Black Spatial Relics is a new performance residency about slavery, justice and freedom. The residency annually supports the development of new performance works that address and incorporate public histories of slavery and contemporary issues and pursuits of justice and freedom. The 2019 Black Spatial Relics Artists-In-Residence are Julie B. Johnson and muthi reed.

Julie B. Johnson is the creator of  “Idle Crimes and Heavy Work.” “Idle Crimes and Heavy Work” is developed in conjunction with her participation as a co- director of The Georgia Incarceration Performance Project — a devised archives-to- performance collaboration exploring the history of incarceration and convict labor in Georgia. “Idle Crimes and Heavy Work,” is a choreographic exploration of the often overlooked experiences of black women within this history, embodying narratives of gendered and racial violence, and amplifying modes of resistance and restoration. 

muthi reed is the creator of HOUSE OF BLACK INFINITY // WILDIN. Working between Philadelphia and York, Alabama, muthi’s work is in partnership with Coleman Center for the Arts. HOUSE OF BLACK INFINITY // WILDIN is a community vision for intercultural trans regional society, gathering and contemplating topographic visions for twenty first century living. Organizing the Council, muthi will conduct archival research about local Black and Native life. From research, they are making work to share in community— part holler, porch sit, walk, ritual, libations, roll call, story performance, sing, prayer, drill. WILDIN is a conceptual audio and video performance work.

Johnson and reed’s work both call to us to collapse (into) time. Their work invites us to sift through our very bodies as both historical fragments and future diviners. Their work bids us to consider and take up patterns of movement - both demarcated and long. Their work tests out vastness in scale up next to experiences of Black restriction. Their works are defiant in their relentless reaching across jurisdictions, geographies and genres. Their expansive approaches to considering Black freedom insist on big welcome for ALL of us. Their arts/works/practices are strategies toward the next-next for ALL of us. Below you will find petit but generous pieces of their respective works.  I hope that these offerings of theirs, the images, words, and video come together to welcome you share in the thirst I feel for their work. Witness and be encouraged about our freedom.

-Arielle Julia Brown Director, Black Spatial Relics