A personal invite to IDA's spring course, AAAS 170a / CSRE 170a Unlearning Racism, Redefining Identity: Culture Workers on the Frontlines of Change. This class features seven Black and Indigenous organizers, artists, and scholars, who use Black Feminist Perspectives, Decolonial Indigenous Frameworks, the Arts and Healing Justice to help us reimagine ourselves outside of oppressive systems —more alive, well and free. Please consider joining us for 1-4 units, and please forward the word to your communities. It’s always an incredible time—hope to see you there! Enroll through the link in bio if you are NOT a current student. In freedom's sight, A-lan Holt and Amara Tabor Smith 
Happy International Women’s Day IDA family! On this day, we choose to celebrate one of our very own, Lyric McHenry. While at Stanford, our beloved Lyric interned at IDA, majored in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and performed in and directed a number of theater productions. Lyric’s appreciation for the effect of the arts in the fight for social justice propelled her dedication to writing and producing. Her unique talent for uplifting others showed itself in an infectious ability to support and empower those around her, speak up for what she believed in, and create art that shed light on racial inequity and identity. Lyric brought curiosity, brilliance, and warmth to everything she did. In honor of Lyric’s passion for the arts and social justice, the Lyric McHenry Community Arts Fellowship was created to give students the opportunity to spend a summer working full time in the areas of curating, presenting, outreach and/or arts education with a focus on racial/social justice issues. We celebrate Lyric McHenry’s work and legacy on this International Women’s Day and encourage you all to apply to this paid summer fellowship. Fellows may work in the United States or abroad. Deadline is set for March 15, 2021. For more information and to apply, click on the link in bio. @lyricmchenryartsfellows #internationalwomensday #lyricmchenrycommunityartsfellowship #lyricmchenryfellows #lyricmchenry #idastanford 
Introducing our next CBPA mentor Charlotte Brathwaite. Charlotte Brathwaite’s genre-defying works illuminate the realities and the dreams of the marginalized and center unheard, unseen, and overlooked stories. Dealing with subject matter from the historical past to the present and the distant future, her work brings to light issues of social justice, race, sex, power and the complexities of the human condition. Current projects include Chapter & Verse: The Gospel of James Baldwin created with Meshell Ndegeocello is active September – December 2020; The Future is Present (TFP), a collaborative performance laboratory that amplifies the life-affirming demands of young black and indigenous activists. Future projects include: Omar, an opera composed by Rhiannon Giddens, Forgotten Paradise: Grazettes Sun, a feature-length film and traveling installation on historical trauma and the legacy of the transAtlantic slave trade. Charlotte is an Associate Professor Theater Arts at MIT. Check www.charlottebrathwaite.com to learn more about her work. Swipe to see images of No More Water/The Fire Next Time: The Gospel of James Baldwin, 2018: Da Ping Luo Co-created + Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite Conceived by Meshell Ndegeocello. And view beautiful images of Forgotten Paradise: Gazettes Sun, a series of ritual performances and community gatherings centered around a non-fiction film that documents a journey across the Atlantic, and charts the ancestral lineage of its Director, Charlotte Brathwaite. Click link in bio to view some of Charlotte’s groundbreaking work. 
Introducing our third CBPA mentor, the incomparable Jumatatu Poe. Jumatatu Poe is a dance/performance-based artist, educator, organizer, and voyager based in Philadelphia (though frequently “on the road”) who grew up dancing around the living room and at parties with their siblings and cousins. Their early exposure to concert dance was through African dance and capoeira performances on California college campuses where their Pan-Africanist parents studied and worked, but formal dance training did not start until college with Umfundalai, Kariamu Welsh’s contemporary African dance technique. Their work continues to be influenced by various sources, including foundations set in those living rooms and parties, early technical training in contemporary African dance, continued study of contemporary dance and performance, movement trainings with dancer and anatomist Irene Dowd around anatomy and proprioception, and sociological research of and technical training in J-sette performance with Donte Beacham. Jumatatu strives through their artistic work to engage in and further dialogues with Black queer folks, create lovingly agitating performance work that recognizes History as only one option for the contextualization of the present, and continue to imagine pathways toward artists’ economic and emotional sustainability. Follow Jumatatu Poe @jumatatupoe and take a listen at https://youtu.be/tKS__KJ8EAg for early reflections on an artist’s social responsibilities in promoting justice and love. We are so excited by their groundbreaking work and Jumatatu’s mentorship of our CBPA fellows. To learn more about their work, check www.jumatatu.org. credits: art/design: día bùi 
As we continue to introduce our incredible CBPA mentors, today we welcome the brilliant Sharon Bridgforth. A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon Bridgforth is a writer that creates ritual/jazz theatre. A 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, Sharon has received support from Creative Capital, MAP Fund, the National Performance Network and is a New Dramatists alumnae. Sharon has served as a dramaturg for the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative’s Choreographic Fellowship program and was co-writer and performer for Amara Tabor-Smith's, "REVIVAL: Millennial Remembering in the Afro NOW." She has been in residence with: Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program; University of Iowa’s MFA Playwrights Program; The Theatre School at DePaul University; allgo, A Texas Statewide QPOC organization; and The Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. Widely published (swipe for book titles), Sharon is Executive Producer and Host of the Who Yo People Is podcast series. Take a listen at: www.sharonbridgforth.com/podcast. Swipe to view beautiful photos of Sharon in Revival. 
Welcome back IDA family! We hope you had a fantastic holiday! As we embark on this new Winter quarter, we would love to take this opportunity to introduce our incredible CBPA mentors. They will be providing support to our fellows in their creative journeys throughout the year. First up, the incredible Be Steadwell! Be Steadwell is a musician, filmmaker, storyteller from Washington DC. In their live performances, they utilize looping, vocal layering and beat boxing to compose their songs on stage. Be's original music features earnest lyricism, and affirming LGBTQ content. Be's goal as a musician is to make other black girls, queers, introverts and generally marginalized weirdos feel seen and loved. With a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in film from Howard University, Be's love for music expands into filmmaking. Their film Vow of Silence screened in film festivals around the world, including Black Star, HBO's OutFest, The Schomburg Center, Inside Out Toronto, and Fringe Fest UK. Be has shared stages with fellow artist activists Big Freedia, Nona Hendryx, Nikky Finney and Gina Yashere. In 2017, Be sang at The Women's March on the National Mall behind Maxwell and Janelle Monae in Toshi Reagon's Big Lovely Band. In 2019, Be composed the music for The Alvin Ailey Dance Company's production of "the gone". In 2019 Be wrote and directed a musical, A Letter to My Ex. Be's musical tells stories of love- narrating one character’s journey through the year following a breakup. In 2020, Be released her newest album, Succulent. You can experience Be's immense talent and joy @besteadwell and at www.besteadwell.com. Click link in bio to view their film Vow of Silence. Swipe to view production photos of the film. During the pandemic, you can find Be on her Patreon channel at: Patreon.com/besteadwell. We are so honored to welcome Be to the IDA family. Please show them some love in the comments below. 
Introducing Matta (Matthew) Zheng - IDA Fellow! Matt’s (Matthew) Zheng ’22 is a drag performance artist majoring in Anthropology and Political Science. Currently titled “She Jin-Ping”, Matta’s proposed project is a comparative study of the Communist Party of China and the American empire as a drag photo series and short film. Relying heavily on drag techniques from traditional Beijing Opera, as well as the political aesthetics of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Matta will create a satirical persona which critics the gender and national identity of the political leader (ergo, “She Jin-Ping”). The artist’s aim is to “substantively add to and disrupt mythic discourses of East-West rivalry, xenophobia, and citizenship through parody and reorientation.” Swipe and check our story to feast your eyes on Matta’s breathtaking and luminescent artistry. And please show your support by following them @oblong_oriental and leaving your comments below! We are so excited about our IDA and CBPA fellows!💕🙏🏾 
Introducing Angel “Ace” Smith - IDA student co-chair! Angel “Ace” Smith ’21 is a multimedia artist, writer, poet and musician majoring in African and African American Studies. Ace seeks to create art that honors their ancestors as well as honors what kind of ancestor they would like to be. Ace creates from a lens of healing. Their art comes from a place where both emotions and spirituality reside. The artist notes: “taking really deep and lasting breaths has enhanced my ability to see much more of the physical realm than I ever have before. I am better able to bring into focus, various representations of Spirit. For me that’s what Spirit is: Spirit is all around us, Spirit is energy, a moving force we breathe into ourselves. Breath has allowed me to connect to Spirit. This is the root of my artistic practice”. What more can we say about them except Ace is Excellence!!! Follow them @eso_collective and @eso.ace to experience more of that talent and click on the link in bio for other ongoing projects! Much love Ace 🙏🏾💕! 
Introducing Luke Williams - CBPA Fellow! Luke Williams is a graduate student in the Modern Thought & Literature in the School of Humanities & Sciences. His research aims to examine sociopolitical possibilities through a corporeal framework. Grounded within dance studies, Luke seeks to explore the power contained in the body. He draws upon the rich traditions of Black Cultural Studies, Performance Studies, and African-American Literature. He states: “This year, I am developing my artistic philosophy around inquiry by attempting to find the crosshatches where my theoretical reading for oral examinations intersects my artist practice.” His current project is a continuation of the questions he explored last year in his original play, Against the Jagged Grain, which focused on his relationship with his father, mother and his own inherited patriarchal sensibilities. His powerful presence on the stage of REVIVAL was mesmerizing and his performance electrifying. Won’t you please give Luke some love in the comments beyond and follow him @elteewilliams!🙏🏾💕