A discussion of the collaboration between Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Nora Chipaumire. visible is a performance work that explores epic journeys, myths, dreams, and memories of both the known world and an imagined future in an unknown land. Nora Chipaumire and Jawole Zollar conceive of a landscape that unlocks the personal narratives of those who leave their homelands—by choice or not—in search of the “warmth of other suns” (Richard Wright). Performed by men and women of all ages from around the world, the work draws directly on the personal experiences of the cast, as well as influential moments in history and poetry, in order to explore how the world we live in projects ideas of dominance and submission, shadows and light, sentient beings who are visible and ancestral forces that we feel but cannot see. What new ideas of art, visible dares ask, emerge when we confront the difference of “the other”? What kinds of work are we capable of if we have nothing to lose and nothing to prove? visible premieres October 12–15, at Harlem Stage.
New York City, NY; NYC