Author: Burnt Sugar Arkestra

Stefanie Batten Bland’s Company SBB & BSA present PATIENT(CE), an interdisciplinary work inspired by father daughter conversations between Company SBB founder and controversial composer and film maker Ed Bland. This creation examines the structure of jazz with its formal emphasis on the eternal present. Through a collaboration with futuristic jazz ensemble Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber’s choreographic unit of Mikel Banks, Julie Brown, Chris Eddleton, V. Jeffrey Smith and Greg Tate and visual installation by Ms. Batten Bland and Alaric Hahn, PATIENT(CE) will examine the critical relationship that the musical, physical and visual arts have with space and time.

The School is a venue for special exhibitions as well as a home for the gallery’s collection. The architecture of the existing 1929 federal-revival elementary school lent itself to the vision of architect Antonio Jimenez Torrecillas. Torrecillas maximized the potential of the original structure through redesign features including a build out of the school’s gymnasium, creating a 5,000 square foot exhibition space with soaring 24-foot ceilings. A perimeter gallery rings the former gymnasium while classrooms on the second level function as more traditional exhibition spaces. In addition to the interior galleries, the property sits on five acres of land that will provide a temporary home for outdoor sculptural and site-specific installations.

Oh and just so you know … this “happening” is made possible with support from Mr. LeRoi C. Johnson (Rick James’s Brother, Manager & a noted painter) and through public funds from the Music program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Here’s a bit of Leroi’s background:

From 1981 to 1992 LeRoi C. Johnson was the President & Vice-President of Mary Jane Productions, Inc.  During that time period LeRoi negotiated entertainment contracts for Rick James, The Mary Jane Girls, Val Young and Process and the Doo Rags with Motown, CBS and Warner Brothers; toured the United States and Europe extensively in venues ranging from 10,000 to 110,000 people and personally managed and represented Rick James, Stone City Band, The Mary Jane Girls, Val Young and Process and the Doo Rags who sold over twenty million records collectively.

Regarding those times LeRoi says … ” Everything that Rick did including his day-to-day activities and operations were managed by my company during this period.  So, in addition to being his brother and close friend, I was his manager.  Rick created the musical ideas and I made them work both financially and artistically.  Rick and I were a team. He was the leader, I was the manager, it’s that simple.”

Bronx-born artist Abigail DeVille will construct a historical maze displayed in vacant storefront spaces in the heart of Anacostia with collected materials from a ten-day road trip from DC to Florida in a new work, entitled The New Migration.  The New Migration will explore the implications of the mass flight and migratory return of African Americans to the South.

In addition to the installation, a sunset procession devised in collaboration with stage director Charlotte Brathwaite will kick-off the opening of the installation.  The procession will feature a special collection of handcrafted wearable sculptures created from recycled remnants and discarded materials worn by six performers commemorating the six million African descendants who dared to make the crossing known as The Great Migration.

The sculptures will start at the foot of the Frederick Douglas House and dance, chant, move and sing as spirits illuminating the journey – celebrating the determination and perseverance of these fearless pioneers.

Procession route: Frederick Douglas House down 14th Street across Good Hope Road Anacostia Arts Center.

The procession will culminate in a concert in front of the storefront installations at the Anacostia Arts Center featuring Greg Tate and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber among others.

More information:
www.the5x5project.com/justine-topfer/abigail-deville/

www.instagram.com/thenewmigration

Sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.