by | January 16, 2012

The Sweet Goddess Project @ Northwestern University: Feb 3 & 4!

The Dance Program presents
A production of of Honey Pot Performance
The Sweet Goddess Project
Chicago house music/dance as culture, lifestyle & consciousness in the lives of women
The Sweet Goddess Project is a multimedia dance theater work exploring women’s experiences in Chicago house music and dance culture. The work is part of an ongoing journey to identify core characteristics of house culture illustrating its power as a way of knowing the world through music and movement.
Ballroom Theater
Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center
Northwestern University
10 Arts Circle Drive
Evanston, 60208
Friday February 3 @ 8pm
Saturday February 4 @ 8pm
Tickets
$15 general
$12 student/senior
Purchase tickets online here!
This work is supported through grants from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Puffin Foundation, the Community Arts Assistance Program, the Driehaus Foundation and the generosity of individuals supporting Honey Pot Performance’s artistic endeavors.

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by | January 1, 2012

The Ladies Ring Shout @ Northwestern University: FREE PERFORMANCE!


Ladies Ring Shout
A production of Honey Pot Performance
Co-devised by Felicia Holman, Abra Johnson & Meida McNeal
Presented by the Department of Performance Studies at
Northwestern University

8pm
FREE and open to the public
Followed by Q&A

Annie May Swift Hall
Alvina Krause Studio Theater
(Enter in the back of the building, facing library)
1920 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
For more information: (847) 491-7315

Using a combination of spoken word, movement, and an original soundtrack, The Ladies Ring Shout journeys through contemporary women of color’s experiences. The multimedia work meditates on four frames integrated into our lived realities – the statistics and sociological condition of women of color, our mundane everyday acts, the codes and rules we are disciplined into, and the myths we conjure to imagine our future possibilities.

http://honeypotperformance.com/

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by | December 11, 2011

eta Creative Arts Foundation Present The Ladies Ring Shout Dec 18-20 2011

ATTENTION: Due to circumstances beyond our control we regret to inform our supporters that eta Creative Arts has made the decision to cancel tonight’s Ladies Ring Shout performance. Please know that we are extremely disappointed by this occurrence. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause those who were coming out to share the work with us this evening. Many thanks to those who were attendance and those who planned to come out tonight. Know that we appreciate your continued support! Catch us next at Northwestern University on January 6, 2012 and on March 9 and 23, 2012 at Malcolm X College. Please check back with us for updates about future performances and other projects in 2012. New projects, new works, but the same commitment to art that reorients the everyday frame.

-– Abra, Felicia & Meida

Inquiries should be sent to eta Creative Arts at: 773-752-3955

**************************************************

eta Creative Arts Foundation Presents

The Ladies Ring Shout

Dec 18-20 2011

Performances 7PM

Wry, savvy, woeful, riotous, saucy, clever, enchanting all at once, Ladies Ring Shout speaks directly to the deadly gaze of the oppressors and with precise and uncompromising execution dismantles that fetishizing and dares the audience to literally ‘ride or die.’ – Audience Member, Stacey G.

 A production of Honey Pot Performance

Co-devised by Felicia Holman, Abra Johnson & Meida McNeal

Directed by Sonita Surratt

Costumes by Lindsay Obermeyer

Set & Environmental Design by Jeanne Medina

In The Ladies Ring Shout - a performance using a combination of spoken word, movement and an original soundtrack – Felicia Holman, Abra Johnson and Meida McNeal explore portrayals of women of color in popular culture and contemporary society offering their own poignant and personal stories of resistance in this three-woman show.

“There’s potency within this range,” says TimeOut Magazine. “It’s as if the trio’s work is fundamentally a tug-of-war between emotional and intellectual investigation.”

General Admission:

$15 (online price includes $1.52 service fee)

To purchase tickets online click here

To purchase tickets via Box Office call or stop by

eta Creative Arts Foundation

7558 S. South Chicago

10am-6pm M-F

Phone: (773) 752-3955

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by | November 9, 2011

Sneak peeks of Sweet Goddess!

Sweet Goddess opens this Thursday November 10. Here are several sneak peeks. Enjoy!

Four Shows!
Thursday November 10 @7:30pm
Friday November 11 @ 7:30pm
Sunday November 13, 3pm & 7:30pm

BUY TICKETS

$12 online
$15 at the door

Meida McNeal, Artistic Director
In collaboration with Abra Johnson, Boogie McClarin and Ni’Ja Whitson

Design Collaborators:
Jeanne Medina, Set & Costume
Garvin Jellison, Lighting
Jo de Presser, DJ
David Weathersby, Video

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by | October 9, 2011

The Sweet Goddess Project Nov 11-13 at Experimental Station!

The Sweet Goddess Project:
Chicago house music/dance as culture, lifestyle & consciousness in the lives of women

A production of of Honey Pot Performance

Thursday November 10 @7:30pm
Friday November 11 @ 7:30pm
Sunday November 13, 3pm & 7:30pm

$12 online
$15 at the door

BUY TICKETS

Find us on Facebook!

Parking is available on 61st Street, Dorchester Avenue, and in the University of Chicago Press parking lot. Please enter the Experimental Station on Blackstone. The event is wheelchair accessible.

*****
The Sweet Goddess Project is a multimedia dance theater work exploring women’s experiences in Chicago house music and dance culture. While women have long been essential to the sounds and scenes of house as vocalists, dancers and DJs, this urban performance tradition is often narrated as a male-dominated practice and cultural space.

Sweet Goddess examines ideas of femininity, community, sensuality, pleasure and empowerment to imagine the woman-centered energies of house culture. The work is part of an ongoing journey to identify core characteristics of house culture illustrating its power as a way of knowing the world through music and movement.

Meida McNeal, Artistic Director
In collaboration with Abra Johnson, Boogie McClarin and Ni’Ja Whitson

Design Collaborators:
Jeanne Medina, Set & Costume
Garvin Jellison, Lighting
Jo de Presser, DJ
David Weathersby, Video

This work is supported through grants from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, the Puffin Foundation, the Community Arts Assistance Program and the generosity of individuals supporting Honey Pot Performance’s artistic endeavors.

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by | September 24, 2011

Support Chicago’s independent performance scene!

The Honey Pot Performance Support Campaign seeks to raise $3,000 toward our emerging organization’s general operating expenses and current productions. All contributions will go towards daily operations (things like studio space!), communications (a new website!), and production costs (stuff like venue rental, costumes, sound and lights!) for our current performance works in development: The Ladies Ring Shout and The Sweet Goddess Project. We appreciate every contribution no matter how large or small. Every bit counts! Help Honey Pot Performance build! Make your donation today.

 

 

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by | September 19, 2011

Ladies Ring Shout at Experimental Station

Friday September 23 7-9pm
Experimental Station
6100 S. Blackstone Ave 60637-2912

Registration is required. Reserve here— http://bit.ly/nI5ElW

From The Color Purple to Precious to The Help, what’s missing in representations of Black women in popular culture today? In Ladies Ring Shout–a performance using a combination of spoken word, movement and original soundtrack–Felicia Holman, Abra Johnson and Meida McNeal explore portrayals of women of color in popular culture and offer their own poignant and personal stories of resistance in this three-woman show. “There’s potency within this range,” says TimeOut Magazine. “It’s as if the trio’s work is fundamentally a tug-of-war between emotional and intellectual investigation.” Join us for this special multi-media performance and conversation.

Sponsored by The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council, this event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by Chicago Foundation for Women’s African American Leadership Council and U Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Culture and Politics.

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by | August 2, 2011

The Ladies Ring Shout opens Thursday August 4!

We invite you to come out and share this intimate production with us. Check out our The Ladies Ring Shout project website. You’ll find all kinds of goodies including a couple of podcast interviews, some sneak peeks into the space as we loaded in last night, and a wonderful preview review from gender and women’s studies scholar Kulvinder Arora.

Pre-sale tickets available online!
The Ladies Ring Shout
August 4-6 2011 / 8p at Defibrillator, 1136 N. Milwaukee
$10 online | $15 at the door

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by | July 22, 2011

Come Together

Though it’s been almost a full month since I’ve written a journal entry, we are now 2 weeks away from the world premiere of The Ladies Ring Shout (Aug 4-6, 2011) and I am moved to write about my reflections of this collaborative process.

As a co-founder of both ThickRoutes Performance Collage (TRPC) & Ladies Ring Shout (LRS), I have had the privilege to collaborate/create/perform with amazingly talented women. Over the last 10 years, Abra Johnson & Meida McNeal have been my “stage sisters” as fellow co-founders of both TRPC & LRS. Together, we have conceived & staged several evocative and acclaimed performances of varying lengths; the best way I can describe our creative process is ‘organic systemization’. However with Ladies Ring Shout, we not only crafted a feature-length performance from a quilt of workshop-generated material, we have fostered a community!

For LRS, we’ve been blessed to enlist the design talents of Lindsay Obermeyer, Jeanne Medina and Chris Nightengale. The costume/set/environmental designs of these three artists contribute enormously to the look & feel of The Ladies Ring Shout. The seeds of this design collaboration were planted (appropriately enough) at Jeanne Medina’s New Year’s Eve 2010 dinner party. While catching each other up on our respective goings-on, I told Jeanne about LRS & our Oct 2010 residency at U of NC. In turn, she shared the impetus of her then-newly completed student project at the School of The Art Institute (SAIC). Until that dinner, we hadn’t really known much about each other’s art but we were both energized by the works’ respective parallels and vowed to find an entry point for collaboration. Fast forward a few months to early Spring 2011….

Jeanne attends one of our weekend rehearsals to see a dry run of the show (all 3 acts) & spur set design ideas. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Meida had also consulted with a designer whom she worked with at Chicago Artist Resource (CAR)— enter Lindsay Obermeyer as LRS costume designer. Then during a subsequent rehearsal where both Jeanne & Lindsay were present, we were treated to reunion—-Lindsay had been Jeanne’s first fiber/textile instructor at SAIC & a huge influence in Jeanne’s approach to the medium! :) Shortly thereafter, Jeanne’s LRS design vision required further collaboration— enter graphic/video artist Chris Nightengale, who’d done previous work with Jeanne.  By incorporating found/re-purposed materials in both the costumes & sets, our LRS design team has beautifully aligned their vision with the show’s DIY/’make a way out of no way’ ethos. I am so proud of all of us, coming together how we have, and anxiously await opening night!

—Felicia Holman

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by | July 7, 2011

Ladies Ring Shout premieres in August 2011!

Buy tickets!

Find us on Facebook!

Check out our project website for The Ladies Ring Shout. We’ll be posting updates in July as we prepare to debut this labor of love. We are excited to share this work with you!

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