Wednesday, April 14, 2021 at 5 pm (ET)
Streamed live on JACK's Facebook page
Streamed live on JACK's Facebook page
Tara Aisha Willis: “I want to think about a reparations approach to mutual aid. The structure of mutual aid in Chicago is the North Side bringing support to the South and West Sides. It reinstates the inequities in geography. It's really clear-cut where the resources are and where the damage has been done. The question of mutual aid, at least in Chicago, is a reparations approach to resource sharing. I don't think mutual is the way to go. It hasn't been mutual. We need to undo the lack of mutuality.”
— The Brooklyn Rail, “Can we create lasting mutual aid structures?”
Join JACK for the next conversation in our Reparations365 series, around the topic of reparations and mutual aid, inspired by the quote above by curator/artist Tara Aisha Willis. The guests for the talk, streamed live on JACK’s Facebook page, include artist/activist/educator Sydnie L. Mosley and dancer/mutual aid organizer Brittany Williams (of We Keep Us Safe Abolitionist Network). The conversation will be moderated by JACK board member DeeArah Wright, who co-conceived of the Reparations365 series with Alec Duffy when she was in the position of Co-Director of JACK.
Register for the conversation here.
For further reading:
Sydnie L. Mosley: “On Black Death and Fundraising,” The Brooklyn Rail, October 2020
“JACK Partners with We Keep Us Safe to Transform into Hub for Food Distribution,” BroadwayWorld.com, April 16, 2020
Participant bios
Sydnie L. Mosley is an artist-activist and educator who produces experiential dance works with her New York City-based dance-theater collective Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (SLMDances). She won The Bessie for Outstanding Performer as a part of the ensemble of the skeleton architecture, the future of our worlds, and received a special citation from Mayor Bill de Blasio for using her talents in dance to fuel social change. An advocate for the field, she sits on the Advisory Committee to Dance/NYC. Her writing has appeared in Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, and Dance Magazine. Photo credit: Ferima Fay Haidara
Brittany Williams is an international dancer, choreographer, and organizer originally from Homestead, Florida. Brittany is 2017 Dancing While Black Fellow and an Artist in Resident at the Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn New York. She is a 2016 Jacob’s Pillow Scholarship recipient for the Program, Dance & Improv Traditions; a principal dancer with Olujimi Dance; the founder of Dancing for Justice and Obika Dance Projects. Brittany has worked with Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Yon Tande, Makeda Thomas, Chris Walker, Michelle Grant-Murray, Urban Bush Women, Forces of Nature and more.
DeeArah Wright (moderator) is a mama, artist, mover, and collaborative leader. Her approaches to activism, facilitation of learning, and partnerships are informed by over 20 years of experiences and experiments in diverse fields such as education, dance and performance, community engagement, and social entrepreneurship. She has partnered with organizations such as Creative Time, The Laundromat Project, The Field, STooPS, and Urban Bush Women to support artists’ development and their community engagement initiatives. In 2010, DeeArah founded Gather Brooklyn--a community engagement organization, and she co-activated its mission for 7 years. She is a former Co-Director of JACK and a former Director of Education for Brooklyn Children's Museum. DeeArah lives cooperatively on the ancestral homeland of the Mahican Nation, also referred to as The Berkshires in Massachusetts. She is currently co-developing a land-based, BIPOC-owned cooperative rooted in and powered by activism, agriculture, arts, and education.
Register for the conversation here.
For further reading:
Sydnie L. Mosley: “On Black Death and Fundraising,” The Brooklyn Rail, October 2020
“JACK Partners with We Keep Us Safe to Transform into Hub for Food Distribution,” BroadwayWorld.com, April 16, 2020
Participant bios
Sydnie L. Mosley is an artist-activist and educator who produces experiential dance works with her New York City-based dance-theater collective Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (SLMDances). She won The Bessie for Outstanding Performer as a part of the ensemble of the skeleton architecture, the future of our worlds, and received a special citation from Mayor Bill de Blasio for using her talents in dance to fuel social change. An advocate for the field, she sits on the Advisory Committee to Dance/NYC. Her writing has appeared in Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, and Dance Magazine. Photo credit: Ferima Fay Haidara
Brittany Williams is an international dancer, choreographer, and organizer originally from Homestead, Florida. Brittany is 2017 Dancing While Black Fellow and an Artist in Resident at the Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn New York. She is a 2016 Jacob’s Pillow Scholarship recipient for the Program, Dance & Improv Traditions; a principal dancer with Olujimi Dance; the founder of Dancing for Justice and Obika Dance Projects. Brittany has worked with Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Yon Tande, Makeda Thomas, Chris Walker, Michelle Grant-Murray, Urban Bush Women, Forces of Nature and more.
DeeArah Wright (moderator) is a mama, artist, mover, and collaborative leader. Her approaches to activism, facilitation of learning, and partnerships are informed by over 20 years of experiences and experiments in diverse fields such as education, dance and performance, community engagement, and social entrepreneurship. She has partnered with organizations such as Creative Time, The Laundromat Project, The Field, STooPS, and Urban Bush Women to support artists’ development and their community engagement initiatives. In 2010, DeeArah founded Gather Brooklyn--a community engagement organization, and she co-activated its mission for 7 years. She is a former Co-Director of JACK and a former Director of Education for Brooklyn Children's Museum. DeeArah lives cooperatively on the ancestral homeland of the Mahican Nation, also referred to as The Berkshires in Massachusetts. She is currently co-developing a land-based, BIPOC-owned cooperative rooted in and powered by activism, agriculture, arts, and education.
