a1951: GULLAH JACK'S BAG at Mobius in Boston

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Paulette Smith <psmith@emerald.tufts.edu>


Thought that might be of interest to people in the area:


GULLAH JACK'S BAG
MOBIUS PRESENTS
>>
>>GULLAH JACK'S BAG
>>A Vodou Inspired Performance Piece
>>To Conjure Festering Histories of the Slave Trade
>>
>>WHAT:
>>MOBIUS presents GULLAH JACK'S BAG, a Haitian Vodou inspired performance
>>piece that conjures festering histories of the slave trade.  Conceived,
>>co-directed, and performed by Anna Wexler and Erol Josue, it will also
>>feature poet, director and performer Darius Omar Williams (as the African
>>born slave revolt leader, Gullah Jack Pritchard), storyteller Guy
>>Peartree (as the Spirit of History), Haitian ritual and roots music
>>drummer JuJu, Mobius Artists Group composer Larry Johnson (sound and
>>lights), and poet/performer Abens Maurice (as Simbi).
>>
>>WHEN:
>>Friday, June 7th  8 pm
>>Saturday, June 8th  8 pm
>>Sunday, June 9th  2 pm
>>
>>WHERE:
>>  MOBIUS, 354 Congress St., Boston, MA
>>
>>TICKETS:
>>$10, $8 students, seniors and Friends of Mobius
>>Reservations recommended; please call early
>>(617) 542-7416
>>
>>(Boston, MA) GULLAH JACK'S BAG, a Haitian Vodou inspired performance
>>piece, conjures festering histories of the slave trade invoked by
>>performers whose ancestral legacies implode at a contemporary crossroads
>>of these histories.  Written, performed and co-directed by poet/artist
>>Anna Wexler, a descendant of clipper ship builders who profited from the
>>slave trade, the piece exposes New England's complicity with slavery
>>through an encounter between a Yankee daughter and the spirit of Gullah
>>Jack Pritchard.  An enslaved, African born Conjure Doctor who was a
>>ritual leader of the Denmark Vesey slave revolt in Charleston, S.C.,
>>Gullah Jack carried his medicine bag with charms on the slave ship that
>>transported him across the Atlantic.  Darius Omar Williams, a Mississippi
>>born poet, director and actor who recently performed a leading role in
>>the 2002 African American Theater Festival at the Boston Center for the
>>Arts, will appear as Gullah Jack.
>>
>>The poetic/visual structure of GULLAH JACK'S BAG draws on the ritual
>>traditions and history of Haitian Vodou linked to its pivotal role in the
>>slave uprisings in Saint Domingue (later Haiti) that directly inspired
>>the Vesey revolt.  A creative, contentious ritual process unfolds,
>>converging on a ship altar/installation for the Haitian ocean spirit,
>>Agwe, and culminating in a journey to his kingdom below the sea where
>>complicity and resistance to slavery reach a spiritual apotheosis.  The
>>piece will conclude with a propitiatory ceremony for Agwe, involving
>>performers, audience and local Vodou community members in consecrating
>>the charms and space through which festering histories have been revealed.
>>
>>Erol Josue, a Haitian Vodou priest and director of the Paris based
>>Company Shango, has designed the concluding ceremony, shaping the ritual
>>with his original choreography and music.  Know for his innovative and
>>performative interpretations of Vodou traditions, he will co-direct
>>GULLAH JACK'S BAG with Anna Wexler.  JuJu, a Haitian ritual and roots
>>musician, will drum in the spoken and ritual segments of the piece.  Also
>>featured in the concluding ritual is Abens Maurice, a Haitian born actor
>>and poet, who appeared in the 2001 African American Theater Festival at
>>the BCA.  Guy Peartree, a professional storyteller and performer of
>>African American historical figures, will appear as the Spirit of
>>History, opening and closing doors to the mythical/temporal realms of the
>>piece.  Larry Johnson, composer and Mobius Artists Group member, will do
>>the sound and light design for the piece.
>>
>>This performance made possible in part through a grant from the Puffin
>>Foundation.
>>
>>                                    END
>>
>>--
>>Mobius
>>Boston's Artist-Run Center
>>for Experimental Work in All Media
>>354 Congress St.
>>Boston, MA 02210
>>phone: 617-542-7416
>>fax: 617-451-2910
>>mobius@mobius.org
>>http://www.mobius.org