By Tereneh Idia
I was inspired by a beam of sunlight doing interesting things and started shooting. What emerged was this idea of playful indulgence…Right now, I find myself in a space where I want my work to be about being, dreaming, reflecting, and living--all with a twist of whimsy.”
Kitoko Chargois, photographer
In 2014, Bekezela Mguni and a group of other Black women and femmes brought 500 flowers to downtown Pittsburgh and started handing them out to Black women, girls and femmes. In addition to the beauty of the flowers, there were also beautiful messages like “Your Life Matters” “You are valuable.”
Bekezela’s “Flowers for Black women” inspired Staycee Pearl’s visuals for CIRCLES: reclamation art exhibit at the August Wilson for African American Culture Center Gallery opening on Saturday, October 9 until Sunday, October 31.
Staycee is sitting in her light filled studio, showing images she has painted. “A mix of floral designs,” Staycee explains. It is hard to tell if the flowers are “cascading down or flowing up.” But they are in motion and beautiful. Like the Black women and femmes who inspired the dance.
Bekezela is contributing to CIRCLES as well. Via email she reflects on themes and sources of her work, “I was invited to experience and participate in the company’s process during the creation of this piece and share visual work in alignment with the themes explored in this production: Black womanhood, joy, life, love, freedom to be…Reflecting on what it means to choose ourselves in our lifetime.”
“Who are you?” A simple question but difficult to answer, without invoking a job title or family position. All too often women define themselves first and foremost in relation to someone else. Someone’s wife, mother, partner, lover.
So consider - Who are you? Just you. As a Black woman, girl, femme.
Complete, full, soft, singular.
Bekezela talks about the things that inspired her work that reveals the ingredients in making us: “Grief, love, joy and healing. My grandmother. She passed on Dec. 31st 2020. The stories Black women tell ourselves about love. The experiences of the women in my family.” The intergenerational wisdom, reflection and joy being passed around and through us.
Complete, singular. Reflecting self as evidence of a legacy.
Kitoko Chargois is a photographer and visual collaborator who explains her process of self portraiture: “For me, self portrait is a powerful form of embodiment that allows me to access the parts of myself that get lost in the day to day. As a Black woman, every day I find myself hit with the trauma of the world, and it gets increasingly painful. My art is a refuge where I can embrace more softness.”
The light within us, embodying and reflecting the gift of ourselves.
(L to R) STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos dancers LaTrea Derome , Raven Marsh, Chandler Maria Bingham & Lindsey McGivern rehearse a phrase of CIRCLES: going in at Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Alloy Studios.
Photo Credit: Kitoko Chargois
Kitoko explains “I was inspired by a beam of sunlight doing interesting things and started shooting. What emerged was this idea of playful indulgence…Right now, I find myself in a space where I want my work to be about being, dreaming, reflecting, and living--all with a twist of whimsy.”
Joy is in our DNA. Love is how we live.
sara huny young’s work reflects the richness of Black women and femme love. The depth of caring for one another. huny explains, “The piece I've submitted for CIRCLES is called pussy flower. It's part of a series of portraits I took this summer exploring Black sapphic love. As a Black queer woman, I hyperfocus on Black womanhood & queerness because I want others who look, live, and love like me to see themselves represented.”
As the title of the dance, CIRCLES, attest there is more here, “I want to see myself represented, huny reflects over email.”
Rather than the linear, hierarchical way of being, literally a phallic representation of humanity. The Circle is inclusive, a bringing in - it is a way of thinking or being that is sustainable, regenerative, life giving and life affirming. huny says, “To me there is nothing comparable to the way Black woman love other Black women, be it platonic or romantic. I wanted that tenderness to be reflected in my work. I wanted it to touch on the erotic, as well.”
As the original women - African women and women of the African diaspora reflect the first rays of humanities: love. The love shared, reflected and created by Black women and femmes is part of the circle of love that began in the birthplace of humanity, Africa and is carried within all of us:
Reflected, celebrated, nurtured within a Circle of creative love, as with these four collaborative sisters in arts.
The visuals for CIRCLES: reclamation are created by:
Staycee Pearl, she/her IG: staystaylove Founder and Choreographer of PearlArts & STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos
Bekezela Mguni, she/they IG: @sweet_thunda / @blackunicornlibraryproject
Kitoko Chargois, she/her @photo_by_kitoko Visual collaborator / Photographer
sarah huny young (huny if used in the singular), she/they. instagram.com/hunyrocks Exhibiting artist
All events for CIRCLES are to be held at the: August Wilson African American Cultural Center 980 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Buy tickets at: https://aacc-awc.org/event/circles-going-in/
CIRCLES: going in (Dance Premiere) Thursday, October 28 | 8:00 PM Friday, October 29 | Performance: 8:00 PM | Reception: 9:00 PM Saturday, October 30 | 8:00 PM
Co-Presented with the August Wilson African American Cultural Center and Kelly Strayhorn Theater, CIRCLES: going in is a full-length dance work celebrating #BlackGirlMagic. Layering dance, visual arts, and a live original score, the work presents snapshots of popular culture through Choreographer Staycee Pearl’s lens as a Black woman. CIRCLES is a colorful, unapologetic, and daring path to self-reclamation. CIRCLES is amplified by an original soundtrack created by Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl in collaboration with a diverse roster of club artists including DJ Haram, Yah Lioness, Madame Delores, DOTGOV, Queen Jo & more!
CIRCLES: reclamation (Gallery Exhibition) Opening Reception: Saturday, October 9 | 6:00-9:00 PM Viewing Dates: October 9-31 Gallery Hours: Thu - Fri, 3pm - 8pm, Sat - Sun, 12pm - 5pm
CIRCLES: reclamation is presented as part of CIRCLES: going in, an unapologetic, full-length dance work celebrating #BlackGirlMagic. Immerse yourself in this art exhibit featuring Black visual artists including Staycee Pearl, Bekezela Mguni, Kitoko Chargois, and sarah huny young. Works will draw from their shared explorations of Blackness and self-reclamation.
Tereneh Idia is an award-winning designer and writer focused on issues of social justice, environment, design, arts and culture.
Her work has appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper, PublicSource, New Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AfroPunk, The North Star, StarTrek.com, The Frick Museum Pittsburgh and the book, TENDER a literary anthology & book of spells: evidence.
Her journalism awards include: Winner of the Golden Quill 2019 and 2020 for best columnist in daily paper and nominated again in 2021. The Robert L Vann Pittsburgh Black Media Federation Award for 2020. The 2020 Association of Alternative News Media Best Column Billy Manes Award winner for best column in the United States and Canada, nominated again in 2021.
She was a costume designer for STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos’ Abby: In The Red.
CIRCLES is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Joyce Theater, and NPN. More information: www.npnweb.org. CIRCLES was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Co-commissioning Partners are Kelly Strayhorn Theater, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, and The Joyce Theater. The development of CIRCLES is made possible in part by the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron (NCCAkron). CIRCLES is supported in part by The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Fund, Heinz Endowments, and The Opportunity Fund.