Deeply Rooted Creative Communities And Blacks In Green Present FERTILE GROUND: Celebrating the Great Migration and Green Living in Black Chicago

Deeply Rooted Dance Theater's new Creative Communities program and Blacks In Green present Fertile Ground: Celebrating the Great Migration and Green Living in Black Chicago, a free Story Bridge community performance August 12 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago. 
 
Fertile Ground, a Creative Communities Story Bridge performance, will be a large-cast play performed by volunteers of various ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Led by director Daniel J. Bryant, community members from Chicago's South Side and Stony Island Corridor will come together during the course of two weeks to discover their inner artist. Each participant will delve into their mind, body, and soul and share their personal experiences through spoken word, dance, and song, culminating in a new public performance. 

Creative Communities, a new program within Deeply Rooted's Dance Education division, includes the Men Moving and Mature H.O.T. Women community classes and will offer other opportunities for nonprofessional individuals to move and learn. Story Bridge, which was developed by Dr. Richard Geer and a team of distinguished artists, including Deeply Rooted Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director Emeritus Kevin Iega Jeff, is a powerful program that uses true personal stories and theater to engage deep dialogue, enable authentic relationship-building, and facilitate individual and community transformation. Creative Communities will be an important part of Deeply Rooted's move to the Deeply Rooted Dance Center in 2024 and an opportunity to connect with the Washington Park neighborhood.
 
Upcoming Community Casting Calls, seeking volunteer performers drawn from neighborhoods, schools, senior centers, libraries, and more, take place July 22 and 23 at the Mayfair Arts Center, 8701 S. Bennett Avenue. Professional theater creatives and dancers will work alongside the community cast to develop a working vocabulary, creative process, and structure for the final public performance on August 12. The performance will precede Dance Africa's LINEAGE concert that evening at the Logan Center.

“Overall, the goal of Creative Communities is to bring people from diverse backgrounds together to share their stories and experiences, foster understanding and connection, and contribute to building a more inclusive and just society,” said Kevin Iega Jeff.

“Fertile Ground reminds us of our deep roots in love, stewardship of the land, and green living, which is deeply rooted in rich Great Migration traditions,” shared Blacks in Green Founder and CEO Naomi Davis. “Together, our two institutions are devoted to having those traditions come alive in Black communities everywhere. BIG's 5th Principle of Green Village Building institutionalizes storytelling in celebration of our past, present, and future culture. Our Together We Heal process is the brainchild of decades of dreaming between Kevin Iega Jeff, Richard Geer of Community Performance International, and Blacks in Green. We are overjoyed to have the support of the City of Chicago and our scores of Great Migration legacy communities in telling the story of our triumph against all odds.”

FERTILE GROUND: Celebrating the Great Migration
and Green Living in Black Chicago  
Community Casting Calls
Saturday, July 22,  5–7 p.m. 
Sunday, July 23,  3–5 p.m .
Mayfair Arts Center, 8701 S. Bennett Avenue, Chicago

Open to the general public
Register at deeplyrooteddancetheater.org/calendar/fertile-ground-casting-call
 
Performance
Saturday, August 12,  6 p.m. 
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago
Admission is free; register at deeplyrooteddancetheater.org/fertile-ground 
 
Fertile Ground is supported by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

Deeply Rooted Dance Theater reimagines and diversifies the aesthetics of contemporary dance by uniting modern, classical, American, and African-American traditions in dance and storytelling. Through its uncompromising pursuit of excellence, Deeply Rooted demonstrates the transformative power of art and beauty through performance, dance education, and cultural enrichment in Chicago and on the world stage. Deeply Rooted is rooted in traditions of American and African-American dance, storytelling, and universal themes that spark a visceral experience and ignite an emotional response in diverse audiences worldwide. Deeply Rooted collaborates with nationally renowned choreographers, across the spectrum of modern, ballet, and African dance, to reflect contemporary voices. For information, visit deeplyrooteddancetheater.org.
 
The Deeply Rooted Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities (Deeply Rooted Dance Center), a 30,000-square-foot facility, to be located at 5345 S. State Street, will transform a vacant property in the Washington Park Business District into a premier training and presenting space that will serve as an international home for Black dance and a thriving network of dance partners, as well as the Creative Communities program. The opening is projected for 2024.
 
Blacks in Green's signature Sustainable Square Mile is the gold standard for Black community development. BIG's unique whole-system approach for whole-system problems is designed to increase our communities' wealth and wellbeing in the context of a changing climate. The Sustainable Square Mile concept embodies BIG's 8 Principles of Green Village Building, from neighbor-owned green enterprises to locally produced clean energy. Building on the “Grannynomics” values of the proud, hard-working Great Migration families who started businesses, bought homes, and kept dollars circulating in this neighborhood, BIG is growing specific economic sectors within its West Woodlawn pilot project.
 
Deeply Rooted's programs are partially sponsored or supported by African American Legacy at the Chicago Community Foundation, Allstate, Alphawood Foundation Chicago, The Arts Work Fund and Smart Growth program of the Chicago Community Trust, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Builder's Initiative Foundation, Building Collective Power - Voice program of the Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project funded by Doris Duke Charitable Fund and The Mellon Foundation and The Walder Foundation, Chicago Community Trust Sponsorship, Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks Program, Chicago's Cultural Treasures, CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Crown Family Philanthropies, Pamela Crutchfield, Enterprise Holdings Foundation, The Field Foundation of Illinois, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Ginger Farley Charitable Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, The International Association of Blacks in Dance, Irving Harris Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John G. Palfrey and Catherine A. Carter Family Fund, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Polk Bros. Foundation, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, U.S. Bank, Walder Foundation, The Weasel Fund, and Deeply Rooted Family of Friends.
 
Special thanks to Auditorium Theatre, Ballet Chicago, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago Park District, Maywood Fine Arts, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, St. Benedict the African Church, University of Chicago Community Accelerator Program, and Lara Ziemba/Millennium Park for their partnership and support.

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