Bay Area Artists and Activists come together for 3 days of performances, workshops and panel discussions!
This three-day community art event features workshops, panel discussions, performances, and visual art focused on art and social justice. Theater artists, dancers, musicians, visual artists, and poets will share their work in evening performances, while facilitators, activists, and educators will host workshops and panel discussions during the day. Blessed Unrest aims to raise awareness abo...
Bay Area Artists and Activists come together for 3 days of performances, workshops and panel discussions!
This three-day community art event features workshops, panel discussions, performances, and visual art focused on art and social justice. Theater artists, dancers, musicians, visual artists, and poets will share their work in evening performances, while facilitators, activists, and educators will host workshops and panel discussions during the day. Blessed Unrest aims to raise awareness about the power of art to advance the cause of social justice by bringing artists into conversation with each other, local activists, and the public.
Performances by Rhodessa Jones, The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, Edris Cooper, Keisha Turner, Marvin White, The Embodiment Project, Sammay Dizon, Deezbaa O'Hare, Stephanie Johnson, Spulu, Zo Tobi, Helen Klonaris, InterPlay and Skywatchers
My Enemy Installation by Feldsott, www.feldsott.com
Learn more at: www.CrescentMoonTheaterProductions.com
Tickets available at: http://counterpulse.org/?tribe_events=blessed-unrest-an-arts-and-social-justice-festival/
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
6:30-7:30pm Opening Reception
Inside Feldsott’s My Enemy Installation, www.feldsott.com
Performances, 8pm
Opening Ritual by Rhodessa Jones
Marvin White
Deezbaa O’Hare
Helen Klonaris
The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women
Artist Q & A
SATURDAY
Workshop 11am-2pm Soul Balm for the POC Freedom Fighter with Keisha Turner
This workshop is for activists, artivists, front lines workers, abolitionists, system-impacted folks and those who support and advocate for them, radical youth service providers, and freedom fighters of all kinds who self-identify as people of color. Whether we are fighting for our right to our land, to stay in our homes, for fair wages, or our right to exist unencumbered by police terror, the hard work of resistance can have the tendency to leave us heavy and weary. Soul Balm for the POC Freedom Fighter is an opportunity for us to gather from a place of joy, healing, and the deep, radical love that led us to do the work that we do. We will intentionally and mutually nurture one another and ourselves through song, movement, food, and ritual. Come prepared to move your body, lift your voice, and activate your creativity!
About the instructor: Performer and educator, Keisha Turner, has Chicago and Brooklyn roots, and is based in Oakland, CA. She is a former touring company member and current
teaching artist and BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders through Dance) Facilitator with critically acclaimed dance company Urban Bush Women. Keisha is a creative change-maker with growing ties to the many resistance movements
taking place in the Bay Area. She is also a certified yoga instructor, and is committed to offering body-positive, life-affirming classes that create space for participants to prioritize self-care and self-awareness as an entry point to engaging with their communities. Her creative enterprise, EarthChild, is a
collection of love-offerings comprised of performance, yoga classes, and body care products to celebrate, heal, and uplift oppressed communities. In her artistic practice, she values the ability of African American/African diasporic traditions of dance and improvisation to intersect with contemporary performance art to tell stories that probe issues of politics, culture, and identity.
3:30-5pm PANEL DISCUSSION
What does arts for social change mean and how is it impacting the Bay Area?
Featuring:
Rhodessa Jones, director of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, www.medeaproject.org
Anne Bluethenthal, founder of ABD Productions and Skywatchers Ensemble, www.abdproductions.org
Joanna Haigood, founder of Zaccho Dance Theater, www.zaccho.org
5:30-6:30pm: Skywatchers Ensemble Performance and Talkback
ABD initiated the Skywatchers project five years ago in collaboration with Community Housing Project (CHP) and the Luggage Store. Skywatchers illuminates the lives and stories of residents of the Tenderloin who are too often reduced to statistics. Fundamentally, the project is about the connectivity that is essential to the creative process, and the vital importance and humanizing impact of making visible the stories that make us who we are. We engage residents as storytellers, co-creators, performers, and audience members— working in close collaboration with ABD dancers and associated artists—in the creation of performance pieces that reflect the richness and complexity of their stories.”
Learn more at:www.abdproductions.org/skywatchers-2-2/
Performances, 8pm
Keisha Turner
Spulu
Sammay Dizon
The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women
Artist Q & A
SUNDAY
WORKSHOP 11am-2pm InterPlay Performance/Workshop on
The Unbelievable Beauty of Being Artists
This is both a workshop and performance in which you can have a part if you choose.
Do a fun warm up that allows one’s whole being to enter community with ease. Sing
and share brief stories about the work you do. Dance on behalf of artists of all kinds
who offer vision and hope. Learn about InterPlay’s approach to wholistic social
change rooted in the ethic of grace and play.
Using the elegant improvisational language and body wisdom methods of InterPlay
you’ll see a diverse community perform dances, songs, music, and short stories that
show how humans can collaborate on the spot to inspire health, peace, and love in
spite of our obstacles and challenges.
Learn about InterPlay’s Art and Social Change Training for Millennial Leaders, Life
Practice Programs, and the Changing the Race Dance Project!
www.interplay.org
About the Facilitator: Director Cynthia Winton-Henry cofounded InterPlay with Phil Porter. Taking InterPlay to people as artists, organizers, activists, and educators they now serve as Executive Directors and visionaries of Body Wisdom, Inc, a global movement that many claim is key to their success. Cynthia is the author of What the Body Wants, Dance: The Sacred Art and Chasing the Dance of Life: A Faith Journey. She is a graduate of UCLAs Dance Dept, The Pacific School or Religion where she taught theology and the arts for twenty years, and did post graduate work in Multicultural Education. She speaks and counsels on the role of the body and creativity in group health and social change.
PANEL DISCUSSION 3-4:30pm How can art shape our world?
Featuring:
Stephanie Anne Johnson PHD, www.lightessencedesign.com
Cynthia Winton-Henry, founder of InterPlay, www.interplay.org
Helen Klonaris, co-editor of Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, with Trans-Genre Press.
Patricia Powell- Author and Director of Mill's College Creative Writing MFA Program
8-9:30pm PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST Q & A
The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women
Stephanie Johnson
Emodiment Project
Zo Tobi
Artist Q & A
Festival Performers Include: The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, Rhodessa Jones, Skywatchers Ensemble, Keisha Turner, Sammay Dizon, Stephanie Johnson, Embodiment Project, Deezba O'Hare, Marvin K. White, Lydia Harutoonian, Helen Klonaris, Spulu, Zo Tobi
*Chen-Ling Chen’s Herliograph project on display in the lobby through the duration of the festival
Tickets available at: http://counterpulse.org/?tribe_events=blessed-unrest-an-arts-and-social-justice-festival/
Special Thanks to the Zellerbach Foundation for making this festival possible
*Event photo of Rhodessa Jones by Bill Goidell