BRIC Announces BRIClab Residencies

BRIC, the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, announces its residents for BRIClab 2019-2020. This long-standing program offers artists the time and space to explore and expand the possibilities of their work in music, dance, theater, and multidisciplinary performance. The resulting works-in-progress will be presented in showings beginning in September 2019, through April 2020, in the Artist Studio at BRIC House (647 Fulton Street, Brooklyn).

BRIC President Kristina Newman-Scott said, "We are thrilled to welcome this year's new BRIClab artists-in-residence. Giving artists the resources they need to develop new work in a safe and supportive environment is paramount to BRIC's mission. We encourage artists to take risks under our roof and are committed to investing in their artistic process."

For Fall 2019, writer/performer Raquel Almazanwill develop a new entry in her LATIN IS AMERICA play cycle titled LA NEGRA: A theatrical installation / An event to Honor your Dead, in which the audience will move through the complexities of Mexico's crisis and a vision of hope and prosperity (September 26-27). Playwright Zarina Shea will present Climate Change: An Opera, about how we balance the day-to-day realities of being a human person in the world with the overwhelming reality of our planet's changing climate-and our role in that change (October 10-11). Dance artist Jordan Demetrius Lloydwill showcase pink sheets, a piece for five performers using movement generated from explorations on tone to ask questions about what it means to create something magical, modern, and real (November 21-22). Director, playwright, poet, and vocalist Shayok Misha Chowdhury will develop SPEECH, a multidisciplinary piece wrestling with the problem of free speech in a racialized, still colonial, Instagramming America (December 12-13).

In Spring 2020, artists developing and presenting new works-in-progress include playwright Don Nguyen, with The Golden Spike, an epic love story spanning 13 years and weaving strong emotional narratives of Chinese and Irish immigrants (February 5-6); dancer, teacher, and choreographer Davalois Fearon, with For C.J., a multimedia dance piece that highlights systemic environmental and medical racism, dedicated to Clifton Fearon, Jr., who died from an asthma attack at age 20 (March 5-6); Morgan Greenand Milo Cramer with their co-creation JURY DUTY, cross-examining America's most theatrical Democratic ritual through transcripts, testimonies, and surveillance-like video (March 19-20); and writer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator Ty Defoe, with Revolving Sky |GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG, an interdisciplinary work that uses Anishinaabe storytelling to look at astronomy from an indigenous perspective (April 9-10).

Free and open exploration and intentional commitment to process-with the support of the staff and resources that BRIC offers-are at the heart of the BRIClab program. Artists receive stipends and an intensive two-week residency in BRIC's Artist Studio with development time and opportunities for artistic mentoring. Work-in-process showings, presented with moderated artist-audience dialogues, bring audiences and other practitioners into the artists' process and creativity, and offer valuable feedback to artists as they continue to develop their work.

In selecting BRIClab residents, BRIC looks for artists who are developing new work that is relevant to diverse Brooklyn audiences; exploring their interests and questions with thoughtful processes and articulating a context for their work; and who embrace dialogue with audiences as a meaningful part of their process