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)
My Work Lives in a theatrical jazz aesthetic…
Sharon Bridgforth
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 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 Foundation
Each year I employ The Finding Voice Method in my facilitation of The Austin Project (TAP). The Austin Project is founded (in 2002) and produced by Dr. Joni L. Jones/Omi Osun Olomo through The Center For African and African American Studies, UT Austin. 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 Finding Voice Manuel will be published in a forthcoming book tentatively entitled The Austin Project Archive: Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic
WE GOT A BOOK CONTRACT!
The Austin Project Archive: Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic.
Eds. Omi Osun Olomo/Dr. Joni L. Jones, Dr. Lisa L. Moore, Sharon Bridgforth
University Texas Press. More about The Austin Project
The Austin Project brings a group of women scholars, artists and activists of color and our allies together for a 10 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 am the Anchor Artist for The Austin Project. 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.
2008 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
Angela Kariotis
Jacqueline Lawton
Gloria Gonzales Lopez
Krissy Mahan
Rosalee Martin
Carole Metellus
Lisa L. Moore
Courtney Morris
Jane Park
Deisi Perez
Shia Shabazz
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