My Finding Voice Facilitation Manuel is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project
(Artwork by Tonya Engel)I am proud to announce that our book
Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic
Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project
Edited by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Lisa L. Moore, and Sharon Bridgforth
is now available for purchase!!!For information/or to purchase: CLICK HERE
For more about the Austin Project CLICK HERE
I created the Finding Voice Facilitation Method during the process of working as an interdisciplinary artist, activist, teacher and senior consultant for more than 20 years. During this time/working as an artist I have mentored many artists, been mentored, done group facilitation, program management, events curation, fundraising and grant writing, radio and film production, health advocacy and public relations…
The Finding Voice Facilitation Method focuses on the PROCESS of writing/Living/Being an artist. It is the art of walking with people as they journey into a deep place in themselves/for the sake of artistic expression. The Finding Voice method walks participants through the process of giving voice to the personal:identity-culture-memory-family histories-dreams to articulate and examine the socio-political realities of their lives in a form that is part poetry, part oral history, part performance.
I have facilitated the Finding Voice Method as part of long term residency programming at institutions around the country including:
Links Hall
Northwestern University, Performance Studies
allgo (A Texas Statewide Queer People Of Color Organization),
Hamilton College, and
The Austin Project sponsored by The John L. Warfield Center For African And African American Studies , U.T. Austin
YWCA Of Greater Austin
and The Finding Voice Radio Show funded by the Funding Exchange/The Paul Robeson Fund for Independent MediaMy Work Lives in a theatrical jazz aesthetic…
A great jazz singer loves the text more than the note
the emphasis is on the text not the note
it’s on telling the story from the heart/a transcendent heart.
You can’t fake that…Billie Holiday (NPR Jazz Profiles)While this aesthetic leans heavily on elements of jazz including improvisation, George Lewis’s notion of the Afrological, and “the break,” it also reveals the modern dance idioms, the blues sensibilities, the performance art antecedents, and the ancestral calling that situates a theatrical jazz aesthetic as a distinctive performance genre.
From Dr. Jones’ forth coming book, JAZZ, ASE, AND THE POWER OF THE PRESENT MOMENT: THE JAZZ AESTHETIC IN THE CREATION OF THEATRICAL WORK
Based on my experiences in the theatrical jazz aesthetic/I created a facilitation method called Finding Voice. Finding Voice walks participants through a process of uncovering and articulating the personal: identity-culture-memory-family herstories-aspirations/for the purpose of discovering and strengthening their writing voice and style.
“The autobiographical form is classic in Black American or Afro-American literature because it provided an instance in which a writer could be representative, could say, ‘My single solitary and individual life is like the lives of the tribe; it differs in these specific ways, but it is a balanced life because it is both solitary and representative.”
Toni Morrison Rootedness: The Ancestor as FoundationI employed The Finding Voice Method in my facilitation of The Austin Project (tAP). tAP was founded (in 2002) and produced by Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones through The John L. Warfield Center For African and African American Studies, UT Austin (CAAAS) Finding Voice Is About Virtuosity Improvisation Process Focused Being Present Listening Time Space Witnessing Non-Linear Form Rigor Breath Synchronicity Circular Knowing Transcendence. Prayer. Life. Blood Memory. JAZZ…
The Austin Project brings a group of women scholars, artists and activists of color and our allies together for a 11 week process. We meet for 4 hours on Sundays. At the end of the process the group shares their work in a public presentation. I was the Anchor Artist for The Austin Project from 2002 – 2009. I will be returning as a guest artist. Each year The Austin Project brings guest artists in to do a workshop and present a work in-progress. Guest artists include luminaries such as: Laurie Carlos, Robbie McCauley, Daniel Alexander Jones, Carl Hancock Rux, Sheree Ross and Helga Davis. Plus Dr. Jones offers yoga, movement and Theatre of The Oppressed based exercises to the group. For more on the Austin Project CLICK HERE
Congratulations to the 2010 – 2011 tAP Members:
Abe Louise Young
Bukola Kpotie
Natalie Goodnow
Jennifer Margulies
Amber Turner
Candace Lopez
Camille DePrang
Monsho, Anoa
Surabhi Kukke
Christina Houle
Gwendolyn Ferreti Manjarrez
Francina Nalls-Gentry and
Nnenna Okeke.
2008 – 2009 Austin Project Members:
Standing (L to R)
Guest Artists: Sheree Ross, Samiya Bashir, Stephanie Lang,
Senalka McDonald, Matt Richardson, Dr. Jones,
Kneeling (L to R)
Lidia Marte, Elvia Mendoza, Jacqueline Smith,
Darless Valentine, Czarina Thelen,
(Absent from photo) Julia Smith.
Even though members only stay in the active circle for 2 years, once in the Austin Project Always in The Austin Project. Florinda Bryant is Artistic Director of The Austin Project Performance Company (TAPCO) which provides support for the larger TAP group and a way for TAP to present work on an ongoing basis in the community.
2002 – present TAP members are:
Adrienne Baker
Shannon Baley
Detine Bowers
Florinda Bryant
Theresa Burke-Garcia
Monique Cortez
Geeta Cowlagi
Dulani
Amber Feldman
Bianca Flores
Kristen Gerhard
Erica Gonzalez
Virginia Grise
Alyssa Harad
Jacqueline Lawton
Gloria Gonzales Lopez
Krissy Mahan
Rosalee Martin
Carole Metellus
Lisa L. Moore
Courtney Morris
Jane Park
Deisi Perez
Shia Shabazz
“The real power of jazz and the innovation of jazz is that a group of people can come together and create improvised art and can negotiate their agendas with each other and that negotiation is the art.” Wynton Marsalis
