlotte Brathwaite, other-worldly composer Justin Hicks, singular installation artist Abigail DeVille, polymath projection designer Paul Lieber and lighting designer Tuce Yasak, Newman invites an inquiry into the politics of subjectivity and personhood by giving face to people marginalized by racial classifications and their economic ramifications. This dark, poetic piece questions what is revealed and what remains hidden by bringing light to that which was once buried.

Performances:
May 19 - 21 at 8 P.M.
Presented in association with 651 Arts.

Jennifer Harrison Newman (Choreographer/Performer) is a New York based dance and theatre artist who works extensively as a choreographer, movement-director, educator and producer. Jennifer has been an artist in residence at Yale University, Central Connecticut State University, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy in Malmö, Sweden. MFA Yale School of Drama, BA UCLA.

Charlotte Brathwaite (Director) is known for staging classical and unconventional texts, dance, visual art, multi-media, site-specific, installation and music events which have been seen in the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. Recipient: Princess Grace, Julian Milton Kaufman Prize, MFA Yale School of Drama. She is currently Assistant Professor of Theater Arts Massachusetts Institute of Technology. www.charlottebrathwaite.com

Abigail DeVille (Set Design) received her MFA from Yale University 2011 and her BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2007. DeVille has exhibited a growing constellation of site-specific installations in the United States and Europe. Her most recent exhibitions include Only When Its Dark Enough Can You See The Stars, The Contemporary, Baltimore, MD (2016); Revolution in the Making, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles, CA (2016); America, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris (2015); From the Ruins… at 601Artspace (2015), When You Cut Into the Present the Future Leaks Out at the Old Bronx Courthouse (2015), Nobody knows My Name at Monique Meloche Gallery (2015); The Day the Earth Stood Still at Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery (2015); Puddle, Pothole, Portal at Sculpture Center (2014); Playing with Fire: Political Interventions, Dissident Acts, and Mischievous Actions at El Museo del Barrio (2014); Material Histories at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2014); Outside the Lines at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston (2014); Invisible Men: Beyond the Veil, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris (2013); Gastown Follies, Artspeak, Vancouver, BC, (2013); Bronx Calling, The Bronx Museum of the Arts (2013); Future Generation Art Prize at Venice, The 55th Venice Biennale (2013); They might as well have been remnants of the boat, Calder Foundation, New York (2013); XXXXXXX, at Iceberg Projects, Chicago (2013); Fore, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); Future Generation Art Prize Exhibition at the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine (2012); If I don't think I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2012); First Among Equals, ICA, Philadelphia, PA (2012); The Ungovernables, New Museum, NY (2012); Bosch Young Talent Show, Stedelijk Museum, s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (2011). She has designed sets for theatrical productions—directed by Peter Sellers and Charlotte Brathwaite—at venues such as La Mama (2015), the Stratford Festival (2014), JACK (2014), and Joe’s Pub (2014). DeVille is a 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient. 2014-15 fellow at The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, 2015 Creative Capital grantee and received a 2015 OBIE Award for design.

Justin Hicks (music/sound design) Using sound, and text, Justin's work aims to create work that reaches toward a dialogue and the corroboration of instinctual values held by the diaspora of working people. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, singer-songwriter style concerts, and music theatre, Justin explores themes of economics, marriage, religion, race, and labor. Along with solo efforts,he has collaborated with several artists and organizations including Kaneza Schaal, Christopher Myers, Alexis Marcelo, Frank Lacey, Steffani Jemison, MoMA, Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Austria, Lincoln Center, NURTUREart, Hank Willis Thomas, among many others. justinhicksmusic.com

Paul Lieber (Projection Design) is a Projection Designer, Filmmaker, Songwriter, and Performer. His design work has been seen at the Carnegie Hall,Yale Repertory Theater, Yale Opera, BAM, El Museo del Barrio, MaYi Theater Company and with the Elisa Monte and the Martha Graham Dance Companies. He is co-founder of the songwriting collective Strange Motel and holds an MFA in Projection Design from the Yale School of Drama.

The Geneva Project is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by 651 ARTS in partnership with Yale Public Humanities Program and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

​photo by Barbara Anastacio.