THURSDAYCHECKIN

Daesha Devón Harris

Break me my bounds, and let me fly Just Beyond the River: A FolkTale Chromira print and feather in hardwood box with etched glass Winter 2015, 31” x 21”

THURSDAYCHECKIN MEET THE FELLOWS

This past winter Craigardan partnered with the nonprofit organization John Brown Lives! to develop our first collaborative residency and fellowship with the goal to inspire art, scholarship, and action for human rights. The new John Brown Lives! Fellowship at Craigardan supports humanists engaged in the performing and visual arts, creative writing, scholarship, and activism, whose work is guided by a compassionate sense of history and its contemporary reverberations. JBL! Fellows possess a commitment to expressions of freedom, equality, and social justice, ideals for which the abolitionist John Brown dedicated and sacrificed his life.

We’re pleased to introduce you to this year’s inaugural fellows: Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Daesha Devón Harris, Devon Reid, and Erica Blunt.

Tiffany Rea-Fisher is a choreographer who subscribes to the servant leadership model and uses disruption through inclusion as a way to influence her company's culture. In 2018 Tiffany was awarded a citation from the City of New York for her cultural contributions. She has extensive experience in choreographing and curating concert dance. As a choreographer, Tiffany has had the pleasure of creating numerous pieces for the company as well as being commissioned by Dance Theater of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theater, NYC Department of Transportation, Utah Repertory Theater, The National Gallery of Art in D.C., and having her work performed for the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg. Her works have been seen on many stages including the Joyce, the Apollo, Joe's Pub, Aaron Davis Hall, and New York Live Arts in New York City. As well as being E125s Artistic Director Tiffany is also the CoFounder of Inception to Exhibition, a non-profit that provides a holistic arts experience by supplying low cost, high-quality space to artists from a variety of disciplines and the Director of the Lake Placid School of Dance in Lake Placid, NY. She was the first Dance Curator at the interdisciplinary arts organization The Tank where she now sits on their Board of Trustees. Bringing the best of modern dance directly to the public, she curates the Bryant Park Dance Summer Series, providing free art access to thousands while exposing upcoming and established artists to a wider audience. Her professional affiliations include being the Vice President of the Stonewall Community Development Corporation, an Advisory Board member of Dance/NYC, COHI member of IABD, and a proud member of Women of Color of the Arts.

Daesha Devón Harris is a Saratoga Springs, New York artist and photographer who has

Daesha Devón Harris

And the land that forges fetters, Binds the weak and poor in chains, Must in blood or tears of sorrow Wash away her guilty stains. Just Beyond the River: A FolkTale Chromira print and spyglass in hardwood box with etched glass Summer 2016, 31” x 21”

spent time in Buffalo, NY and San Francisco, CA.. Both her multi-cultural family and the unexpected death of her young father have greatly shaped her life. She holds a B.F.A. in Studio Art from the College of Saint Rose and an M.F.A. in Visual Art from the University at Buffalo. She is a member of various organizations and plays an active role in her community as a youth mentor, social activist, and cultural history preservationist. The gentrification of her hometown and its effect on the local Black community has played a major role in both her advocacy and artwork. Most recently Harris has been an En Foco Fellowship winner, MDOCS Storyteller’s Institute Fellow, and an artist-in-residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Studios of Key West, Yaddo Artist Colony, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship awardee; a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Photography; a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grantee; and named one of the Royal Photographic Society’s Hundred Heroines. She is also an avid fisherwoman and hobbyist gardener. Devon Reid is a multimedia artist, curator and cultural mediator whose work focuses on the notion that all of life stems from an interconnected wholeness. “We are all but fragments from this whole and each fragment carries the knowledge of what it is to be fully interconnected; each work of art, each process is thus an archaeological exploration of the intangible world and how it manifests in material form.” Her work explores the

relationship between the tangible and intangible of connectedness. Born in Montréal, Québec (1969) Devon lived and worked in Amsterdam, The Netherlands for over 15 years, mentored by artist Hanneke Somer and employed by the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague to develop a program for personal leadership in interactive media and design. She returned to Candiac, Québec in 2011 where she led the development of the city’s first cultural policy as well as curating projects such as ‘Hist-Art’ (2017) and ‘La Vague’ (2020) bringing artists and fellow citizens together to explore the cities histories and connectedness. Devon’s artwork has been exhibited in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Canada. Her work is held in private collections both in Europe and Canada.

Erica Blunt is a composer, DJ, and sound designer who cherishes creating a body of work that is both entertaining and edifying. Starting her musical career as a DJ (Twelve45), Erica brings the sensibility of all musical stylings available to her making for astonishing audio palettes. Her mix series ‘12 by Twelve’ is used to highlight different genres, artists, and pivotal moments in music history while telling a story. A featured DJ at

Essence's Street Style Block Party, she has been found performing at NYC staples like

Ace Hotel, The Highline Ballroom, Baby’s All Right, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as bringing her unique style to soundtracks for employees of Google, Spotify, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Erica is the Sound Coordinator and Resident Composer for EMERGE125 (formerly Elisa Monte Dance). Since 2017, her collaboration with Artistic Director Tiffany ReaFisher has produced several evening-length works, including After Dark, Emerged Nation, and Rights of Renaissance. In 2018, Erica performed with the company for their 3-story takeover of the National Gallery of Art which included a performance by Chris Brubeck – a night that set the record for highest event attendance. Returning with them in 2019, she performed alongside a classical ensemble commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, designing a soundscape that was out of this world while feeling right at home. In February 2021, her composition for Emerged Nation was used as E125 kicked off the NYC Mayor’s Open Culture Program that will open up city streets for outdoor cultural performances and events throughout the five boroughs. Currently, she is composing a fulllength ballet for Dance Theatre of Harlem based in the life of American pianist and activist Hazel Scott, which is set to premiere on October 22, 2022.

Devon Reid

Infinite Realities One 18”x18”

Devon Reid

Infinite Realities Two 18”x18”