Intersection For The Arts Present The World Premiere Of 'Mirrors In Every Corner' by Chinaka Hodge

Dec. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- San Francisco, CA - From Intersection's acclaimed resident theatre company Campo Santo and The Living Word Project (the resident theater company of Youth Speaks) comes the world premiere of Mirrors In Every Corner, written by emerging playwright Chinaka Hodge. This genre breaking and strikingly original theatre work chronicles an Oakland-based African American family alternately in the present and in 1988 after the mother gives birth to a Caucasian baby. Examining how race is lived in and through the body, this world premiere play attempts to unearth the reality and the fictive construction of race - what makes someone black, what is blackness, what is family, and what is lineage- as a family grapples with the issues of race and identity in contemporary America. Written by Chinaka Hodge with an original jazz score by the acclaimed Ambrose Akinmusire and directed by Marc Bamuthi Joséph, the show also features Campo Santo co-founder Margo Hall and a dual scenic installation/exhibition by artist Evan Bissell. The world premiere of Mirrors In Every Corner begins performances on February 25 and runs through March 21, 2010. All performances are at Intersection for the Arts, located at 446 Valencia Street between 15th and 16th Streets at 8pm. Press Opening is on Monday, March 1st at 8pm. Tickets, priced at $15-25, are available by visiting www.theintersection.org or by calling 415-626-2787 x.109. All Thursday performances are "Pay-What-You-Can" performances (reservations required for all shows.)

"my white baby...It happened, she's not light-skinned or pigment deficient or albino. She white. As rice or flour or other things that also come in brown that you don't worry about."  -Willie, "Mirrors In Every Corner"

Against the backdrop of West Oakland, an African American mother grieves the birth of her fourth daughter after raising three children. The daughter, named Random, while healthy in all regards, is born White. This play delves into an examination of race, family, gentrification over the span of 25 years while the effects of the most defining moments of recent American history (the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the AIDS crisis, the crack epidemic, Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war) play out in the microcosm of daily family life. Through movement, music and spoken word, this play comes to life examining shifting identities.  

Margo Hall, Campo Santo co-founder, makes her eagerly awaited return to the Intersection stage along with with Bay Area actors Daveed Diggs, Dwight Huntsman and Traci Tolmaire. Acclaimed jazz musician Ambrose Akinmusire composes all new original music for Mirrors In Every Corner while artist Evan Bissell creates the scenic world of the play through innovative installation techniques. Marc Bamuthi Joséph brings his signature style to the project, directing Chinaka Hodge's powerful piece.

Mirrors In Every Corner's imaginative and non-linear approach to storytelling continues Intersection and Campo Santo's exploration of new performance languages- merging theatre, spoken word, music and movement- seen most recently in Angry Black White Boy, Fukú Americanus the adaptation of Junot Diaz's Pultizer Prize winning novel, and the collaborative project The Future Project: Sunday Will Come with the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project.

Combining the styles of Intersection's Hybrid Project, The Living Word Project's spoken word infused aesthetic, and Campo Santo's narrative and community storytelling style, this Mirrors In Every Corner acts as a barometer of the climate of art, race music and politics and its effects on our region and global community. This playserves as a lens through which the complex politics of Bay Area and national race relations can be viewed. True to an "intersection" for the arts, the new production brings together Intersection for the Arts' all-star mutli-disciplinary talents, borrowing the vision and expertise from each cross section: jazz, visual arts, theater, spoken word, and dance.

Chinaka Hodge (Playwright) is a poet and playwright. Originally from Oakland, California, she was named Best Poet by the East Bay Express in 2008. She was the inaugural recipient of Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia young author scholarship. Chinaka graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006, and was honored to be the student speaker at the 174th Commencement exercise.

Marc Bamuthi Joséph (Director) is an educator, performer, and the artistic director of The Living Word Project, a theater company dedicated to the aesthetics of post-hip hop performance, also in residence in Intersection's Hybrid Project. In the Fall of 2007, Bamuthi graced the cover of Smithsonian Magazine after being named one of America's Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences.

The Living Word Project (LWP) is the resident theater company of Youth Speaks, committed to producing literary performance in the verse of our time. Aesthetically urban, pedagogically Freirean, LWP derives personal performed narratives out of interdisciplinary collaboration. Though its methodology includes dance, music, and film, the company’s emphasis is spoken storytelling. LWP creates verse-based work that is spoken through the body, illustrated by visual and sonic scores, and in communication with the important social issues and movements of the immediate moment. LWP is the theater’s connection from Shakespeare’s quill to Kool Herc’s turntables; from Martha Graham’s cupped hand to Nelson Mandela’s clenched fist: a new voice for a new politic.

Campo Santo is Spanish for sacred ground. Like the roots of their name, they take the sacred form of storytelling and use it as a tool to bond community through socially relevant plays. Fukú Americanus marked the 40th Premiere production for Campo Santo. One of Campo Santo's greatest success has been the ability to create long term relationships with internationally known writers who are leaders in developing work that is broadening and diversifying the American voice - including Jimmy Santiago Baca, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, Naomi Iizuka, Denis Johnson, Octavio Solis and Erin Cressida Wilson, to name a few. Over the years Campo Santo has developed an organic process for creating new plays that has allowed them to build a very diverse constituency made up of committed collaborators and loyal audience members.

INTERSECTION FOR THE ARTS is San Francisco's oldest alternative non-profit art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another.

Calendar Editors Please Note:

EVENT:   Intersection for the Arts, Campo Santo and The Living Word Project present the World Premiere of Mirrors In Every Corner
Directed by: Marc Bamuthi Joséph
Featuring: Margo Hall, Daveed Diggs,Traci Tolmaire, and Dwight Huntsman
Original Music Composed by: Ambrose Akinmusire
Visual Arts Installation & Scenic Design by: Evan Bissell
WHEN:    Thursday, February 25 - Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursdays - Sundays, 8pm
PRESS OPENING:   Monday, March 1, 2010, 8pm
COST & TICKETS   $25-$15 (Thursdays are Pay-What-YouCan)
TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE AND BY PHONE   www.theintersection.org or call 415-626-2787 x109
LOCATION:   Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia (btwn 15/16) Mission District, San Francisco
INFO:   (415) 626-2787 x.109, www.theintersection.org

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Intersection for the Arts is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music, dance, and the visual arts.