JEFFERSON PINDER: FIRE AND MOVEMENT THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019
Jefferson Pinder: Fire and Movement July 11, 2019 | 7 - 10 pm
Phase 1: Center and Moy Streets Phase 2: Shepherd Street Footbridge, Buffalo Bayou Park Phase 3: College Memorial Park Cemetery Phase 4: The African American Library at the Gregory School The final phase of the performance will commence at approximately 9:30 pm at the African American American Library at the Gregory School. Please stand or sit on either side of the 1st and 2nd floor hallways, leaving plenty of room in the hallways for the performers. The performance will rotate twice. Please stay in one place until the second rotation when all performers will exit the building. CREDITS CONCEPT & DIRECTION:
Jefferson Pinder
DRILL INSTRUCTION:
Joseph Lefthand
DRAMATURGY:
Vinod Hopson
PERFORMED BY:
Manuel Breton-Santin, Tania Breton-Santin, Tay Butler, Andrew Davis, Emerson Elias Brian Ellison, Timothy Engelbrecht, Harrison Guy Candice Laine, Sidra Newman, Marc Newson Jefferson Pinder, Jordan Rome, Anthony Suber
TEXT:
Excerpts from January 29, 1918 trial: United States vs. William C. Nesbit, Sergeant Company I, 24th Infantry; Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman; Speech delivered at the Embassy Auditorium by Angela Davis, 1972; What I Mean When I Say Vigil by Kristiana Colón
SONGS:
“Lord I’m Coming Home,” by William Kirkpatrick “I Won’t Complain,” by Andrew ‘TAME, the Aspiring Me’ Davis “We Shall Not Be Moved,” traditional spiritual
Jefferson Pinder: Fire and Movement Jefferson Pinder’s Fire and Movement is inspired by the 1917 Camp Logan Uprising, also referred to as ‘the Houston Riot’ or ‘Camp Logan Mutiny.’ The uprising saw highly trained African American soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 24th United States Infantry revolt after a black military officer, Private Alonzo Edwards, was arrested and beaten when he tried to intervene with the arrest of a local washerwoman by two Houston police officers in the Fourth Ward. Historians would later described that night as one of Houston’s ugliest moments, with newspapers reporting the deaths of seventeen individuals, including five policemen, and four soldiers. Now, 102 years later, a group of performers form a small company of soldiers under the direction of artist Jefferson Pinder to retrace the route that the 24th Infantry took from their original camp into the Fourth Ward as part of his newly-commissioned performance: Fire and Movement. The project offers an opportunity to explore the history of the Camp Logan Uprising, using archival material from the African American Library at the Gregory School, Southwest School of Law, and the book Night of Violence by Dr. Robert Haynes. Tonight the performers will begin their journey at the corner of Center and Moy carrying period specific M1903 Springfield Rifles, the same rifles carried by the 3rd Battalion of the 24th Infantry. Thirteen in total, the number references the thirteen condemned soliders who were awakened in the early morning of December 11, 1917 and brought to the gallows after one of the largest murder trails in history. Looking back at history through a contemporary lens allows us to better understand the context of how we have arrived at this moment in time. What has changed and what has not. It opens the door to examine ‘cultural amnesia’, a collective and often deliberate act of forgetting something, constantly moving forward, and never pausing to remember. Throughout its history, with its many layers of change and lack of preservation, Houston has been a perfect example of this phenenomenon— a cycle of forgetting, building new on top of the old, and moving on. The Camp Logan Uprising is not new for some, but for others this will be their first time learning about the gruesome history and its aftermath.
The complexity of the piece also highlights a number of struggles, including the vulnerability of black and brown bodies and contemporary issues of racial bias in the wake of the centennial of the Red Summer. The term Red Summer, coined by James Weldon Johnson of the NAACP, refers to a series of more than three dozen geographically dispersed race riots, lynchings, and other violent attacks targeting African Americans in the summer of 1919. The Camp Logan Uprising, while two years earlier, foreshadows what was to come. In this time period, the tensions between whites and African Americans had been increasing since the first wave of the Great Migration; with an increase in housing problems, job competition, and territorial disputes, fear of the other was rampant. Additionally, World War I had recently ended and African American soldiers returning home were of a new stature, but still found themselves the subjects of attacks, sometimes at the hands of white servicemen. Although technically unconnected, the individual events likely fueled a collective mindset and fear. At the time, there was a feeling among certain elements that these bodies were dangerous, especially after militarization. The soldiers of the 24th Infantry were no different. They had come from Mexico after fighting Pancho Villa under the command of one of the top U.S. Generals, John J. Pershing. However, they only lasted a few weeks in Houston from their arrival to the day of the uprising because of building tensions between the black soldiers and the white citizens of Houston, Jim Crow Laws, and over-policing. The illusion that black and brown bodies are a threat still exists. Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Eric Harris, Aiyana Stanley Jones, Alton Sterling, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, and the migrants currently in detention centers, are just a few examples. Perhaps the fear comes from a visual and social conditioning throughout history and popular culture that has trained even the youngest of eyes and minds to interpret certain bodies and gestures as threatening. For this project, Pinder worked with artist Vinod Hopson as a dramaturg and movement and drill specialist, Joseph Leftand, to build a framework that identified sites important to the Camp Logan Uprising and ways that brown and black bodies could move through public space. Part of that training was visually conditioning the neighborhood along the route with consistent outdoor rehearsals; performers carried two-by-fours in place of rifles that provided them with the confidence and awareness needed to carry firearms on the streets, without fear or danger.
The project blurs the line between reality and art, it’s not a protest but a tactical movement to awaken those around Houston. It’s a statement about bodies, about who has the right to carry firearms, and who, in reality, the 2nd Amendment is for. It’s also about conquering fear, building trust, and calling to question Houston’s interest in cultural preservation. Fire and Movement’s title alone gives reference to a type of military training tactic called ‘fire and maneuver’ which prepares soldiers for the battlefield or being in the presence of an enemy, especially when under fire. While the performers will not be under literal fire, they wear caps with upside down flags that signal a sign of distress. As the performance moves through the city, it asks: Who is the enemy? — Ashley DeHoyos
Jefferson Pinder’s Fire and Movement is commissioned and presented by DiverseWorks in collaboration with the African American Library at the Gregory School, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, and College Memorial Park Cemetery. The performance is organized by DiverseWorks Assistant Curator, Ashley DeHoyos with accompanying outreach programs organized by Community Engagement & Project Coordinator, M’kina Tapscott. The artist has developed the work in collaboration with Drill Specialist Joseph Lefthand (United States Marine Corps) and dramaturge Vinod Hopson.
BIOGRAPHIES Jefferson Pinder has produced performance-based and interdisciplinary work for over a decade. He received a BA in Theatre and MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Maryland, and studied at the Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, FL. Pinder’s work provokes commentary about race and struggle. Primarily using neon, found objects, and video, he investigates identity through the most dynamic circumstances and materials. From uncanny video portraits associated with popular music to durational work that puts the black body in motion, his work examines physical conditioning that reveals an emotional response. Pinder’s work has been featured in numerous group and solo shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, Showroom Mama in Rotterdam, Netherlands, The Phillips Collection and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Pinder was included in the 2016 Shanghai Biennale and his work has also been presented at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2016, he was awarded a United States Artist’s Joyce Fellowship Award in the field of performance, and was a 2017 John S. Guggenheim Fellow. Currently, Pinder is a Professor of Sculpture and the Dean of Faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Vinod Hopson is an artist, storyteller, and non-profit arts administrator. His project, Those Who Desire, explores the lost, often difficult histories of the city of Houston through performance and cartography. This takes the form of bus and walking tours. While the civic and tourist industries take great pleasure in touting the city’s diversity, the stories of those diverse communities, and their importance to the city are overlooked, or worse, willfully ignored. Hopson researches and engages those stories, stitching them together to form a more fully understood and appreciated Houston. Hopson was the recipient of a 2016 Idea Fund Grant for Those Who Desire. He was born in New Jersey and has lived in Houston since 1996. With his wife, he also maintains a small flock of backyard chickens and a small child. Joseph Lefthand is an artist and administrator currently living in Chicago. A veteran of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Lefthand works at the intersection of art and social practice, exploring the role of body movement, performance, and abstraction as alternative modes of engendering discourse around the role of foreign policy and militarism in American society. His systems-based approach examines the influential role foreign policy plays in concomitant cultural issues such as race, class, and immigration.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS Dark Was the Night: A THOSE WHO DESIRE Tour of the Camp Logan Uprising June 26, July 10, and July 24 | 7:30 pm with Vinod Hopson (SOLD OUT)
Panel Discussion: Race & Riots - The Legacy of Camp Logan
July 10 | 6:00 pm at the African American Library at the Gregory School with Naomi Mitchell Carrier, Executive Director of the Texas Center for African American Living History; Angela Holder, Professor of American History at Houston Community College and and descendant of Corporal Jesse Moore, Company I, 24th Infantry; Vinod Hopson, dramaturge, artist, and historian; and Jefferson Pinder, artist. SPECIAL THANKS DiverseWorks and Jefferson Pinder would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for their assistance in making this production possible: The African American Library at the Gregory School, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, College Park Cemetery Association, dabphoto, 4th Ward Freedman’s Town Association, Hand Prop Rental and Lone Star Defense and Arms, Naomi Carrier Mitchell, Morgan Contreras, Angela Holder, Chronda Johnson, Joseph Lefthand, Paul Middendorf, Erika Thompson, Aimy Tien, and Danielle Wilson, the Fire and Movement Advisory Committee: Nathaniel Donnett, Brian Ellison, Max Fields, Harrison Guy, Vinod Hopson, Justin Jones, Ronald Jones, and Elizabeth Webb, and DW Interns and volunteers Daniel Bertalot, Aubrey Burghardt, Erin Carty, Courtney Khim, Sunnie Liu, Sunee Kate Quirante, Carla Renteria, Sheila Rodriguez, Maya White, and Blanca Wilson. SUPPORT This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. Major foundation support is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, Houston Endowment, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Wortham Foundation. In-kind support provided by Rambler and Sharp Business Systems.
DIVERSEWORKS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Natalye Appel, Kathrin Brunner (Treasurer), Kevin M. Clark, Abimbola Farinde, Karen Gerlach, Josefa Gonzalez Mariscal (Vice President), Rob Greenstein (Chairman), Aimee Heimbinder, Mahenou Ilahi (Secretary), Justin Jones, Brian James,Tara Kelly (President), Lester Marks, Janet Meyer, Besim Tafilaj, Tek Wilson ARTIST ADVISORY BOARD Sara Balabanlilar, Julia Barbosa Landois, Daniel Bertalot, Jessica Fuquay, Tasha Gorel, Harrison Guy, Ashley Horn, Devin Kenny, Justin Jones (President), Mat Kubo, Randi Long, Mekeva McNeil, S Rodriguez, Ivette Román-Roberto, Angela So, Sarah Welch, Lori Yuill STAFF Xandra Eden, Executive Director & Chief Curator Jennifer Gardner, Deputy Director Ashley DeHoyos, Assistant Curator M’Kina Tapscott, Community Engagement & Project Coordinator MISSION DiverseWorks commissions, produces, and presents new and daring art in all its forms through innovative collaborations that honor each artist’s vision without constraint. Founded by artists in 1982, DiverseWorks is nationally known for its groundbreaking programming; as a resource for the innovative and meaningful engagement of communities; and as a force that has shaped contemporary thought and practice in Houston and the nation. DiverseWorks has a long history of supporting the creation of new work, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and as a bridge between diverse sectors of the art community. DiverseWorks is committed to equitable compensation for artists and is W.A.G.E. (Working Artists in the Greater Economy) Certified. DIVERSEWORKS 3400 Main Street, Suite 292 Houston, TX 77002 (713) 223-8346 WWW.DIVERSEWORKS.ORG Facebook: www.facebook.com/diverseworks Instagram and Twitter: @diverseworks