Idle Crimes & Heavy Work...
Idle Crimes & Heavy Work is an archives-based dance initiative driven by a collective of Black women creatives and researchers exploring Black women's experiences of racial and gendered violence, resistance and restoration, within the history of incarceration and convict labor in Georgia. Through archival research, interactive live performances, workshops, video installations, community gatherings/actions, and a forthcoming walking tour, we look at the criminalization of Black women’s bodies, the erasure of Black women from discourses of incarceration, the role their labor played in building the infrastructure of the south, and the implications this has for Black women’s labor today. (Note: we use the term ‘women’ inclusively, for all who identify with that term)
The corporeal punishment of Black women’s stillness (“idleness”) has very real implications for Black women’s labor today. We reflect on the commodification of our working bodies that emerged during slavery and was perpetuated through convict leasing to build the infrastructure of the new south. Contemplating gendered and racial violence — and modes of resistance and restoration — we draw on the lives of real women, such as Mattie Crawford who was sentenced to life in prison and “heavy work” in 1896 at the age of 16 for killing her abusive step father. Mattie worked as a blacksmith, and used her skill, strength, and fortitude to resist and survive amidst the atrocities of the Georgia prison labor camps.1
This work is developing through Moving Our Stories, LLC, in conjunction with my participation as a co-director of The Georgia Incarceration Performance Project (GAIPP). GAIPP is a devised archives-to-performance collaboration between Spelman College, The University of Georgia, faculty and students, archivists and librarians, professional artists and designers, community partners, and incarcerated students enrolled in college courses at Georgia-area prisons.
I am honored to collaborate with Artistic Director Tambra Omiyale Harris and Giwayen Mata, the "award-winning, dynamic, soul-stirring, all-sistah, dance, percussion, and vocal ensemble that celebrates the richness of traditional Afrika by exhibiting its exemplary art forms. The ensemble performs traditional, contemporary and original pieces that address issues pertaining to people of color, women, and the environment.” Learn about our process here.
The first iteration of Idle Crimes & Heavy Work premiered on June 27th, 2019, at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA-GA), as part of Controlled Burn, the Hughley Artist Fellowship group exhibition by WonderRoot, curated by Iman Person.
This work is generously supported through Alternate ROOTS and the Surdna Foundation as part of the 2020-2023 Partners for Change Program. We are grateful for the previous support of Black Spatial Relics, an Artistic Assistance Project Development grant from Alternate ROOTS, and the Arbes Award through Wonderroot.
What is next for Idle Crimes & Heavy Work?
Virtual Workshops!
We invite those who have been directly or indirectly impacted by incarceration and incarcerated labor to pair with a ICHW artist-facilitator to share stories and generate movement together. "Participants" will be commissioned as co-choreographers and paid for the labor, insights, and experiences that they contribute to this process.
Contact us to learn more.
Walking Tour!
We are conducting archival research on sites and structures around Atlanta tied to the history of incarceration and convict labor, particularly in regards to black women's labor that contributed to building this city's landscape, and amplifying these sites through a forthcoming walking tour/interactive performance.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS WORK
The corporeal punishment of Black women’s stillness (“idleness”) has very real implications for Black women’s labor today. We reflect on the commodification of our working bodies that emerged during slavery and was perpetuated through convict leasing to build the infrastructure of the new south. Contemplating gendered and racial violence — and modes of resistance and restoration — we draw on the lives of real women, such as Mattie Crawford who was sentenced to life in prison and “heavy work” in 1896 at the age of 16 for killing her abusive step father. Mattie worked as a blacksmith, and used her skill, strength, and fortitude to resist and survive amidst the atrocities of the Georgia prison labor camps.1
This work is developing through Moving Our Stories, LLC, in conjunction with my participation as a co-director of The Georgia Incarceration Performance Project (GAIPP). GAIPP is a devised archives-to-performance collaboration between Spelman College, The University of Georgia, faculty and students, archivists and librarians, professional artists and designers, community partners, and incarcerated students enrolled in college courses at Georgia-area prisons.
I am honored to collaborate with Artistic Director Tambra Omiyale Harris and Giwayen Mata, the "award-winning, dynamic, soul-stirring, all-sistah, dance, percussion, and vocal ensemble that celebrates the richness of traditional Afrika by exhibiting its exemplary art forms. The ensemble performs traditional, contemporary and original pieces that address issues pertaining to people of color, women, and the environment.” Learn about our process here.
The first iteration of Idle Crimes & Heavy Work premiered on June 27th, 2019, at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA-GA), as part of Controlled Burn, the Hughley Artist Fellowship group exhibition by WonderRoot, curated by Iman Person.
This work is generously supported through Alternate ROOTS and the Surdna Foundation as part of the 2020-2023 Partners for Change Program. We are grateful for the previous support of Black Spatial Relics, an Artistic Assistance Project Development grant from Alternate ROOTS, and the Arbes Award through Wonderroot.
What is next for Idle Crimes & Heavy Work?
Virtual Workshops!
We invite those who have been directly or indirectly impacted by incarceration and incarcerated labor to pair with a ICHW artist-facilitator to share stories and generate movement together. "Participants" will be commissioned as co-choreographers and paid for the labor, insights, and experiences that they contribute to this process.
Contact us to learn more.
Walking Tour!
We are conducting archival research on sites and structures around Atlanta tied to the history of incarceration and convict labor, particularly in regards to black women's labor that contributed to building this city's landscape, and amplifying these sites through a forthcoming walking tour/interactive performance.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS WORK
View the Video Installation Trailers:
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Photos from the Creative Process:
