Art: Vulnerability made manifest
Whenever I begin work on a new performance or short film project as production manager, the same set of questions arise: Will I do justice to the project and do I have the skillset to bring the concept to life in a profound and impactful way.
Myra Weise. Photo by Zoe Litaker.
Leading up to the filming of "Crisis Materials," a short film that's part of the VITAL Health project, my experience was typical. If anything, the pressure was magnified. Last year during SEEK Raleigh, I worked with the same performing artists Johnny Lee Chapman, III and Anthony Otto Nelson, Jr., and executive producer Michael S. Williams on a performance and short film discussing the Spring Hill Plantation and the history of the land we now call Dix Park.
The idea for this project was to conceptually build off of that first project as well as connect and collaborate with visual artist Stacey L. Kirby and aspects of her "CIVIL PRESENCE" performance that was part of the same SEEK Raleigh platform. The team wanted to pay homage to the more than 950 people buried in the cemetery at Dix Park and to draw attention to how vital mental health is. With our current daily lives calling into question what is “essential,” we could not help but see the metaphorical parallels between our disparities of today with those who came before us. The individuals in the cemetery are buried in layers, some with markers with their name and date of death, and some unmarked and unnamed entirely.
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The weight of bringing any inkling of reverence to these souls and their struggles, and equally to the souls fighting both the coronavirus pandemic and the pandemic of being Black in America, is tremendous. Yet, the importance of publicly drawing attention to both the history and present-day disparities through art far outweighs any vulnerable fears.
The production of art is vulnerability made manifest. And I could not be prouder of this group because as we collectively created "Crisis Materials," we recognized our own mental health challenges, harnessed our emotions as they arose in response to our world and ultimately gave reverence to the trauma of our experiences — and to the individuals buried in the cemetery at Dix Park.
While the filming of "Crisis Materials" is now complete, the work is far from over. I look forward to the development of the live performance for 2021 and continue to work on our VITAL health.
Inward… Onward…
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