PRESENTED WITH: North Hennepin Community College
Designs by Søren: Technical Direction, Co-Curator, Producer, Webdesign, Lighting Design, Production Manager
Minneapolis, Saint Paul — MN
The Artists:
Maria Isa (musician), Vie Boheme (solo performance), Lady Xoc (experimental storytelling/music), the NHCC Theater Department, Yellow Tree Theatre, and a concert by landmark jazz pianist Matthew Shipp.
A visual exhibition and panel with visual artists Reggie LeFlore, Marlene Myles, and Geno Okok. And, abstract graffiti artist St. Paul Slim will facilitate a hands-on “unplugged and uncut hip pocket paint class” entitled “Acrylics & Cans” in the courtyard of the NHCC campus.
About The Festival
STAGES OF EQUITY 2022 is a 3-day visual & performing arts festival that raises up the powerful work of BIPOC artists on the North Hennepin Community College campus.
The festival is a leading action of a wider North Hennepin Community College initiative that seeks to address racial equity, racial awareness, and inclusivity by expanding and diversifying the artistic voices and visions fostered at North Hennepin Community College.
As its name announces, the Stages of Equity Festival at NHCC seeks to create a long overdue paradigm shift in the visual and performing arts that redresses systemic racial inequities that continue to proliferate in all fields of the arts. In the arts, these inequities are two-fold: they describe both the under-representation of artists of color’s voices and a lack of access to the arts for BIPOC audiences. North Hennepin’s festival creates an intervention that acknowledges a history of racialized inequity and strives to rectify under-representation by creating a platform that centers the powerful artmaking of people of color, and thus, the stories of their lived experiences. Stages of Equity believes foregrounding artists of color provides a mechanism not only for redress but also for social uplift that NHCC hopes nurtures a sense of belonging and inclusion for artists of color, our diverse students, and our diverse community of Brooklyn Park.
This is the festival’s second iteration at NHCC following last year’s inauguration – which was “staged” completely online through streaming. As the world navigates a new phase of COVID-19, this year’s festival will feature a full schedule of LIVE events and performances on the NHCC campus along with simultaneous streaming for select events. To create greater access for the NHCC community of students, staff, and faculty & the general public festival events are scheduled for both daytime and evening hours at the Fine Arts Center (FAC).
SØREN OLSEN 