EVENT DETAILS

Rhodessa Jones: A Woman for the 21st Century

Rhodessa Jones: A Woman for the 21st Century
March 2, 2017
3:30-5PM
Crystal Cove Auditorium, Student Center

(Lecture: 60 Minutes)

This lecture features Rhodessa Jones speaking about her award winning “Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women.”  In addition, she will lecture about the nearly 40 year artistic relationship with her company Cultural Odyssey and the work she does with Co-Artistic Director, Idris Ackamoor.  She will show films, and read from performance material and writings from her repertoire. The audience will view video footage of her work in the American, South African, and Italian prison systems. The lecture is designed for students, teachers, activists, social workers, mentors, and all those engaged in some form of art as social change. The performance/lecture explores our relationships, both public (political) and private (personal) and how our relationships have an impact on the greater community. This lecture examines the use of theater as a "healing tool" in order to begin the process of creating a dialogue where we can begin to examine the conditions which greatly affect our daily lives. i.e. racism, sexism, homophobia, addictions and fear. In her passionate, provocative oratory style, Ms. Jones will assess the process of art, creativity, and creative/cultural survival in the 21st century. 

A Woman for the 21st Century and Rhodessa’s residency activities have been conducted at University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, University of Wisconsin, Madison, St. Mary’s College, Rutgers University, Hamilton College, College of William and Mary, Utica College, and numerous others.  Rhodessa is presently a contributor to the just released publication Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches, Edited by Sharrell Luckett, Tia M. Shaffer © 2017 – Routledge Publishing House.  Rhodessa’s chapter, “Nudging the memory: creating performance with the Medea Project: Theatre for Incarcerated Women” anchors the section on “Methods of social activism”.  This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts.”

Co-sponsored by UCI Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts and Culture Initiative, Department of Art, Department of African American Studies, School of Humanities, and Claire Trevor School of the Arts.