Yes, And

Gesel Mason
Presented in partnership with Women & Their Work

Yes, And is a collection of performance experiments that place an expanded vision of Black womanhood at the center of its creative process. It takes an iterative approach to performance informed by the creative expertise and lived experiences of Black women (cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming.) Yes, And asks: “Who would you be and what would you do if, as a Black woman, you had nothing to worry about? What would you create and how might you be in community with others?” These questions catalyze a methodology of undoing and re-imagining that offers participants and witnesses the freedom “to find” and to “be found” from this recalibrated place.

Manifesting as virtual and/or live public engagement “chapters” or events that are unique and remixed to each location, the project invites us to inhabit inspired realities that reclaim the past, transform the present and dream new futures into being. The result is a work that is both: YES, an unapologetic celebration of Black sisterhood, AND, a complex investigation of issues that impact of Black women and our communities. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Yes, And was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Yes, And is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Dance Place (Washington, DC), Fusebox (Austin, TX), Women & Their Work (Austin, TX), Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, and NPN. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

The project has been supported by the Rauschenberg Residency, the Ragdale Foundation Themed Residency, the Alan M. Kriegsman Residency at Dance Place, and the Texas Performing Arts & Fusebox Residency Program.