South Philly’s Theatre Exile will be a hub of creativity via Jamaican dance and stories of African diaspora.
Journey Arts, which is based in West Philadelphia, will present Make Ready Again, an original work by dancer Marguerite Hemmings, running Dec. 5-7 at Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13th St. The show will feature music from Omar’s Hat, a West Philadelphia music collective known for free-flowing jam sessions. It will also include works from local musicians T’ Wom, Jonill, Lee Clarke and Daniel Woods.
The show is said to create “an evening of dance, storytelling and music grappling with an unanswered call for reparations and repair for herself and the African diaspora.”
“My practice of repair and reparation for the past few years has been through shadow work,” said Hemmings. “The shadow is understood mostly as the most marginalized parts of ourselves, and with Make Ready Again, I’m trying to encounter and sit with this shadow, through the subconscious languages of movement, music, writing and dreaming, in hopes to find a readiness, within, to meet this moment, meet you and meet myself.”
Hemmings, who has worked at University of the Arts in the School of Dance as well as Arizona State University, Princeton University and many afterschool programs and community centers, performs a live process of meeting their own shadow. Hemmings specializes in emergent, improvisational and social movement styles and technologies.
“I’m so inspired by the artistic rigor of the artists we’re working with this season at Journey Arts – the perfect underscore to our recommitment to making art that brings new, intimate perspective to epic, timeless questions,” said Artistic Director Marla Burkholder. “Marguerite and these musicians have prepared a one-of-a-kind performance that you don’t want to miss.”
The show is one of Journey Arts’ first under its new name and branding, but its foundation dates to 2002. Now in its 22nd season, the performing arts presenter will continue its season with Eight Eight Time on April 3-5 at Drexel University and Table Sessions on June 11-12 at Bartram’s Garden.
