Natural Attraction Residency Proposal at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden- 2024
Outline of public engagement ideas. If I am not selected for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden residency, I will be applying these ideas towards the festival in honor of Professor James Haskins around his posthumous 83rd birthday of September 19th. Article about his legacy, written by Irma McClaurin, PhD, HDoc Social Studies’23 Culture and Education Editor.
*Preliminary performance ideas integrating the 2024 theme * (500 words)
I will be throwing a festival in honor of Professor James Haskins’ Posthumous 83rd Birthday in NYC, and already have creatives from NYC (40), Atlanta (26), who have expressed interest in participating.
Professor Haskins’ birthday is September 19th, and so it feels a bit serendipitous that the final presentation for this residency is September 21st & 22nd, as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden would be the perfect venue to honor a cultural icon who has (thus far) not been recognized appropriately. This article by Irma McClaurin, PhD, HDoc Social Studies’23 Culture and Education Editor speaks to his legacy:
Should I land this residency, it will better enable me to secure sponsors to help bring additional performers and creatives to the festival from other states (CA, FL, MA, OH, OK, OR, and TX) and countries (Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United Kingdom) many of whom I met during my time living in NYC.
Current list of interested creatives (provided I can cover expenses):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rzmJHwJ8E1LO9xmrd0iTQ7jPYqotokjNNXzs1Z_oRbE/edit?usp=sharing
For the live final presentations, hopefully we would have access to the conservatories & gardens, so that it could be a moving journey throughout the BBG - which would not only read wonderfully in the form of the documentary art film, where each garden/conservatory held another style of performance. Displaying work of different artists and vendors would add another immersive layer to the proceedings.
As a dance photographer ( https://www.thefestiveanthropologist.com/dance )
who has been working in this space for over a decade, dance would be the main focus of the performances, across genres, and having multiple styles all in a cypher, to live choreographed performances, would be arresting visually. We would feature NYC based styles like Brukup and Flexn, as I have close relationships with innovators in each genre..
During the performances, I would also bring on other photographers and cinematographers to fully capture the event from multiple perspectives, so that the festival could live on in archival form (example of my event at 3 Dollar Bill last September-where it lives on in a Rewind page to revisit all the performances, again: https://arcanumsalon.com/rewind ). This will also be part of my public engagement, developing a press corps for both students and amateur documentarians alike.
And, naturally, there would be a dance party at the culmination of each night of the final presentations, because what better space than surrounded by natural beauty to find your own natural rhythms?
*How will the Natural Attraction theme be represented in your work? * (300 words)
The theme ‘Natural Attraction’ plays a crucial role, as the role of a pollinator (embodied by the Busy Bee cartoon I commissioned by NYC artist @studiogloom https://arcanumsalon.com/project-playground/busy-bee ) is one known in the natural world, but also applies to the role we as individuals play in helping to create communities where we are focused on not just our bloodkin, but our community as a whole.
Just like plants at Brooklyn Botanic Garden come from around the world, and migrations of monarchs span from North America to Mexico, so too do migratory patterns of individuals speak to how we will go where there is opportunity to seek out circumstances where best to improve our chances.
Keanna ‘Betty’ Vaughan, is why the Atlanta dance corridor was opened up, through an introduction to Christian ‘Hermiz’ Waithe & his father, Nathaniel Waithe. I met Betty during the 2014 BEAT Performing Arts Festival at the Brooklyn Museum, and after we collaborated on a drone shoot together in Rockaway Beach (one of my portfolio examples), she then suggested I shoot with Hermiz when he came up to NYC from Atlanta for a competition. Hermiz, in the same breath as saying yes- asked if I would shoot with HIS friend, Matthew “E.T.” Gibbs. This exemplifies how systems of community building can be inspired by the nature of pollination, and leading to a garden of media -photographs, podcasts and videos.
Perhaps because I am building an archival app ( https://arcanumsalon.com/about )- I think a great deal about how what we build, what we choose to capture, what it represents, what we are hoping to get in exchange for the outlay of our time as well as our capital and how we then decide whether those efforts were ‘worth’ it.
*What ideas do you have for public engagement around your work? * (300 words)
With this residency, I will be able to bring in creatives spanning (so far, just with the NYC based artists) for Live Talks and Q&A’s:
Performance: Brukup, Contemporary, Vogue, FLEXN, Drag, Spoken Word Poetry,Hip Hop, Ballet
Music: Drums, Piano, Classical, Chinese zither (古筝) ,
Art Styles: Photography (Journalism/Event/Portraiture), Painting, Directing & Film Distribution, Graphic Design, Writers, Installation Art, Furniture Repair & Upholstery, Animation, Storyboarding, 3D Generalist, Magazines Editing, Composer/Copyist& Orchestrator, Comics, and Wearable Fabric
Current list of creatives interested in speaking:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kOZC1WnmeAQDdBYc_9RpK9bOhH_noOMF8bvbOyJ-vqI/edit?usp=sharing
I will launch a zine, ‘Adventure Academy’, where I explore and photograph BBG- print images at B&H, work with a local print shop - Radix Media in Brooklyn to assemble print ready pages of the photos, in B&W (so that they can be used as coloring pages). I would like to partner with the NYPL to offer access to printing out the PDFs and allow children/interested persons to put together their own zines. There would also be a virtual map- so people could find the locations of each photo and take their own.
I will create a multimedia club/Press Corp-to help people better improve their storytelling through media, as well as build a group that could then document the final presentation, so that the experience can be viewed in hindsight through many more eyes than simply my own.
I would also love to create a ‘Reading Room’ within BBG with Professor Haskins’ books, so people could borrow one of his books from my collection during their time at BBG; replete with a ledger for people to both sign in and out on an honor system- as well as write a few words or draw how the book made them feel.
*What is your relation to or interest in ecological, horticultural, or botanic subject matter? * (300 words)
Visited the Dalí & the Impressionists: Monet, Renoir, Degas & More exhibit, and was struck by this section of the infographic: “In the latter part of the nineteenth century, French Impressionist artists boldly struck out of their studios in defiance of the prevailing academic tradition of painting. They embraced the outdoors, intending to capture the fleeting effects of light as they changed throughout the day.”
This put into words what I never really realized about the scope of my own photographic process- that I rely on available light and settings to create from. I do not labor over editing, but almost always use the framing of my shots as is, and prefer to let the beauty of what I managed to capture (or the happy accidents that happen) to speak for themselves.
Having spent a great deal of my life growing up in Tampa Bay, Florida, and reading the sky to see if it was safe to venture out to the beach; light and the natural elements prove to be compelling characters. We used to be the Lightning Capital of the World, and all that rain and hospitable climate leads to lush butterfly gardens like the one in my parents’ backyard.
Being able to spend the summer and days exploring the BBG would be so interesting to see the phases of growth of the plant life, and I would love to see the growth in my work as I became more familiar with the gardens and conservatories over time.
I would love to learn from the BBG staff about the treasures your collections hold, and with that knowledge, apply that to the portraits I take of creatives during my time within the BBG during the residency. The natural world has so much to teach, and I am a curious student!
*Anticipated needs for residency supplies, equipment, and space * (300 words)
The needs would depend on whether some of my programming ideas were entertained. I already have my photography kit and assorted accessories, so in terms of what I would need to execute images, I am covered.
For the Live Talk/Q&A series, it would be helpful to have seating, accessible space for attendees with disabilities, and perhaps access to microphones. I have a tripod and would be able to record each talk for archival purposes. Access to WiFi would be wonderful so that I could set up a Twitch channel dedicated to the talks, to engage those who were not able to attend in person.
For the final presentations, we would need access to electricity for music projection and lighting. Tables for vendors, and easels for display of paintings would also be helpful, but we can scrounge that up and bring it in if need be. I am very good at making do with very little assistance.
Robert Jamie Mason in the NYC Flower District - May 2023
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Who needs a studio and artifice when the beauty of nature provides a glorious backdrop?
*Betty for being open to taking a chance. Such a fun way that social media helped make this happen. We met at the @brooklynmuseum during the @BEATfestival , and I later saw her brother perform at the @loudleague event. She posted a Kwanza performance via Facebook, and responded to a comment on Instagram, the same DAY, to come out to the Rockaways and perform! Incredible. Thanks for getting your feet wet!
(Filmed in 2014 at Rockaway Beach)
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Filmed at Rockaway Beach, the empty beach (because it was December and cold!) providing a stunning backdrop to highlight how really simple it can be to shoot something beautiful- because sometimes talent and nature's beauty is enough.
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The audio of this video with Nathaniel Waithe is from 2016- the photos in the slideshow are from 2015,2016, 2021 and 2023 and span from NYC to ATL and his words still ring true regarding the nature of how community and connection within the dance world can extend beyond the scope of art and teach us about how we choose to engage in the world around us to create a better situation for everyone we encounter.
Lindsey L. Miller who traveled to Clearwater, FL during the pandemic from Illinois, but who now resides back in NYC, where we first met and where we have collaborated countless times.
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Again, the beauty of human expression in the face of nature.
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There is a surfing expression I love: "You shoulda been here yesterday". Because just like the crowds that flocked to witness your Corpse Flower bloom in 2023, sometimes there are things one simply cannot put into words. Seeing @im._law1 win the Thesis 2024 dance event was one of those moments. That I was able to BE there, and capturing his rounds from the prelims to being steps away as he was announced the winner, is something I will never forget. It is truly an honor to be an active witness to the accomplishments of others.
*Artist Statement * (200 Words)
As someone who struggles with (attempting) to manage a severe mental illness on a daily basis, to say that art has saved my life wouldn’t begin to scratch the surface. The typical markers of a ‘successful life’ through the lens of polite society were never within my reach. But the understanding that I have been given from the dance community- when I was actually able to show up- always welcome, never punished for how long I had been away- has helped me heal way more than any medication ever will. Therefore; the scope of my work is to preserve and honor dance as not just an art form, but as a sport, and living cultural history where even within a single frame, history, traditions, knowledge, personal stories that would rival any programming you can find on streaming services, can be shared. In this present moment, we need evidence of joy in the face of horror - and every time a human form moves in rhythm, it doesn’t even matter that music you put to the footage- it fits. I truly believe that dance heals, and would love to further prove this concept by bringing a celebration of dance to the BBG.
Busy Bee by @studiogloom @gloompowder - she’s got a camera and is pointing to the next adventure!
