Blackbird in Mississippi

Written and Directed: Shawanda Corbett

Performed: Shawanda Corbett

Choreography: Albert Corbett

Violist: Andrea Fortier

Vocal Arrangment & Choral Direction: Harrison Atlee

Choir: Anton Denny, Cartell Green Brown, Leon Jacques, Leanna Leid, Zaza Lewis-Wright, Monique Meade, Siziwe Sayiya, Aeo Smith, and Antoinette Thelwell

 

Bringing Mississippi to the Serpentine Galleries Park Nights, the live performance is about the perspective of a black woman with a physical disability. The performance draws a parallel comparison between a slave and their journey on the underground railroad, and my experience in Mississippi and journey to the underground railroad’s destination for rehabilitation, Rochester, New York. 

 

For the performance, a science fiction character is used as an inner dialogue. The character, haar wese, time travels (flashback) to the past in Mississippi to reflect. This flashback is a cinematic scene where music gives haar wese a voice. It is about finding placement in displacement.

 

Please follow the link to the full performance.

 

Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the
future  Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

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