Three collaboratively crafted online performances led by undergraduate women artists of color will be offered Oct. 30–31 by the Cornell University Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA), Cornell Ambassadors for Media and Performance (CAMP), and Graduate Researchers in Media and Performing Arts (GRMPA).
The series, titled “Virtual Vibrance: Making, Shaking, Breaking Performance,” is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
The events are free and open to the public. Tickets may be reserved at schwartztickets.com; a link to the performance will be emailed to ticket-holders in the 30 minutes prior to showtime.
"Exhibit Noir," devised by Faith Parris ’24, will be shown Friday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 31 at 2:00 p.m.
"Exhibit Noir" depicts a Black museum, exploring blackness in the arts while focusing on the white gaze. Parris incorporates Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s idea of “the mask” and other original poetry. The piece will consist of four consecutive dances that serve to tell a story through the African Diaspora.
The American Slavery Project’s "In the Parlour" by Judy Tate, directed by Carley Robinson ’21, will be shown Saturday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
"In the Parlour" takes place on March 1, 1913, on the eve of what was to become the most historic women’s suffrage march in history. The African-American activist Mary Church Terrell negotiates with white suffragette Alice Paul, who has organized the march but is unwilling to allow African-American women to participate. A hundred years after the passing of the 19th Amendment, "In the Parlour" is a stark portrait of the ways Black women were central to the fight for women's suffrage despite being sidelined and excluded by white women in the movement. In an election year, Tate's play reminds us that voting is an invaluable privilege and has not always been (and still is not) a right for all people.
