Amara Tabor-Smith of Deep Waters Dance Theater and Ellen Sebastian Chang are collaborating with Chapter 510 Ink to create House/Full of Black Women, a site-specific, ritual-based performance project about displacement, well-being, and continuing abuse and sex trafficking of black women and girls in Oakland. It will be presented in episodes and set in various sites throughout Oakland over a two-year period. The piece, culminating with a durational performance in a house, will weave together dance, music, film, visual art, spiritual rituals, and the personal narratives of black women and girls.
In addition to Tabor-Smith and Sebastian Chang, the piece features 15 black women artists, among them Zakiya Harris, Tossie Long, Valerie Troutt, musician/composer Chris Evans, architect/performer Shelley Davis Roberts, and performer and sex-trafficking activist Regina Evans.
The organizational partner, Chapter 510 Ink, is a youth literacy and writing center that is serving as the hub for many of the community workshops, panels, and performance episodes of the work. The project will culminate in September 2018.
Featured image from House/Full of Black Women