Art In This Present Moment
Brownbody
Artists continue to develop the score to Tracing Sacred Steps, which Brownbody initially presented in April 2019 as a work-in-progress.
About the Artists
Couple Thomasina Petrus and Charles Petrus, along with composer, Alex Shaw, are continuing to develop the score to Tracing Sacred Steps, which Brownbody initially presented in April 2019 as a work-in-progress.
Tracing Sacred Steps is an ensemble work, influenced by Ring Shout, but not an authentic recreation of a Ring Shout. Deneane Richburg, founder and artistic director of Brownbody, explains the work: "Ring Shout combined the movement and the circularity and the call-and-response that are all really, really important parts of different West African spiritual traditions, with that European-based manner of Christian worship. And so we have a lot of biblical references while you have a caller that might be calling a certain refrain or part of the song, and then you have the shouters, actually going in circles, in a counter-clockwise direction, responding."
Snapshots
Art In This Present Moment
This project is part of Art in This Present Moment, an initiative of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, with funding from the McKnight Foundation. We provided grants to 12 Minnesota-based nonprofit organizations to fund work by over 50 BIPOC artists who are changing and challenging dominant narratives through their craft.
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