3 RITES: Liberty Illuminates America’s Liberatory Ideals With Theater, Dance, and Community Art
Kelly Strayhorn Theater Hosts Artist Edisa Weeks in a poignant 3-Part Event April 22–27
East Liberty, Pittsburgh, PA—Kelly Strayhorn Theater is thrilled to present a three-part program featuring multidisciplinary artist Edisa Weeks and her performance company DELIRIOUS Dances, culminating in the experimental solo performance 3 RITES: Liberty on Friday & Saturday, April 26 & 27. Leading up to the performance, audiences will have opportunities to meet the artist and participate in her process through the Welcome Dinner and Artist Talk on Monday, April 22 and in an exploratory dance class, Precision & Abandonment, on Wednesday, April 24, co-presented with KST Mutual Aid Partner PearlArts.
Part performance, part installation, New York-based multimedia artist Edisa Weeks’ 3 RITES: Liberty boldly explores the Black experience in America both past and present. The work calls into question America’s spotty legacy of fulfilling the promises laid out in its founding documents. Alternating between blackface, whiteface, storytelling, and visceral dance, Weeks uses object iconography to dig into the pathologizing of African Americans and the foundations of liberty in America in this interactive solo performance.
“We are deeply proud to have supported this project through our Local & Global Performance program, which cultivates performance works rooted in social justice and aesthetic experimentation,” says KST Executive Director Joseph Hall. “With 3 RITES: Liberty, Edisa Weeks has created an intense, thought-provoking, and socially engaged performance that both welcomes audiences and challenges them to reckon with the true meaning of Black liberation.”
Audiences will enter the performance of 3 RITES: Liberty by moving through an installation of roots hung from ceiling to floor. At the center of the roots, audiences will find “Liberty”, played by Weeks. The genderless character’s hair is braided to resemble the Statue of Liberty’s crown, with each spoke of the crown connected via tie lines and pulleys to specific objects – Bible, black dick, blonde wig, gun, lightbulb, sneakers, watermelon. Weeks invites the audience to choose from a deck of flashcards depicting those objects, deciding which stories to tell about the Black experience in America.
Following the performance, Kevin Jarbo PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and co-facilitator of the Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit, will moderate a dialogue with the audience.
A choreographer, performer, and educator, Edisa Weeks’ extensive credits include numerous national and international dance performances in addition to founding her own Brooklyn-based company, DELIRIOUS Dances. 3 RITES: Liberty is part of Weeks’ 3 RITES trilogy, which draws on her experience creating multimedia interactive works that merge theater with dance to explore humanity’s deepest fears, desires, and dreams. The work is a hopeful call to action, and seeks to understand where our biases, bigotry, and racism come from, and how we together can create a more inclusive, just, and liberatory America.
Pre-Performance Participation, Discussion, and Dance
At the Welcome Dinner and Artist Talk on Monday, April 22, participants are invited to join Weeks for a meal and conversation in addition to helping construct the paper and twine roots that are a cornerstone of the final installation for 3 RITES: Liberty. Weeks describes events like these as “Root Parties,” something like a mash-up between a sewing bee and barbershop talk.
Later in the week, participants will be offered another chance to connect with Weeks’ artistic process at Precision & Abandonment on Wednesday, April 24 at 9:00am – 10:15am. Co-presented by PearlArts, this movement class explores concepts of falling, momentum, and suspension. Using breath and structured improvisations, participants will explore a way of moving that emphasizes ease and encourages creative risk-taking.
Elements of each of these events will come together in 3 RITES: Liberty on Friday and Saturday, April 26 & 27. The performance incorporates roots created at the Welcome Dinner. Concluding with a moderated discussion immediately after the show, 3 RITES: Liberty will culminate a week-long journey of creative experimentation and critical conversation around race and identity in America.
KST’s presentation of 3 RITES: Liberty is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts’s National Dance Project, and the National Performance Network (NPN) Artist Engagement Fund. 3 RITES is a National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by 651 ARTS, Mount Tremper Arts, RestorationART, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, DancePlace and NPN/VAN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
KST’s 2023–24 season, Brave Actions, Bold Voices, celebrates the artists, audiences, and communities who call KST home. Throughout the season, KST has hosted new offerings from Mutual Aid Residents Dreams of Hope and PearlArts, visual art exhibitions in the KST Gallery, Freshworks: New Performance in Process, and premieres of Local and Global Performances from longtime Pittsburgh favorites and returning faces. As a site of community building and resistance, KST defines itself as a home for artists and a space of care for historically resilient people.
Welcome Dinner & Artist Talk with Edisa Weeks
Monday, April 22, 2024 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm
KST Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
Tickets for the Welcome Dinner & Artist Talk with Edisa Weeks are Pay What Moves You, $0 – $25 per attendee, and can be reserved at kelly-strayhorn.org
Precision & Abandonment with Edisa Weeks
Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | 9:00am – 10:15am
KST Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
Co-Presented with PearlArts
Tickets for Precision & Abandonment are Pay What Moves You, $10 – $25 per attendee, and can be reserved at kelly-strayhorn.org
DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks – 3 RITES: Liberty
Friday & Saturday, April 26 – 27, 2024 | 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
Tickets for 3 RITES: Liberty are Pay What Moves You, $15 – $35 per attendee, and can be reserved at kelly-strayhorn.org
Warning: The show contains mature themes and potentially triggering content about psychological and sexual violence. Not recommended for children under thirteen.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Edisa Weeks (she/her) – Concept, Choreographer, Performer – is a Brooklyn, NY based educator, choreographer and founder of DELIRIOUS Dances. She creates multimedia interactive work that merges theater with dance to explore our deepest desires, darkest fears and sweetest dreams. She grew up in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Brooklyn, NY; and had the joy of performing with Annie–B Parsons Big Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Dance Brazil, Homer Avila, Jane Comfort, Jon Kinzel, Muna Tseng, Reggie Wilson Fist & Heel Performance Group, Sally Silvers, Spencer/Colton Dance, among others. She is a recipient of several awards including a 2022 Creative Capital Grant. She teaches choreography, improvisation, dance technique, and mentors emerging artists at Queens College CUNY.
ABOUT 3 RITES
KST’s presentation of 3 RITES: Liberty is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Art’s National Dance Project, and the National Performance Network (NPN) Artist Engagement Fund. 3 RITES is a National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by 651 ARTS, Mount Tremper Arts, RestorationART, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, DancePlace and NPN/VAN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
3 RITES is made possible in part through funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council; Creative Capital; Durst Organization; Harkness Foundation for Dance; The New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project which is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation; New Music USA; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York; The Puffin Foundation, as well as through the sponsorship of The Field; and the generosity of individuals.
3 RITES was researched, developed and honed with financial, administrative and residency support from BRICLab; Chashama Space to Create; ChoreoQuest at RestorationART – Billie Holiday Theatre; a remote residency with the Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Dance in Process at Gibney Dance with funds provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Harlem Stage WaterWorks Emerging Artists program, which received support from the Jerome Foundation and the Mellon Foundation; Mabou Mines SUITE/Space program; Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography; Materials for the Arts; New York State Dance Force residencies at Topaz Arts and at Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Norte Maar @ Socrates Sculpture Park; Performance Spaces for the 21st Century; and Snug Harbor Cultural Center.
ABOUT THE DISCUSSION MODERATOR
Kevin Jarbo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and Co-Director of the Data-Driven Diversity (D3) Lab in Dietrich College at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research focuses on college student engagement, help-seeking behavior, perceptions of diversity initiatives, and decisions to persist in higher education. He has also worked closely with CMU’s Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion to coordinate student-centered educational and social events that spotlight Black identity development and culture. Outside of his academic work, Kevin has served as the program chair for the annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit planning committee since 2019. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER
Named after 20th century entertainment legends Gene Kelly and Billy Strayhorn, both natives of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) is a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. We welcome our home to all who uplift Black, Indigenous, people of color, and queer voices.
KST is an institutional arts anchor in Pittsburgh’s East End that has served the community for more than two decades. Since launching KST Presents programming in ’08, KST has been Black-led, fostering radical imagination for Black and queer arts, culture, and community in Pittsburgh by cultivating BIPOC and/or queer artists, entrepreneurs, and arts administrators, developing their careers, and shifting narratives around Black possibility.