love conjure/blues considers a range of possibilities of gender expression and sexuality within a rural, Black working class context. love conjure/blues articulates African-American sensibilities, history and oral traditions. It speaks of the middle passage, slavery, jim crow and lynching. The piece is a reflection of the ways that Black people have used artistic expression to transmit stories of survival, masterfully transcending form in the process. love conjure/blues examines the blues as sacred. In love conjure/blues, the past the present the future the living and the dead co-exist, weaving dreams/Prayers/Love expressed.
Cover art by Daniel Alexander JonesPublished by RedBone Press.
love conjure/blues is published by RedBone Press. The book is taught at universities around the country. Buy the book HERE.If you are interested securing the right to perform the text CONTACT ME.
Performance Text. Flexible Set.Running Time
2 Hours.Setting
The jookn South. Spirit time. Then and now.Cast
3W 2 M.
All cast members should be singers. Stories are told collectively. Sometimes there is a
lead speaker. Sometimes text is sung, layered, repeated to create a musical soundscape.
The text is the score. Movement and breath work help move the work forward.
I want to give glimpse of my journey with love conjure/blues because it was born and nurtured in community. A LOT of people have contributed to the Life of this piece/to my growth and development during this process.
It all started with the Fried Chicken And Salsa Parties at Jackie and Jen’s house…
LISTEN How It Got Wrote
VIEW Early Workns Of The Text Installation
VIEW The love conjure/blues Text Installation
Buy The Book
You can purchase the book directly from RedBone Press, from your local independent bookseller, Resistencia Bookstore or from Amazon
Shop online at two of my favorite feminist bookstores:
BOOK*WOMAN
CHARIS BOOKS AND MORE
Sharon Bridgforth has developed in love conjure/blues the first effort of what will be known as the performance novel. …The act of the performance novel is a challenge of exploration in forms of American storytelling. The performance work developed over the past 20 years has not always fulfilled satisfying experiences with language. We are willing to now deepen our explorations of form. Creating vocabularies and expanding dialogues centered on diverse methods of excavating stories is the goal. How successful we are will be defined by those of us making the journey… This primary work [love conjure/blues] has given permission to many of the rest of us to move forward…
Laurie Carlos, The Austin Chronicle September 16, 2005.
