Artists Featured: Mariama Eversley, Sierra Leverett, and Ebony Webster
Photo Credit: Fletcher Laws

Important Dates

Registration Opens: February 26, 2025
Virtual Sessions: April 1, 2025 - June 29, 2025
In-Person Immersion: October 11, 2025 - October 16, 2025

Program Introduction

Jupiter Performance Studio (JPS) invites applications for black/water: to conjure a/new…, its 2025 learning ceremony. Designed and facilitated by Ebony Noelle Golden and guest artists, this program builds upon Golden's ongoing ethnographic research, performance practice, and local environmental justice organizing. black/water: to conjure a/new… builds on previous JPS Lab offerings, emphasizing worlding, wilding, and wandering as essential to creating transformative performance and social justice initiatives with real-world applications.

This year's course features online and in-person activities, including a virtual morning ritual, virtual workshops, guest lectures, readings, viewings, fieldwork, field trips, and individual and group projects. An in-person immersion will be offered this fall. The learning ceremony aims to advance artistic sensibilities related to climate intimacy and sacred stewardship of the super/natural world.

Participants will explore ecowomanist praxis, cultural strategy, and the devising and directing of theatrical ceremonies. The program delves into experimental and emergent methods for devising and directing ritual performance on stage, in public spaces, on land, and in water. Topics covered include theatrical ceremony methodologies, performance and directing theory, womanist spirituality, ritual poetics, and collective approaches to climate intimacy.

Guest Artists and fellows at Weeksville Heritage Center, 2018 Front: Rochelle Jamila. Front Left: Mshairi Siyanda, Sanchel Brown, Audrey Hailes. Front Right: Babay L. Angles, sára abdullah, Reanna Roane

Who Should Apply?

This opportunity is for you whether you are a farmer, a performer, a teacher, or a healer! You do not need previous experience or to be a professional in any field to participate. The most important qualifications are an open mind and a willingness to learn and engage actively.

Applicants will explore and participate in:

Creative exploration and public scholarship rooted in Black liberation, Black love, Black culture;
Traditional/non-Christian spiritual practices, ritual in the African/Black diasporic tradition,
Ethnographic research; and,
A dynamic communal learning community.

In-Person Immersion:

If you choose to apply to JPS’ in-person immersion, be prepared for a course of study steeped in embodiment. Our programmatic pedagogy activates movement, vocalization, mindfulness, meditation, silence, ritual, and collaborative creative participation. The black/water immersion will take place in nature and in studio space. Be prepared for wading in rivers, foraging for props in the woods, encountering bugs, and actively engaging in a physically demanding experience. You will work. You will sweat. You will be stretched.

Artist: Ebony Webster Photo Credit: Bleu Santiago

Expectations:

Active Participation: Be prepared to actively participate and contribute to a dynamic learning environment.
Presence: ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL BE REQUIRED TO BE ON CAMERA/IN-PERSON AND FOCUSED DURING SESSIONS. Please do not double-book, cook, drive, be tardy, or be otherwise occupied during our ceremonies.
Self-Regulation: Participants must be prepared to handle their emotional and daily life needs/requirements and be sensitive to the needs of others in our intentional community.

Emerging, established, and advanced femmes, women, and gender-expansive performers, healers, choreographers, directors, organizers, and educators of the global majority are highly encouraged to apply. No previous professional artistic or academic experience is required. All are welcome. Applicants must be at least 21 years of age.

All allies and supporters should donate to Jupiter Performance Studio to support our on-going work.

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REGISTRATION DATES

Application Launch: February 26, 2025

Early Bird Registration (scholarship rate)

Due: March 19, 2025

Cost: 175.00

Open Registration

Due: March 23, 2025

Cost: 555.00

Late Registration (after March 23, 2025)

Cost: 700.00

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The “DOWN SOUTH” Immersion

Early Registration (scholarship rate)

Due: August 15, 2025

Cost: 500.00

Open Registration

Due: September 15, 2025

Cost: 750.00

Late Registration (after September 15, 2025)

Cost: 1,000.00

*JPS will announce the location (which is likely to be in North Carolina) by March 15. All dates are mandatory. Participants are expected to attend all meeting dates and public events.

DROP-IN RATES: 250.00/session

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Tuition payments can be made via:

PayPal(ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com)

Venmo(@ebonynoellegolden)

Zelle(ebonygolden@bettysdaughterarts.com)

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Early iteration of In the Name of the Mother Tree, 2019. Artists (Left to right) Kirrin Tubo and Paris Cymone

VIRTUAL PROGRAM DATES

black/water 2025: to conjure a/new...is a hybrid learning ceremony, where we will meet virtually via Google Meet and in person in October 2025. All times are EDT.

Virtual Orientation

Date: April 1, 2025

Virtual Wellness Ritual

Date: April 6, 2025 - April 12, 2025

Time: 6:00 AM - 7:00 AM

Virtual Learning Ceremonies

All Sessions take place via Google Meet.

Time: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT

1. Womanist Methodology

Date: April 19, 2025

2. Climate Intimacy and Environmental Justice

Date: May 3, 2025

3. Climate Reparations

Date: May 10, 2025

4. Womanist Approaches to Directing and Devising Theatrical Performance

Date: May 17, 2025

5. Project Proposal Presentations

Date: May 24, 2025

Independent Study--Ethnographic Research

Dates: May 26, 2025 - June 28, 2025

Student Presentations and Culmination of virtual learning ceremony

Dates: June 28, 2025 and June 29, 2025

The “DOWN SOUTH” Immersion

Dates: October 11, 2025 - October 16, 2025

APPLY NOW!

Guiding Questions for the Learning Ceremony

How does liberation intersect with the sacred stewardship of land and water?
What everyday rituals foster wellness and climate intimacy, enabling harmonious living with our planet?
How can creativity and performance transform our relationship with the environment?
In what ways can womanist directing, devising practices, and rituals affirm and advance radical reciprocity with the natural world?
What constitutes a womanist model for climate intimacy and environmental justice?

Course Themes

Rooted in the cultural and political movements for Black women's liberation, the term "womanist," coined by Alice Walker, provides a framework for understanding the lived experiences and everyday rituals that contribute to Black women's freedom. black/water: to conjure a/new… examines the cultural and sociopolitical impact of womanist and Black feminist theater and experimental performance, from the 1970s to the Movement for Black Lives.

Wellness as Climate Intimacy

black/water: to conjure a/new… begins with a virtual wellness ritual (6:00 AM - 7:00 AM EDT). Participants will engage in writing, meditation, and creative rituals that explore themes related to building and sustaining a personal relationship with the planet and cultivating spiritual practice.

Research and Ethnography

Participants will utilize ethnographic research methods to develop solo performances. These research methods include gathering oral histories through interviews, conducting site visits, and recording field notes. This practice will form the foundation for devising each participant's project proposals, final presentations, and performances.

Ritual Performance

Directing ritual performance, in the womanist tradition, is a practice of conjuring worlds that enliven and expand Black women and femmes' visions for liberation. With a focus on directing and devising methods, black/water: to conjure a/new… examines the cultural and sociopolitical impact of womanist and Black feminist theater and experimental performance artists from the 1970s to the Movement for Black Lives. This learning ceremony investigates and expands a womanist praxis of conjure as a critical aspect of world-building, both on stage and in real life.

Environmental Justice

Participants will explore an intersectional approach to environmental justice centered within an ecowomanist framework. We will study the urban gardening movement, Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative, Black farming futures and legacies, and the Red, Black, and Green New Deal. We will also explore how land stewards have nurtured ecological resilience despite adversity and systemic oppression. Participants will gain a clear and foundational understanding of how to make behavioral and institutional changes that support the thriving of both people and the planet.

Reparations

black/water: to conjure a/new… centers reparations as an approach to holistic and sustained community repair. This encompasses transformation in the cultural, political, economic, and social beliefs and systems. Participants will explore reparations as a non-reactive, autonomous, and collaborative process—inextricably connected to the throughline of diasporic Black liberation. Participants will explore systems of mutual aid, support, and well-being that have guided our communities historically, in this contemporary moment, and into the liberated Black future.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

black/water: to conjure a/new... black/water: to conjure a/new… is a hybrid (virtual + in-person) learning ceremony that supports the ongoing movement for environmental justice and climate reparations through creative ceremonies in community. This offering advances collective approaches to climate intimacy and sacred stewardship of the super/natural world.

Virtual Course Goals

By the end of black/water: to conjure a/new…, participants will:

Gain insight into methodologies, strategies, and creative embodiment techniques that advance a womanist directing and devising praxis, climate intimacy, climate justice, and reparations within their own personal practices.
Deepen their understanding of how to sustain a personal and communal performance practice.
Renew their commitment to the planet.

The course concludes with a series of collective and individual presentations.

Assignments

Attend orientation, wellness ritual, and all sessions.
Complete all assignments.
Complete 4 journal assignments.
Complete an independent research project.
Present the research project.

Artists featured: Fletcher Laws, Ebony Webster, Karma Mayet Johnson, Jude Evans, and Brittany Grier. Photo Credit: Bleu Santiago

In-Person Immersion

black/water: to conjure a/new… offers an in-person immersion to explore theatrical ceremony methods, devising ritual performance, directing theory, theatrical jazz, theatrical blues, womanist spirituality, and ritual poetics.

Goals

Participants in the in-person immersion should be comfortable:

Learning and creating in community, rural, and natural environments. (We will be outside!)
Rising early and working in the morning.
Attending field trips, workshops, nature walks, discussions, and independent explorations.
Engaging in rigorous discourse and non-Christian ceremonies.
Participating in ritual performances that take place in water and on land.

Participants will practice experimental and emergent methods for devising and directing ritual performance on stage, in public spaces, on land, and in water.

Assignments

Attend orientation and all sessions with local artists and activists.
Attend all devising and directing workshops.
Complete 2 journal assignments.
Attend all art dates and excursions.
Participate in river and nature walks (must be willing to be in water and nature).
Participate in farm work day.
Complete a group performance project.
Complete a presentation on directing.
Perform during the community processional.

Your in-person immersion tuition does not cover travel, food, lodging, or housing. In-person immersion participants are required to provide their own travel, ground transportation, housing and food. JPS is not able to provide support with these needs.

Please note: select participants may be invited to join Jupiter Performance Studio or perform at public events.

Course Designer and Facilitator

Ebony Noelle Golden is the designer and lead facilitator of black/water: to conjure a/new. Read more about Ebony here.

Course Host

Established in 2020 by Ebony Noelle Golden, JPS conjures theatrical ceremonies rooted in diasporic Black cultural, spiritual, and performance traditions. JPS' work activates stages, streets, and sacred sites as spaces of liberation. JPS supports the movement for environmental justice and climate reparations through Watering (W)hole, its community engagement + education cosmology.

Recent projects include The Divining: Ceremonies from in the name of the m/other tree, commissioned by Apollo Theater and co-produced with National Black Theatre with major support from Double Edge Theatre, Green Apu at Central Mesa, and the National Theater Project; The Art and Survival Fellowship + Festival, produced in collaboration with Double Edge Theatre; and The Keeping, commissioned by Weeksville Heritage Center with major support from Creative Capital.

JPS’ current performance, again, the watercarriers, the next iteration of Golden’s episodic ceremony exploring spirituality and environmental justice, will tour fall 2025-2026.

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