The Black (W)hole
2019-2023 | Oakland, CA
PROJECT PARTNERS:
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Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Spoken word artist and playwright
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Sarah Crowell, Artistic Director Emeritus, Destiny Arts Youth Performance Center
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Destiny Arts Youth Performance Center
An elegy for six “Young Ghosts”—young people of color who were lost to violence in Oakland
The Black (W)hole was a healing, celebratory experience which mourned and honored the lives of six young people who died in and around Oakland before the age of 32. Conceived of with spoken word artist and playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) Artistic Director Sarah Crowell, this process-based project engaged multiple modalities including action research, installation, and performance to create public rituals for mourning and healing. The collaborators shared art forms in this work of public ritual to respond to the past and ongoing loss of Black lives, set against a backdrop of gentrification displacing families and culture. They asked: “How do we remember the ghosts of the gone-too-soon…the young souls of a town in transition?”
The project was inspired by the overwhelming need for new and embodied language to memorialize young people lost to violence. The focus was not on illuminating the absence of the youth but rather on making visible the mark their memory left on their loved ones and the community. The project also honored the fact that young lives are not just lost to “violence”—they are lost to a variety of factors that afflict the community as a whole, from militarized policing and gang activity to mental health issues and white supremacy. By exploring the marks these young people made before being sucked into “the black hole,” we affirmed cultural memory like light into the darkness.
Two weeks before the first community-engaged family event and four weeks before the first performance at the 300-seat Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College, COVID-19 mandated shelter in place. In lieu of the ten public performances and six site-specific engaged installations planned to share this work with the Oakland community, the collaborating artists remapped the course of The Black (W)hole project towards making a feature film, adapting to the exceptional circumstances of the time while staying grounded in the work’s original vision.
The Black (W)hole featured an elegy for six “Young Ghosts”—young people of color who were lost to violence. The project’s six portrait “vèvès” were informed by the Vodoun tradition of ritualized objects that invite and represent the presence of divine spirits. Through a sensitive discovery process, performers from the DAYPC youth company and its Elders Project uncovered symbols and clues for how each young person’s life might be celebrated. The resulting six artworks were decorated with inspiration from family interviews, photographs from the model’s life, and documentation from The Black (W)hole Project process. Painted on mirror, the flash of the spirit that showed through each portrait allowed us to recognize ourselves within, rather than apart from, these affirmations of cultural memory celebrating Black lives.
PROCESS
The Black (W)hole came together through collaboration, action research, installation, and performance
Embodiment of Reflection and Action - The Black (W)hole project beginnings in Brett’s studio/practice Center.
Peer-generated collaboration rubric - The Black (W)hole project beginnings in Brett’s studio/Practice Center.
Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company performing with Marc Bamuthi Joseph with the families of the Young Ghosts
DAYPC performing at Rodeo Beach as part of the Destiny/Black (W)hole weekend retreat in the Marin Headlands, CA.
Vernon’s Family views portrait for first time with a gifted original drawing of Vernon, with DAYPC ED Sarah Crowell and YAK Films in Cook’s Oakland Studio.
Artist and Vévé fabricator Jason D’Antonis mounting Plexiglass covers on Young Ghosts in preparation for The Black (W)hole public ritual for mourning and healing in Oakland, CA.
Destiny Arts Elders Dance Company, Emeryville, CA.
The installation and choreography was guided by dialogue with family members and the talents of many visionary collaborators: The Destiny Arts Center Teen Dance Company, The Elders Project, Sarah Crowell, Rashidi Omari, Paula Stewart, Risa Jaroslow, Kyla Searle, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Yoram Savion of YAKfilms, choreographers from the vertical dance company BANDALOOP, costume design by Angie Wilson and Brett Cook.
The Black (W)hole included healing, celebratory experiences which mourned and honored the lives of six young people who died in and around Oakland California.
The collaborators used their art forms in this work of public ritual to respond to the past/ongoing loss of Black Lives, set against a backdrop of gentrification displacing families and culture.
They ask: “How do we remember the ghosts of the gone-too-soon… the young souls of a town in transition?”
The Black (W)hole culminating family gathering, procession and final film shoot.
