DIGITAL: Tendayi Kuumba with Greg Purnell Encore Performance
Apr 30, 2020, 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT
Free
Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell will present an encore performance of their re-imagined digital version of Unidentified Fly Objects (U.F.O.): Stardust Melanin on April 30 at 8:00 pm EST via Zoom. RSVP to tune in. The evening will include a 45-minute screening of the work, followed by a Q&A with the artists on Zoom and Instagram Live at @whostendayi.
This digital performance is free with an option to donate directly to the artists:
Cashapp: $TendayiKuumba
Venmo: Tendayi-kuumba
Unidentified Fly Objects (U.F.O.): Stardust Melanin
What if questions are really the answers? What if everything that is taught is a bent reflection of the truth? In order to understand the feminine—unattainable and beyond rationality—closed minds must be questioned and defied. The Feminine Divine is the space between space—a trapped mental power that longs to define and detail our boldness, a genetic constellation that sustains our infinite cycle.
Unidentified Fly Objects (U.F.O.): Stardust Melanin is an investigation of the power we inherently possess as ancestral magical beings and explores the polarity of the god/goddess consciousness from the inside out. Stardust Melanin questions the need for answers, definitions, and tangible findings to seek the unknown and misunderstood powers. In a compilation of science, love, loss, magic, and spirits, worlds converge into one musical galaxy. Through original scoring, a folkloric journey is reimagined by Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell, bonding worlds and resurrecting the Feminine Divine.
ABOUT TENDAYI KUUMBA
International singer, songwriter, & choreographer Tendayi Kuumba is Spelman College graduate with a BA in Drama with a Dance Concentration. Her training as a youth ranges from Buffalo Inner City Ballet, Ballethnic, Callanwolde Fine Arts, and Moving in the Spirit. As a Brooklyn transplant her choreographic roots ebody a long thruline of musical exploration, vocal portals,response of the body and storytelling. Her past choreographic works have been on multiple platforms including Danspace, HiArts, Harlem Stage & BRICLab. Frequent collaborators include Greg Purnell & Courtney Cook. She has worked with choreographers Marjani Forte’-Saunders, ASÉ Dance Theater Collective,Nathan Trice/ Rituals Performance Projec, Jim Findlay’s “Electric Lucifer” workshop & Philadelphia Operas’ “We Shall Not be Moved” directed by Bill T. Jones. In 2018 she toured as 1 of 2 back up singer/dancers on the American Utopia World Tour of the Talking Heads leading man and Grammy Nominated singer/songwriter/recording artist David Byrne and has gone on to make her debut in David Byrne’s America Utopia on Broadway. In other spaces shes generating and co-creating artistic collaborations and spaces such as “The Golden Ratio Project ”, in Brooklyn, NY alongside Greg Purnell. Upcoming choreographic projects include U.F.O (Unidentified Fly Objects): Stardust Melanin under the Gibney Spotlight residency Spring 2020 & Platform 2020: Utterances from the Chorus in collaboration with Greg Purnell. As well as being a mindful member of the Voice/Body Danspace platform, a creator within 100 Years / 100 Women with Urban Bush Women, & a practitioner in Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Borns’ “Sitting on a Man’s Head”. She gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness through creativity.
Greg Purnell is a Brooklyn born visual/spoken word artist, and overall creative for over a decade. In addition to being an international critically acclaimed master barber to many, he has also been featured in the 2015 BRIC Stoop Series ” Barbershop Stories: it’s all about hair”. Other features include Afropunk, BRIC, The Shade Room, both OkayAfrica Black Panther and Nike collaborations , and webseries feature in “I Do Not Camouflage” by Aiko Tanaka. He ebodies various practices such as sound designer, lighting designer, director & music creator for various solo and collaborative works. Past choreographic/creative works include collaborations with Tendayi Kuumba, Courtney Cook, Urban Bush Women, The Illustrious Blacks, and MVMNT PHLSPY. Currently, Greg is the Founder and primary visionary of artistic lab/creation space “The Golden Ratio Project “. He recently self produced the art exhibition “33”, commemorating his 33 years of barbering in collaboration with his visual artistry.He is a believer of following the power of the moon and being led by the love of the Sun.
Image created by Greg Purnell.
New Voices: Spotlight is generously supported by the Jerome Foundation.
