Project Guidelines
2020 black/water: Mapping Black Atlantic Futurities
Curator/Creator: Ebony Noelle Golden
www.bettysdaughterarts.com
READ BELOW THEN SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION VIA GOOGLE FORMS: APPLY HERE
Centering/Call to Ceremony
“It's just like the water. I ain't felt this way in years" -Lauryn Hill
You do it. You act it. You behave it. “Freedom is not conferred. It is assumed. You take it.
-Kerry James Marshall
I hope you are well, hydrated, and in right relationship with water. In this moment I'm thinking deeply about my relationship with water. Am I drinking enough water? Am I honoring the reality of my body’s reliance on water? In these recent months of breakthrough and re-ordering, I have missed the ocean deeply. I have missed going to the river. I have missed walking in the rain. My desire for more water guides this ceremony that I want to share with you.
I'm reading about water. I'm listening to water music. I'm taking long baths. I'm eating lots of watery fruits and vegetables. I am drinking more water than I ever have before.
All of this watering has me thinking about how missing water in the world has led me to re-think my relationship to myself and how I don't always give myself what I need until it feels like it has evaporated. So there is something that I need to re-map and re-wire about this relationship I have with water. I don't want to invite what is always healthy and available out of desperation and spiritual hyperventilation. I can build healthy and reciprocal relationships with the water/myself now.
This call to ceremony is an invitation to do just that. This is a space to think about the bodies of water we have crossed ancestrally, literally, and symbolically. This space is an opportunity to consider how you/yourself are a body of water conjuring spirit, light, possibility, futures, and beyond.
I'm building a personal womanist water praxis that can hydrate my life and my creative work. I want to do this in part, by supporting other artists who are committed to finding ways to perform in this moment of distance/intimacy, shut-down/opening-inward, pause/reflection-rest. Welcome to the possibility of mapping new futures, myths, stories, and embodiments with water. We know what we know about how Blackness has moved across waters and why. But what is it we want to know about water that carries us into the past/present/future/beyond/multiverse?
We can make new legacies and new relationships with our creative praxis. This ceremony and this moment calls us to do so. I'm so glad you are here thinking, dreaming, and creating about water with me/us. Thank you for your interest in black/water.
black/water is a micro-commissioning opportunity for five performing artists to create new work that centers diasporic Blackness, waterways, waterscapes, water rites, water rituals, and water routes/roots. BDAC is interested in new work, new thoughts, and creative experiments.
This project is a micro-commission. A micro-commission means that BDAC is not producing/presenting a fully-funded world premier. BDAC is supporting work on a small scale with money but on a larger scale with dramaturgical, communal, and project support. Still interested? Here's what you need to know.
Timeline
Applications Live: July 10
Applications Due: July 25, 5:00 pm eastern daylight time
Kick-off: July 28
Project Check-in #1: August 13 (6-8 pm)
Project Check-in #2: August 21 (6-8 pm)
Projects Due: August 31 (12 noon)
Virtual Water Ceremony Tech #1: September 17 (6-8 pm)
Virtual Water Ceremony Tech #2: September 18 (6-8 pm)
black/water Virtual Ceremony: September 19 (3-6 pm)
All artists will paid on the day of the premier September 19.
All dates and times are required. All times are eastern daylight time.
Project Types
Final polished performances of no longer than 5-minutes submitted as videos.
Dance
Choreopoetry
Theatrical Jazz/Blues/Hip-Hop
Spoken word
Music Video (dance-based)
Project Support
Dramaturgical Support
Project Publicity Support
Regular Check-ins
Scholarly/Creative Writing (in response to your performance)
Live Streamed Event (to showcase your work)
500.00 (directly deposited into your account the day of the premier)
Eligibility
Is this for me? Yes. You don't have to be Broadway-bound to be down. You don't have to be a superstar to make work about water and Blackness. You don't have to identify as a performer to perform. You can be a designer, chef, nail technician, construction worker, preacher, sex worker, doctor, accountant, or none of these. We ask that you have an interest and desire to perform, dance, sing, write, speak, think, study, build, and share. BDAC highly encourages people of all artistic levels, genders, sexualities, educational, citizenship, or socio-economic backgrounds to submit a competitive application. This application is open to artists and non-artists globally.
BDAC is looking to work with folks who are:
Honest
Dedicated to a holistic water wellness practice
Available for all of the dates listed
Dedicated to a practice of radical and reciprocal hospitality
Respectful of community-based ritual and protocol
Able to respond to communication in a timely fashion
Able to show up on time
Willing to complete what they begin
Willing to cultivate community
Willing to commit to your practice
In alignment with the values and work of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative
Attendance
Please be in integrity about the time you have available to undergo this ceremony. You are expected and required to attend all sessions listed above. Please be honest and transparent about any and all availability. This is an important factor in our ability to evaluate your acceptance. Excessive tardies, absences, or lack of willingness to adhere to community agreements is explicit grounds for termination.
About the Commissioning Organization
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative (BDAC) is a cultural consultancy and arts accelerator that powers systems, strategies, and solutions for the arts and culture, social justice, wellness, community development, non profit and education ecosystems in NYC and nation-wide. Through our arts accelerator, BDAC amplifies the creative agency and capacity of artists, educators, activists, and others who want to activate arts praxis and creativity for social change. Through the consultancy BDAC has offered a community-based fellowship for the last ten years, trained hundreds of people in arts-centered technologies, produced a number of independent performances, curated numerous events, and funded artists to create their own work. We envision creativity and art as a strategy for personal growth, spiritual practice, and professional development.
About the Curator/Creator
Ebony Noelle Golden is an artist, scholar, and culture strategist from Houston, TX and currently based in Harlem. She devises site-specific ceremonies, live art installations, creative collaborations, and arts experiments that explore and radically imagine viable strategies for collective black liberation. In 2020, Ebony launched Jupiter Performance Studio (JPS) which serves as a hub for the study of diasporic black performance traditions. JPS is integral to the development of a five-part theatrical ceremony that will be developed and produced over the next three years with partners in Harlem, Brooklyn, Durham, and Ashfield, Massachusetts. In 2009, Ebony founded Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, a culture consultancy and arts accelerator, that devises systems, strategies, solutions for and with education, arts, culture, and community groups globally. Golden’s current projects include: Jubilee 11213 (in partnership with Weeksville Heritage Center and generously supported by Creative Capital, Coalition of Theaters of Color, and Black Spatial Relics), free/conjure/black, and In The Name Of (commissioned by Apollo Theatre and generously supported by Double Edge Theatre, Toshi Reagon, Network of Ensemble Theatres and Hi-Arts).
Instagram: @ebonynoellegolden
Twitter: @bettysdaughter1
Web: bettysdaughterarts.com
Project Contact
Organization: Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC
Email: info@bettysdaughterarts.com
Phone: 919.283.9032
Web: bettysdaughterarts.com
READ ABOVE THEN SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION VIA GOOGLE FORMS: APPLY HERE