Welcome to Judson Arts’ Spring 2023 Season!
All performances take place in Judson’s Meeting Room,
accessible at the 243 Thompson St. entrance,
with doors and free food at 6:30pm and performance at 7:30pm.
Coming up:
1/10 Black Aesthetics - Lauren Horn
1/24 Black Aesthetics - Angel Edwards
1/31 André Daughtry
2/7 Black Aesthetics
2/21 Black Aesthetics - Dorchel Haqq
2/28 Black Aesthetics workshop
3/6 Black Aesthetics - Nazareth Hassan
3/20 Black Aesthetics
3/27 James Gibbel
4/3 Black Aesthetics - Maxy Star
4/10 & 11 Bread and Puppet Theater
4/17 Black Aesthetics
4/23 & 24 Pioneers Go East
5/1 Black Aesthetics
5/8 TBA
5/15 Black Aesthetics
5/22 TBA
5/29 TBA
6/5 Black Aesthetics
6/12 TBA
6/19 Black Aesthetics
WED JAN 10
Rennaisance Gyal
Free food 6:30pm
Art at 7:30pm
Renaissance Gyal is a choreographic work exploring the ways in which Black women have set a precedent for culture in America, while simultaneously being erased. Inspired by the Renaissance, this piece frames Black creativity in movement, music, art and style as a continuous cultural boom deserving of both deference and celebration. Through each movement, song, dance and chant it tells the stories of those of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latine, Afro-American and African heritage who have come to live in America.
Lauren Horn (Choreographer), Chantal Edwards-Matthews (Dancer and Collaborator), Johnathan Moore (Musician and Collaborator)
Curated by Malcomx Betts & Arien Wilkerson
This production is made possible in major part by by the Greater Hartford Arts Council through the fiscal sponsorship of HartBeat Ensemble. The project is also supported by the Richard P. Garmany Fund via Connecticut Landmarks, the Connecticut Office of the Arts in partnership with MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program (A4A), and individual donations matched by Sustainable CT. The piece was created though the Free Center's Independent Artist Fund Grant in 2022, and it's continual development is funded in part by New England Foundation for the Arts’ New England Dance Fund, with generous support from the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.
Video of the last iteration of the piece can be viewed here.
LAUREN HORN
LAUREN HORN is a movement and text based artist from Windsor, CT. She graduated from Amherst College with degrees in Psychology and Theatre and Dance. Lauren is the Artistic Director of Subira vs. Movement, a movement and text based company dedicated to the exploration of identity and its relationship to technology. The work of this company encourages the audience to reflect upon their own unique identities and contemplate how they view, marginalize, accept and or reject the identities of others. This exploration of identity runs parallel to an investigation of the ever-growing digital realm and the ways in which technology can hinder, highlight and expand our ever-changing identities. Lauren’s choreographic work has been showcased at The BAM Fisher Theatre in Brooklyn, NYC, The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, Hibernian Hall in Boston MA, The Meydenbauer Center Theatre in Belleview, WA, The Armory in Sommerville, The Studio of Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA, The Northampton Center for the Arts, Amherst College and ACDFA New England.
Lauren has performed with Deborah Goffe’s Scapegoat Garden, Dante Brown’s Warehouse Dance Company, Arien Wilkerson’s TNMOT AZTRO, Wendy Woodson, Katie Martin and Jennifer Nugent. While in the Five College Dance Consortium, Lauren has studied under Paul Matteson, Angie Hauser, Jim Coleman, Shayla Jenkins, Paul Dennis and Caroline Fermin. She has also performed in repertory works of The Bebe Miller Company, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company, Delfos Danza Contemporanea and Gallim Dance Company.
CHANTAL EDWARDS-MATTHEWS
CHANTAL EDWARDS-MATTHEWS is a Jamaican born movement artist. She started her professional dance career at the age of Seven in Freehold New Jersey as a competitive dancer. Chantal traveled for 11 years all over the U.S with her dance company Freehold Academy of Performing Arts. She studied styles such as contemporary, ballet, point, modern, Jazz, hip hop and tap.
While attending UHART Chantal joined Island reflections Dance Theater Co. IRDTC added styles like African, Folk, Horton and Caribbean to her repertoire (2016). In 2018 she joined Nightfall Hartford where she studied & performed puppetry and theater.
After 2018 her dance career continued to grow as a solo artist taking on commercial projects such as Hartfords Anti Litter Campaign (2019). Chantal is currently dancing with Lauren Horns new work "Renaissance Gyal” and Deborah Goffes "Scapegoat Garden". Both bodies of work offer a residency premiering in summer (2023). She is currently Touring “Scapegoat Garden” and creating work with Lauren Horn for an upcoming performance at Judson Memorial Church 1/10/2024!
JOHNATHAN MOORE
JOHNATHAN MOORE was born in New Haven, CT. As a child, he was a part of a musically inclined family. Johnathan Moore attended Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, where he began to grow his roots on the cello. After middle school, he then attended Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. During his junior year of high school, Johnathan received 1st Place in the Yale School of Music Solo Competition in 2014 off his original piece, "Journey" before graduating.
He then attended Southern Connecticut State University where he majored in music. Throughout his years of college, he was awarded with multiple scholarships through he Stutzman Family Foundation, along with performing in partnership with New Haven Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in locations such as the Shubert Theatre & Arts & Ideas Festival. He then graduated Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor's degree in music along with achieving the Mike Moss Memorial Award For Excellence Music.
Johnathan Moore has displayed his gift in venues such as the Guggenheim Museum on 5th Avenue, New York & Alice Truly Hall on Broadway. Johnathan's goal as a musical artist is to give the listener a refreshing experience through his gift in music.
ARIEN WILKERSON
ARIEN WILKERSON is a choreographer, dancer, video maker, director, producer, and installation artist. Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Arien is Founder and Artistic Director of, TNMOT AZTRO, a collaborative multidisciplinary company working at the bridge of dance, performance art, installation, sculpture, and sound design for engagements in museums, galleries and site-specific locations. under the alias Tnmot Aztro considers that the complexities within art derive from the alienation of objects, identities, the body, sounds, and humans and is rooted in repurposing and redefining meanings of "fine art" and it's attachment to colonialism, white supremacy, and institutionalized racism. What is queer black "fine art"? Who has access to it? How does art become fine? Where is the "margin" marginalized, displaced, disproportioned? And what systems were put in place to keep black and brown queer folk out.Arien Wilkerson/Tnmot Aztro, sold out performances, online lectures and events have taken place at spaces such as The University of Pennsylvania, Yale School of Art, University of Connecticut, Judson Memorial Church, LGBT Center NYC, Rhode Island School of Design, Austin Arts Center at Trinity College, Real Art Ways, Wadsworth Atheneum, Vox Populi Gallery, Icebox Project Space, AS22O, SPACE Gallery, Wesleyan University, The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Slought Foundation, the Martin E. Segal Theater, CUNY. Wilkerson is a 2023-2024 iLab Artist in residence at University of the Arts and is fiscally sponsored by Headlong Dance Theater
MALCOLMX BETTS
MALCOLMX BETTS is a New York based visual and dance artist who believes that art is a transformative vehicle that brings people and communities together. His artistic work is rooted in investigating embodiment for liberation, Black imagination, and directly engaging with challenges placed on the physical body. He has a community engagement practice allowing artistic freedom and making art accessible to everyone. Betts developed and presented work at La MaMa Umbria International in Spoleto, Italy. La Mama NYC, Gibney Dance Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Bronx Museum and Dixon Place. Betts showed excerpts of Midnight Glow: Kinfolk at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Movement Research at Judson Church and Draftworks at Danspace Project. Kinfolk Vol 2: Butch Queen was persented by Judson Arts in November 2021. Betts worked on Bronx Speaks with the Bronx Musuem with undocumented immgrants. Performed in works by luciana achuga, Jonathan Gonzalez, Snoogybox, Nile Harris and Alex Romania. Betts was a 2018 Artist and Resident with Movement Research.