Artwork above: Ebony G. Patterson, …and babies too…, 2016, mixed media jacquard tapestry with digitally-embroidered appliqués, hand-embellished cast glass shoes, and toys, 120 x 58 x 10 inches. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Discussions will be hosted by Detroit-based performance artist and U-M alumna Jennifer Harge and by art critic, curator, and co-founder of ARTS.BLACK Taylor Renee Aldridge. Harge, Aldridge, and a panel of discussants will attend performances from the UMS season, as well as exhibitions at the U-M Institute for the Humanities. In open discussions, they will respond to the exhibitions and performances, exploring how visual art and performance can be used as a tool for disrupting, organizing, lamenting, and building counter-narrative in response to the status quo.

January 22 Session

Disrupting the Frame:
Urban Bush Women and Ebony Patterson center questions of gender identity

This session will feature discussion surrounding “Of 72”, an exhibition of Ebony Patterson at the Institute for the Humanities and Urban Bush Women: Hair & Other Stories presented by UMS at the Power Center on  Friday, January 12.

Michael Awkward is the Gayl A. Jones Professor of Afro-American Literature and Culture at the University of Michigan. The author of six books, his work has focused on representations of race and gender in 20th and 21st century black American expressive culture. He is currently writing a book exploring the challenges of depicting Emmett Till and other black American boys famously murdered or psychologically mangled in his wake when crucial truths concerning their lives and deaths remain frustratingly elusive.

Jillian Walker is an award-winning writer and cultural leader with a passion for creating seismic cultural shifts. Her theatrical work bends genre and ruminates on “non-traditional” themes to deliberately disrupt the status quo and dig for a path to collective liberation. Named “one of New York City’s most exciting playwrights” by the Bushwick Starr in 2016, her latest work, SKiNFoLK: An American Show, appeared in 2017 ANT Fest (aka All New Talent Festival) at Ars Nova. Her first play SARAH’S SALT. is the winner of the Columbia@Roundabout Reading Series. Offstage, Jillian has worked with organizations such as the Brooklyn artspace JACK helping to facilitate their year-long series ‘Reparations365,’ the New England Literature Program, where she taught transcendental literature, poetry and Shakespeare, and the Columbia School of the Arts, where she created and facilitated self-care workshops for fellow graduate students and earned her MFA in Dramaturgy. Jillian is the recipient of the 2017-18 UMS Education and Community Engagement Research Residency to develop her new play, Tignon, at The University of Michigan and is Associate Curator of the 2017-2018 Starr Reading Series at the Bushwick Starr. In addition to developing Tignon this year, Jillian is also Dramaturge on the new play, Thoughts of a Colored Man… directed by Taye Diggs.

February 19 Session

Performing Race

This session will feature discussion surrounding three performances presented by UMS: Underground Railroad Game at the Arthur Miller Theatre from January 17-21, American Ballet Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet at the Detroit Opera House from February 8-11, and Opera in Concert: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at Hill Auditorium on Saturday, February 17. This session will also touch on Chico MacMurtrie’s “Border Crossers” installation and performances at the Institute for the Humanities.

Billicia Hines is the Director of the Black Theatre Program and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Wayne State University. Previously, she was Director of Theatre At Elizabeth City State University. She began her formal training in drama in the high school program at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Thereafter, she attended NC Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, NC (BFA, Professional Theatre) and University of Missouri at Kansas City (MFA, Acting). She is a Certified Teacher of the Michael Chekhov Technique from the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium, an organization in which she proudly holds the position of Associate Artist.  Additionally, she attended Michael Chekhov Association’s Teacher Training workshop. Billicia has presented Michael Chekhov Acting Technique workshops throughout various universities and theatre conferences. Billicia is the director of “Colored Museum” running now through February 18 at the Hillberry Theatre at Wayne State University.

Born and raised in Metro-Detroit, John Sloan studied Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan (BFA program ’01-’05) and has over a decade of experience as a professional artist.  An accomplished musician and actor, Sloan has performed in numerous regional theatres productions, concert events, and on the national tour of Disney’s The Lion King. In 2012 he founded GhostLight Productions, a full service theatrical production company, and is currently working on two short film projects.  Having produced and directed events across the country, his efforts are dedicated to the intersection of art and activism.  Sloan is the Founding Executive Director of The Helping Hands Campaign for the arts, a nation wide outreach organization  focused on increasing access to artistic education and programming for underserved communities.  Over the past seven years Helping Hands has raised funds for and partnered with The United Way, The Ronald McDonald House Charities, NAACP Act-So, and held educational workshops for thousands of children across the country.  Sloan also currently serves as a Lead Organizer for Black Lives Matter Detroit.

March 19 Session

Altering Gazes:
Employing models outside of the status quo in visual and sound

This session will feature discussion surrounding Matthew Angelo Harrison’s exhibition “Abstract Ancestry: Machine-Works on Paper” at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery, and the UMS presentations of Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation at the Michigan Theater on Wednesday, March 14 and Steve Lehman & Sélébéyone at El Club in Detroit on Saturday, March 17.

Sterling Toles is a sonic and visual artist that emerged from Detroit’s hip hop scene.  He was educated completely in Detroit’s Cass Corridor before attending the College for Creative Studies where he received a BFA in Illustration. Seeing the creative process as the seed of collective healing, his personal creativity has led him to creating media projects with youth through Detroit Summer, and art therapy with youth in the Rosa Parks youth Program. His beginnings as a hip hop artist have evolved into producing music for acts essential to Detroit’s music community such as Boldy James, and Invincible.  He has scored short films and documentaries including Our School and Brewster Douglass: You’re My Brother.  Sterling uses visual and audio expression as a process of transcending identity to cultivate the ubiquity of love.  His work is a means to undo conditioning to allow the purest reception of the intuitive voice.  Sterling is a 2016 Kresge Fellow.