Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic

by Jones, Omi Osun Joni L.; Moore, Lisa L.; Bridgforth, Sharon

• ISBN13: 9780292722873
• ISBN10: 0292722877
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

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 colour 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 Awardwinning 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 Awardwinning 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.

Author Biography

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 bulljean stories and love conjure/blues. She is a member of New Dramatists and served as Anchor Artist for the Austin Project from 2002 to 2009.

Table of Contents

Preface: How to Use This Book	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Framing the Work
Making Space: Producing the Austin Project	p. 3
Finding Voice: Anchoring the Austin Project's Artistic Process	p. 12
Working the Work: An Anthology of Austin Project Writings
Polyphony: Writings by Ensemble Members	p. 29
Call and Response: Performance Pieces by Austin Project Guest Artists	p. 154
Affirming Connection: Pre-Show Artists' Performance Texts	p. 259
Spoken-Word Orchestra: A Full Script from the Austin Project Jam Session, December 2005	p. 273
The Work of Transformation
Transforming Practice: Artists, Activists, and Academics Working across Boundaries	p. 323
Work of the Spirit: A Conversation with an Austin Project Elder	p. 343
Narrating the Austin Project: The First Five Years	p. 350
Notes	p. 369
Index	p. 373
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