Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project
In Austin, Texas, in 2002, a group of artists, activists, and academics led by performance studies scholar Omi Osun Joni L. Jones formed the Austin Project (tAP), which meets annually in order to provide a space for women of color and their allies to build relationships based on trust, creativity, and commitment to social justice by working together to write and perform work in the jazz aesthetic. Inspired by this experience, this book is both an anthology of new writing and a sourcebook for those who would like to use creative writing and performance to energize their artistic, scholarly, and activist practices. Theoretical and historical essays by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones describe and define the African American tradition of art-making known as the jazz aesthetic, and explain how her own work in this tradition inspired her to start tAP. Key artists in the tradition, from Bessie Award-winning choreographer Laurie Carlos and writer/performer Robbie McCauley to playwrights Daniel Alexander Jones and Carl Hancock Rux, worked with the women of tAP as mentors and teachers. This book brings together never-before-published, must-read materials by these nationally known artists and the transformative writing of tAP participants. A handbook for workshop leaders by Lambda Literary Award-winning writer Sharon Bridgforth, tAP's inaugural anchor artist, offers readers the tools for starting similar projects in their own communities. A full-length script of the 2005 tAP performance is an original documentation of the collaborative, breath-based, body work of the jazz aesthetic in theatre, and provides both a script for use by theatre artists and an invaluable documentation of a major transformative movement in contemporary performance.
1117134592
Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project
In Austin, Texas, in 2002, a group of artists, activists, and academics led by performance studies scholar Omi Osun Joni L. Jones formed the Austin Project (tAP), which meets annually in order to provide a space for women of color and their allies to build relationships based on trust, creativity, and commitment to social justice by working together to write and perform work in the jazz aesthetic. Inspired by this experience, this book is both an anthology of new writing and a sourcebook for those who would like to use creative writing and performance to energize their artistic, scholarly, and activist practices. Theoretical and historical essays by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones describe and define the African American tradition of art-making known as the jazz aesthetic, and explain how her own work in this tradition inspired her to start tAP. Key artists in the tradition, from Bessie Award-winning choreographer Laurie Carlos and writer/performer Robbie McCauley to playwrights Daniel Alexander Jones and Carl Hancock Rux, worked with the women of tAP as mentors and teachers. This book brings together never-before-published, must-read materials by these nationally known artists and the transformative writing of tAP participants. A handbook for workshop leaders by Lambda Literary Award-winning writer Sharon Bridgforth, tAP's inaugural anchor artist, offers readers the tools for starting similar projects in their own communities. A full-length script of the 2005 tAP performance is an original documentation of the collaborative, breath-based, body work of the jazz aesthetic in theatre, and provides both a script for use by theatre artists and an invaluable documentation of a major transformative movement in contemporary performance.
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Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project

Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project

by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones
Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project

Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project

by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones

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Overview

In Austin, Texas, in 2002, a group of artists, activists, and academics led by performance studies scholar Omi Osun Joni L. Jones formed the Austin Project (tAP), which meets annually in order to provide a space for women of color and their allies to build relationships based on trust, creativity, and commitment to social justice by working together to write and perform work in the jazz aesthetic. Inspired by this experience, this book is both an anthology of new writing and a sourcebook for those who would like to use creative writing and performance to energize their artistic, scholarly, and activist practices. Theoretical and historical essays by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones describe and define the African American tradition of art-making known as the jazz aesthetic, and explain how her own work in this tradition inspired her to start tAP. Key artists in the tradition, from Bessie Award-winning choreographer Laurie Carlos and writer/performer Robbie McCauley to playwrights Daniel Alexander Jones and Carl Hancock Rux, worked with the women of tAP as mentors and teachers. This book brings together never-before-published, must-read materials by these nationally known artists and the transformative writing of tAP participants. A handbook for workshop leaders by Lambda Literary Award-winning writer Sharon Bridgforth, tAP's inaugural anchor artist, offers readers the tools for starting similar projects in their own communities. A full-length script of the 2005 tAP performance is an original documentation of the collaborative, breath-based, body work of the jazz aesthetic in theatre, and provides both a script for use by theatre artists and an invaluable documentation of a major transformative movement in contemporary performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780292779723
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 07/21/2011
Series: Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

OMI OSUN JONI L. JONES is Director of the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and Associate Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.

LISA L. MOORE is Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

SHARON BRIDGFORTH is the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of the bull-jean stories and love conjure/blues. She is a member of New Dramatists and served as the Anchor Artist for the Austin Project from 2002–2009.

Table of Contents

Preface: How to Use This Book vii

Acknowledgments xi

Part I Framing the Work

Chapter 1 Making Space: Producing the Austin Project 3

Chapter 2 Finding Voice: Anchoring the Austin Project's Artistic Process 12

Part II Working the Work: An Anthology of Austin Project Writings

Chapter 3 Polyphony: Writings by Ensemble Members 29

Chapter 4 Call and Response: Performance Pieces by Austin Project Guest Artists 154

Chapter 5 Affirming Connection: Pre-Show Artists' Performance Texts 259

Chapter 6 Spoken-Word Orchestra: A Full Script from the Austin Project Jam Session, December 2005 273

Part III The Work of Transformation

Chapter 7 Transforming Practice: Artists, Activists, and Academics Working across Boundaries 323

Chapter 8 Work of the Spirit: A Conversation with an Austin Project Elder 343

Chapter 9 Narrating the Austin Project: The First Five Years 350

Notes 369

Index 373

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