welcome to
SKiNFoLK:
An American Show
By Jillian Walker
Directed by Mei Ann Teo
welcome to
SKiNFoLK:
An American Show
By Jillian Walker
Directed by Mei Ann Teo
Presented by The Bushwick Starr and National Black Theatre
February 26 – March 12, 2020
Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 pm
*Closed early due to COVID*
SKiNFoLK: An American Show is a wide-sweeping concert/play structured in seven movements that explores the questions and limits of blackness (?), performance, and country in a sensuous and reflective cabaret experience.
As the music sounds, you drop down into this ritual of liberation, bearing witness to the playwright-performer’s identity, heritage, and legacy as a black woman in this America. This play collides with blues, jazz, neo-soul, pop, rock, and spiritual black legacies.
What will you see in the archive? Who will you meet? What is down at the root? What color is the sky again?
Featuring
Lori Sinclair Minor*, Jillian Walker*, and Tsebiyah Mishael Derry*
*appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, approved AEA Showcase
Musicians
Kasaun Henry, Bryce Collins and Jason Smith
Music Direction/Co-Composition and Arrangements by Kasaun Henry
Movement by nicHi douglas
Scenic Design by You-Shin Chen
Costume Designer/Visual Dramaturg by Irina Kruzhilina
Lighting Design by Tuçe Yasak
Video Design by Kameron Neal
Associate Lighting Design by Itohan Edoloyi
Production Stage Management by Katie Kennedy*
Assistant Stage Management by Caren Celine Morris
Production Management by Emma Johnson
Technical Direction by Jay Maury
Production by John Del Gaudio
Assistant Production / Direction by Amara Brady
About Jillian Walker
JILLIAN WALKER writes and performs contemporary sacred texts for healing and liberation. She draws deeply on her training as a dramaturg (MFA Columbia), Black Spiritual wisdom, and the ongoing work of black feminist thinkers to bring process-driven performance to life. She has performed her work at Joe’s Pub, Judson Memorial Church, Park Avenue Armory and in Times Square.
Jillian is currently co-conspiring with The TEAM and Soho Rep, where she is the 2020-21 Tow Playwright-in-Residence. Her concert/play, SKiNFoLK: An American Show, (co-presented by The Bushwick Starr and National Black Theatre) was a NY Times Critics’ Pick.
Her corona times are filled with dreaming, working the roots and theorizing for a new world in her monthly newsletter, The Free List.
Learn more about Jillian at www.thisisjillianwalker.com.
WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT SKINFOLK
“I had the great honor of seeing/experiencing SKiNFoLK. Here it is, almost 2 weeks later, and I am still singing to myself, still replaying your insightful phrases, still feeling your art linger. Thank you for giving me one of my most favorite and most rare theatre gifts: something I have never seen or felt before. Something entirely new, yet familiar and beautiful.”
—B. ACKNER—
“I’ve never had the pleasure of being in an audience where so many people felt seen. Every snap, every ‘Yes!’ every ‘Mmm!’ every exhalation showed me that you were giving your audience a real gift, and -maybe- sending them out into the world emboldened to share their own gifts.”
—M. BARBOT—
YOU. Yes, you. Whoever and however you are.
You made it here, but how? Leave us a note about the people and moments that got you here.
Let us celebrate in the existence of each other.
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I think a lot about my Great Grandmothers and the things they left me. My paternal Grandmother who died right before I came into the world and my maternal Grandmother (she had a stroke before I was born) who my Aunt used to say stroked all her love and her spirit into me. I got here through them.
for various reasons, i am not close with my extended family.
SKiNFoLK has been a beautiful insight as to what exists inside of each person’s genealogy.
we didn’t just show up here. there were folks before us.
so many folks
and their folks — who are also my folks — before them
and i am someone who future generations of folks may look back on
someone that a little child folk may ask for a photo of.
or i may receive a seat in an audience.
for a play.
about how my folks came to be.
what a gift.
such a gift.
and so, maybe i might do right to look back
to look in
to look toward my SKiNFoLK.
teal
Fish