Digital: Deeper Duet: mayfield brooks + Taína Asili

mayfield brooks and Taína Asili will engage in conversation around their work as artists inspired by the power of improvisation and moved by the rhythm of resistance. They will also explore how their love of growing food and their connection to food justice movements have influenced their creative practices.

About mayfield brooks

mayfield brooks improvises while Black, and is currently based in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people also know as Brooklyn, New York. brooks is a movement-based performance artist, vocalist, urban farmer, writer, and wanderer. They are currently an Artist-in-Residence (AiR) at the Center for Performance Research (CPR), is faculty at Movement Research NYC, Editor in Chief of the Movement Research Performance Journal, and the 2021 recipient of the biennial Merce Cunningham Award in dance granted by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. brooks teaches and performs practices that arise from their life/art/movement work, Improvising While Black (IWB).

About Taína Asili

Taína Asili is a New York-based Puerto Rican singer, composer, filmmaker and activist carrying on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. For over 20 years, she has brought the music of love and liberation to venues across the globe – from the Women’s March on Washington to Carnegie Hall to the mainstage of San Francisco Pride. Her protest songs and music videos “No Es Mi Presidente,” “Freedom,” “And We Walk,” and “We Are Rising” — inspired by social movements for racial, gender, and climate justice — have been lauded by the likes of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and NPR, and her music has aired numerous times on Democracy Now!. With her last three albums War Cry (2010), Fruit of Hope (2014), and Resiliencia (2019), Asili uses a multi-genre and multilingual approach to connect with a variety of audiences, confidently weaving between rock, reggae, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, hip hop, ska, samba and Afrobeat to give her music a texture that’s unique yet rooted. With powerful vocals and infectious rhythms, Asili’s music urges people to dance to the rhythm of rebellion.

Deeper Duets engage two special guests in lively and provocative conversation about artistic life, artistic practice and the urgent social concerns that drive creative expression.

All Fall 2021 Season events will be held online via Zoom. Gibney’s Box Office can be reached via email. For ticketing inquiries or requests, please email Marketing & Audience Services Manager, Kimiko Tanabe, at boxoffice@gibneydance.org.

Gibney encourages people with disabilities to attend online offerings, and we welcome the opportunity to make this event more accessible. This event features live ASL interpreters and live captioning. If you have any questions or additional access needs, please email us at constanza@gibneydance.org or call us at 212-677-8560 (voice only) at least 24 hours in advance of the event you plan to attend.

Image Description: Collage of two headshots.
Left photo: Taína Asili in a bright yellow dress, holding her hair and smiling.
Right photo: Head and shoulders shot of mayfield looking up and smiling with white brick wall as a backdrop, mayfield is brown skinned, with black hair and a medium sized afro, wearing a grey V neck sweater.

Photo (left) of Taína Asili by Mike Morgan. Photo (right) of mayfield brooks by Brett Davis.