Black Girl Games and Identity
Camille A. Brown & Dancers will present BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015) as part of the University Concert and Lecture Series on Saturday, February 8th at 8:00 pm in the UNCG Auditorium. Inspired by ethnomusicologist Kyra Gaunt’s prize-winning book, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop, BLACK GIRL is an evening-length work for the women of Camille A. Brown’s company, which tours nationally and internationally and annually reaches 20,000 people.
Artistic Director and choreographer Camille A. Brown recalls: “The word ‘play’ immediately shot out. I started thinking about my childhood and the many games used to play — Double Dutch, Red light Green light, Marco Polo — and how it was hard for me to find narratives within the media that showcased Black girls being just that: girls.”
BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play celebrates the unspoken rhythms that African American girls develop through Double Dutch, social dances, and hand-clapping games. By mining these games and dances, Brown has created a work that elevates the gestures and rhythms of childhood games and explores how they help African American girls to carve out self-defined identities in urban America.
About the work, Brown writes, “It shows the power of sisterhood and the fact that, as we mature, Black girls still play.” With live music by pianist Justin Ellington and electric bassist Robin Bramlett, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production. Brown concludes, “If our audiences see parts of themselves in our work — their struggles and their joys — regardless of their color, gender, or socioeconomic background, then I know we have done our job.”
Brown’s Ted-Ed talk, A Visual History of Social Dance in 25 Moves, has over 15 million views on Facebook.
School of Music Concert to Benefit Spartan Open Pantry
The Collage Chamber Series is proud to announce a collaborative project with the UNCG Association of Retired Faculty for its upcoming concert on February 2 at 3:30pm in Tew Recital Hall. The ARF is partnering with the Collage Chamber Series to use the concert to raise funds and food donations for the Student Emergency Fund and the UNCG Spartan Open Pantry, a critically needed food resource for students and employees of UNCG who find themselves in need of assistance.
Beginning in Fall 2019, Collage Chamber Series became a free non-ticketed event in the fall of 2019. However, attendees of this concert are being asked to bring food items to donate to the Spartan Open Pantry which will be collected by members of the ARF. Information regarding what items are most needed (as well as more information about the Spartan Open Pantry) can be found at this link: https://sa.uncg.edu/sop-
Performers and repertoire will be:
Greensboro Chamber Brass (Renwick and Böhme)
Graduate Trio with Piano (Brahms Horn Trio – partial)
The UNCG Oud Ensemble, Nabil Rahma – director (traditional songs) Faculty Trio: Steve Stusek, Fabian Lopez, James Douglass (Eychenne)
UNCG Dance Student in Collaboration with Local High Schools Tell Stories of the African Diaspora
UNCG School of Dance student Abdoulay Koita in collaboration with The Denbaya Dance Company, The Western Guilford High School Chorus and the Southwest High School Dancers, premiers ‘The Djeli’s Job’ on March 14th in the UNCG Dance Theatre at 6:30pm.
This is a dance concert that will tell the stories that need to be told of the people of Africa and it’s diaspora by using Afrobeat, Trinidadian soca, Contemporary and Traditional African dance and music. The use of traditional dances will be to illustrate the steps we can take to make our community a little brighter by taking what our ancestors have left us and using it to build on their achievements.
Guilford County Fifth-Grader’s Short Story To Become Opera
A local fifth-grade author is about to see her short story turned into an opera by UNCG Opera students!
Read more….
https://www.wfdd.org/story/guilford-county-fifth-graders-short-story-become-opera
