This Juneteenth, see Urban Bush Women (UBW) in Harlem and Renegade Performance Group (RPG) in Brooklyn.
Conceived, directed, and choreographed by UBW co-artistic directors Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, the company will present Haint Blu at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, June 13-18. Haint Blu is an ensemble dance-theater work “seeped in memory and magic. Known as the color that Southern families paint their front porches to ward off bad spirits, Haint Blu uses performance as a center and source of healing, taking audiences from movement into stillness and rest. The production arose from the urgent concern for the wellness of Black Women+. With its focus on remembering, reclaiming, releasing, and restoring, the work explores what has been lost across generations and what can be recovered,” according to the release. For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haint-blu-tickets-619904670557
For one afternoon only on June 18, RPG will present Webbed Fugues as part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Juneteenth Jubilee. Webbed Fugues uses the story of Anansi the Spider to explore how folktales, images, and symbols can be reimagined through our bodies and technology to transform how we think and see ourselves. Choreographed by artistic and creative director André M. Zachery, Webbed Fugues is inspired by Dr. Nadine George-Graves’s writing on “diasporic spidering” and includes projection by Zachery plus music by Charles Vincent Burwell and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste. For more information, visit https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/juneteenth_jubilee_june_2023