The 2013-2014 Process Series will feature seven new artistic works-in-development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, beginning Sept. 20.
All shows are at 8 p.m. and are free to the public. The series offers audiences an opportunity to examine the creative process as artists and performers explore new ideas. Audience feedback following each performance is vital to the continued development of the works.
Now in its sixth season, the series has announced a new partnership with the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. Joseph Megel is the founding artistic director of the series.
Performances include:
Flying Erase Head
By INVISIBLE
Sept. 20 and 21
Gerrard Hall
INVISIBLE is a collaboration between artists Mark Dixon and Bart Trotman. INVISIBLE builds sound performances around experimental instruments, video and constrained composition techniques. Flying Erase Head features “Elsewhere’s Roof,” an original percussion device that uses leaky lab glass to create complex phasing rhythms.
En Mi Espejo, Veo Tu Cara (In My Mirror, I See Your Face)
By Roxana Pérez-Méndez
Oct. 25 and 26
Begins at Morehead Planetarium and travels through campus to Gerrard Hall
Roxana Pérez-Méndez, a video performance and installation artist and UNC art department faculty member, builds a multimedia presentation combining firsthand narrative and holographic video to create a guided tour of colonialism in the Americas through the eyes of a single Puerto Rican woman.
The Box
Written and performed by Carmelita Tropicana (aka Alina Troyano)
Nov. 15 and 16
Swain Hall, Studio 6
Carmelita Tropicana’s father was jailed as a teen for his revolutionary activities. He joined the rebel forces to free Cuba from Fulgencio Batista’s regime fighting alongside Fidel Castro but was forced to leave Cuba when he wrote a scathing report on a jail holding political prisoners. This new piece by New York City performance artist Tropicana explores complex racial and social issues.
Mission of a Saint
Written by Colman Domingo
Jan.17 and 18, 2014
Swain Hall, Studio 6
Theater artist Colman Domingo has excavated an “unseen moment” in August Wilson’s classic play “Fences,” in this insightful and compelling new script that explores the role and back-story of the character Gabriel.
Gathering Honey: Stories of Black Southern Women Who Love Women
By E. Patrick Johnson
Feb. 28 and March 1, 2014
The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture
E. Patrick Johnson is a professor of performance studies and African American studies at Northwestern University. He explores the unique and complex stories of black Southern women who identify as “lesbian,” “queer” or “same-gender-loving,” whose oral histories are chronicled in his forthcoming book, “Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women” (forthcoming from UNC Press).
The African American Art Song and Arranged Negro Spiritual For A New Generation Project
By Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister
March 21 and 22, 2014
Kenan Music Building, Rehearsal Hall
In an effort to preserve America’s arranged Negro spiritual and introduce unknown African American poets through art songs, sopranos Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister are pioneering “The African American Art Song and Arranged Negro Spirituals for a New Generation Project.” They are commissioning new works from dozens of composers and poets to create a new songbook that confirms the contemporary relevancy of the art song and spiritual traditions.
On My Word: Spoken Word Oral Histories of Displacement and Migration in Chapel Hill
By Della Pollock and the Sacrificial Poets
April 18 and 19, 2014
Location TBD
“On My Word” is a community-university collaboration exploring histories of migration, displacement and settlement among members of Chapel Hill’s African American communities. It features students, community members and area youth who have participated in a year of exchanging and crafting stories of home, struggle, joy and change to advance ongoing dialogue about diversity and the meaning of place.
The Process Series is supported in part by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and the departments of communication studies, art, music, English and comparative literature, dramatic art, and African, African American and Diaspora Studies.
For more information, visit http://processseries.unc.edu and http://iah.unc.edu.
