PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus

About

Marking 10 years since Judy Hussie-Taylor conceived of the series, this Platform will be the centerpiece of Danspace’s 45th anniversary year.

PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus emerged from Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor’s interest in creating containers for sharing artistic practices: “Could we create a Platform for artists to be in a conversation with one another and offer that to a broader audience?” The result is a program that will unfold over four weeks with multiple voices, artistic collaborations, and interdisciplinary juxtapositions. Together, Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor developed these lines of curatorial inquiry for the Platform:

How do we weave a collective song?
How can the voice and body be a site of resistance and transformation?
How can we share artistic practices – between artists and between artists and audiences?

PLATFORM 2020 follows Okpokwasili’s longstanding inquiries addressing the lives of young women of color. It takes its title from Saidiya Hartman’s introduction to her book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments.

In addition to Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor, the Platform’s curatorial team includes Danspace Associate Curator and Program Director, Lydia Bell, and Seta Morton, Assistant Curator for Public Engagement.

View the PLATFORM 2020 Calendar for information on participants, programs, and events, including The New York premiere of Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born’s durational practice, Sitting On a Man’s Head, featuring a rotating chorus of 30 performers.

RESEARCH GROUPS
As an inquiry-based extension of the Platform, Danspace invited individual artists to be part of two artistic Research Groups that have been meeting regularly over the last 8 months. They will curate two long-form programs as part of the Platform, one exploring ideas around “Kin & Care,” and the other exploring ideas around “Voice & Body.”