“Stirring da Roux”
SHARON BRIDGFORTH

February 22, 2023
4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET

About this workshop
The goal of this workshop is to deepen our ability to fully embody and manifest our artistic vision by doing the work of unearthing/examining/and articulating our identities-cultures-memories-families, histories-dreams, and the socio-political realities of our lives.

Participants will be asked to:

• Share their identities: race(s)/ethnicities, genders, sexualities, class, family histories, cultural/spiritual traditions, etc.,
  
• Examine the personal as political
  
• Explore art as a vehicle for social justice
  
• Practice trusting their instincts
  
• Explore the relationship between art and their lives
  
• Consider the relationship between spirit and art
  

Participants will be invited to respond to writing prompts and share their writing. We will explore the creative process, virtuosity, improvisation, innovation, the art of being present, and deep listening.

“I believe that through the act of sharing our stories: of opening, of being present while being vulnerable, of revealing who we are/where we come from/what we dream…of trusting ourselves enough to push beyond limits of what we think we know, of following the roads that the right questions can take us on - strengthens our capacity to hear and see one another, to hold space for each other, to connect more authentically, be better artists, to create the lives we most want to live. Ultimately, sharing our stories is an act of generosity and compassion.

These are things we do to be of greater service. To be ourselves more fully. To Heal. We do this even if it scares us.” —Sharon Bridgeforth

About Sharon Bridgeforth
A child of the Great African-American Migration, Sharon Bridgforth came of age during assassinations, riots, civil rights, Black power movements, and Soul music. She strives to queerly/embody the unbending dignity, commitment to community, self-determination, and Love of Black cultures that was modeled for her.

A 2023 United States Artists Fellow and 2022 Winner of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, Sharon Bridgforth is a writer that collaborates with actors, dancers, singers, visual artists and audiences to install moving soundscapes of her ritual/jazz texts. Her work is featured in Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones's book, Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Àṣẹ, and the Power of the Present Moment, Volume 110, No. 4, Winter 2022 of The Yale Review, Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature edited by Ana-Maurine Lara and drea brown, Mouths of Rain an Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought edited by Briona Jones, and the creative contribution section of Feminist Studies Volume 48 Number 1 honoring 40 years of This Bridge Call my Back and But Some of Us Are Brave! curated by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Sharon's new book, bull-jean & dem/dey back (53rd State Press 10/2022) features two performance/novels that will be produced by Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis  2022/2023.

A New Dramatists alumnae, Sharon is a 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, a 2022-2023 McKnight National Fellow and has received support from The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, and the National Performance Network. A touring artist since 1993, Sharon’s work has been featured at: New York’s SummerStage Festival; Rites and Reason Theatre’s Black Lavender Experience at Brown University, The New Black Festival at The Lark, Pillsbury House + Theatre, The University of Texas at Austin’s John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and Links Hall. Sharon’s dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/Home - a Creative Capital project - launched in Minneapolis, MN May 2018 in partnership with Molly Van Avery, City of Lakes Community Land Trust and the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association. dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/Performance Installation premiered at allgo in Austin, TX in August 2018 and dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show premiered at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in June 2018, and is streaming on Twin Cities PBS (Episode #131).