Flyaway Productions Premieres Chapter Two Of DECARCERATION TRILOGY In October

Flyaway Productions has announced the world premiere of MEET US QUICKLY WITH YOUR MERCY, the second in a trilogy of outdoor aerial public art performances addressing the devastating effects of mass incarceration. Meet Us Quickly is presented in partnership with the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) and through CounterPulse's curated co-production program.

It will take place on the exterior facades of CounterPulse as well as on the Dahlia Hotel next door, with eight performances at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday, October 9, 10, 16 and 17, and an additional performance at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 15. All performances are free. For health and safety reasons due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, audience size at each showing will be sharply limited. For reservations, visit counterpulse.org.

Meet Us Quickly follows the enormously successful run of The Wait Room, a work that explored the experiences of women with incarcerated loved ones. The Wait Room opened in San Francisco in April 2019 before traveling to the grounds outside of Sing Sing Prison in New York's Hudson Valley in the fall, marking Flyaway's East Coast debut. The third and final installment in Flyaway's The Decarceration Trilogy: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex One Dance at Time is slated to premiere in 2021.

While The Wait Room focused on "ceremonies of degradation" - being turned away at prison visiting hours for the zipper in a child's pants or the underwire in one's bra, having to sit and wait with both feet on the floor at all times, to give just two examples - Meet Us Quickly brings an intersectional feminist and racial justice framework to explore the failures of our criminal justice system. "Meet Us Quickly asks how Black and Jewish voices, including Jews of color, can amplify the call for racial justice via an end to mass incarceration," said Flyaway Artistic Director Jo Kreiter.

Unfolding in three parts, Meet Us Quickly links the "caging of black bodies" in the United States, from the period of slavery through the current era of mass incarceration, to the dehumanization of Jews that flourished on both sides of the Atlantic throughout much of the 20th century and which is becoming prominent again today with the rise of white nationalism.

Enlisting the support of partner organizations including MoAD, Prison Renaissance and Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Flyaway acknowledges the shared pain of Jewish and African-American histories of race and capture. "As an artist and an activist, I am working to facilitate an opportunity for greater reconciliation between Black and Jewish communities," said Kreiter. "While I don't believe that contemporary anti-Jewish bigotry in the U.S. is equivalent to the structural racism felt by people of color, I want to encourage acts of resistance based on our shared history."

Kreiter's primary collaborator on the project is writer Rahsaan Thomas, currently behind bars at San Quentin State Prison. He is a co-founder of Prison Renaissance, a five-year-old nonprofit that joins artists, educators and activists in support of progressive reform. They correspond via weekly letters and phone conversations, generating content for Meet Us Quickly based on historical research and their own personal experiences.

Additional collaborators include composer and Jewish ethnomusicologist Jewlia Eisenberg, scenic designer Sean Riley, lighting designer Jack Beuttler and costume designer Jamielyn Duggan. Dancers include Bianca Cabrera, Clarissa Dyas, Laura Elaine Ellis, Sonsherée Giles, Maddy Lawder, Megan Lowe and Helen Wicks.

In addition to nine live performances of Meet Us Quickly, Flyaway has organized a number of associated events. At 7 p.m. on October 1, MoAD will host a panel symposium featuring prominent Black and Jewish changemakers, including Emile DeWeaver, Ash Lynette, Rebecca Walker and Eric Ward. The panel will also center the voices of Jews of color in the push for racial justice. MoAD is located at 685 Mission Street in San Francisco. For more information about this event, visit moadsf.org.

The symposium on October 1 will also feature the opening of an exhibition of visual artists living at San Quentin, curated by Thomas. The exhibit will travel from MoAD to CounterPulse where it will appear on display each evening throughout the run of Meet Us Quickly. Finally, at the conclusion of the talk on October 1 and after each performance, October 9 - 17, Bend the Arc will lead audience members in a suite of actions designed to inspire citizen participation in efforts to end mass incarceration.

The world premiere of Meet Us Quickly With Your Mercy is supported by The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Creative Work Fund, Bill Graham Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Grants for the Arts and New Music USA.

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