JACK Presents Performance Installation SANCTUARY

JACK presents Sanctuary, a performance installation by Wi-Moto Nyoka, Paul Leopold and Sadah Espii Proctor on May 20 - 21, 2017. Visceral, virtual, and meditative, Sanctuary is an interactive performance installation and an invitation for a ritual journey. Through the ancient motif of a labyrinth, audiences will witness and engage in invented mythologies and summoning practices. The installation - the result of a year-long investigation by artists Wi-Moto Nyoka, Paul Leopold and Sadah Espii Proctor - is based on the idea of self-preservation as an act of political resistance, with the artists drawing from both personal and shared experiences to craft original stories that promote a space of reciprocity.

DATES/TIMES:
Saturday, May 20 at 8 pm
Sunday, May 21 at 3 pm

TICKETS: $18 general (advance at www.jackny.org), $15 students (must present ID).

LOCATION: JACK | 505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 | C or G train to Clinton-Washington

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Sanctuary explores themes of self-care through the power of storytelling, authorship, virtual realities and performance. Balancing technology's role in spirituality with the rawness of bodies in a communal sacred space, Sanctuary straddles the fine line between full immersion and self-reflection. Performance becomes an act of "survivance." As we invest in our collective imagination, we care for each other by validating the divine in us all.

Sanctuary is a satellite event of Creative Tech Week, a crowd-sourced festival created to showcase the cutting-edge research, art, media, and community initiatives being generated in the field of creative technology.

*Sanctuary was developed at Brooklyn College as a thesis project for the Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) MFA program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Wi-Moto Nyoka is a performer and transmedia artist. Awards and honors include: Tanzhaus NRW Interdisciplinary Works artist in residence 2011, Puffin Foundation grant recipient 2012, the Brick's Comic Book Theater Festival 2014 selected librettist, Indie Boots Theater Festival Finalist & Audience Award Honorable Mention 2015, A.R.T/New York Creative Space Grant recipient 2016. She holds a BFA in music theater from the University of the Arts and is currently attending the Brooklyn College MFA program for Performance & Interactive Media Arts.

Paul Leopold is a multimedia artist and producer. As co-director of art collective The Culture Whore, Paul is known for throwing concept driven warehouse raves such as OASIS, RIOT, DOWNLOAD & the Psychic Series. The Culture Whore is the 2015 & 2016 Brooklyn Nightlife Award winner for Best Producer. As the director of Descent, Paul directed and produced original immersive theatre pieces: GRAVITY at The American Repertory Theatre's Club Oberon (2013) and House of Yes (2012) and ENTOMO (2011) at Oberon. Paul has a BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and is currently pursuing their MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College.

Sadah Espii Proctor is a dramaturg, performer, and sound & media designer. Fellowships and honors include: SH//FT Oculus Connect 3 Scholar (2016), NYU Virtual Reality Lab Fellow (Fall 2016), Creative Founder Lab Scholar (2016), Thoughtworks & NYU Tandon Art-A-Hack (2016) and featured artist at Creative Tech Week 2016, for her interactive art installation Graffiti Action.

Dramaturgy includes: Spunk (New Perspectives Theatre Company, 2015), Daughters of the Bayou (Theater YinYin, 2015), and Project Unspeakable (Convergences Theatre Collective, 2014). Ms. Proctor also leads panels on Cyberpunk and Afrofuturism, most recently at NYU's ITP Camp. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Virginia Tech and is currently attending Brooklyn College's MFA program for Performance & Interactive Media Arts.

JACK is an OBIE-winning performance venue founded in 2012 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn by theater-maker Alec Duffy and several co-founders. Our mission is to create radical access to the arts by presenting performance work that reflects the diversity of the city and by involving local residents in the creative process. We present about 200 theater, music and dance performances a year and hold community forums on racial justice, gentrification, and police/community relations.

Photo credit: Adele Overbey