Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends

651 ARTS is proud to present a world premiere and new dance work by renowned dancer/choreographer, André Zachery.

Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends is André M. Zachery’s choreographic self-examination of Black masculinity through history, memory, text, poetry and geography. Co-written by producing director Ayinde Jean-Baptiste, the work features original compositions by Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young, and multimedia support from Renegade Performance Group collaborators new and old.

It begins from Zachery’s youth in 1980s-90’s Chicago, as his personal narrative emerges from the long shadows of three legendary figures: Fred Hampton, Ben (Benji) Wilson and Harold Washington. Guided in part by the oracular voice of Chicago ancestor Gwendolyn Brooks, the performer grapples with the wake of these three models/ messiahs, respectively:

a revolutionary, an athletic phenom, & a post-Civil Rights era politician

Against Gravity... unpacks how the echoes of their lives, deaths and pursuant mythologies shaped Black boys who came of age in the city they left.

“With this work, I want to provide a space for audiences to discuss and come to terms with what has been handed down to us from our elders and how we deal with these histories as we move ... into the future.”

-André M. Zachery

Photo Credit: Tara Lynn Pixley

André M. Zachery is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist of Haitian and African American descent and is a scholar, researcher, and technologist with a BFA from Ailey/Fordham University and an MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from CUNY/Brooklyn College. As the artistic director of Renegade Performance Group his practice, research, and community engagement artistically focused on merging choreography, technology, and Black cultural practices through multimedia work. André is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography and a 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Choreography.

His works through RPG have been presented domestically and internationally, receiving support through several residencies, awards, and commissions. These have included the LMCC Arts Center on Governors Island, Dance/NYC Coronavirus Relief Fund, CUNY Dance Initiative, Performance Project Residency at University Settlement, ChoreoQuest Residency at Restoration Arts Brooklyn, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HarvestWorks and a Jerome-supported Movement Research AIR. Awarded grants have been from the Brooklyn Arts Council, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, and a Slate Property SPACE Award. Commissions have come from the Brooklyn Museum, Five Myles/BRIC Biennial, and Danspace Project.

RPG has earned mentions and favorable reviews from publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Culturebot, Infinite Blogspot, Futuristically Ancient, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, the Daily News, and AFROPUNK. As a technologist, André has collaborated with various artists through RPG, the design team of 3LD Art & Technology Center, and The Clever Agency on design installations, immersive media productions, film productions, film editing, projection mapping, and performance collaborations.

Photo Credit: Shantre Pinkney

3rd culture seed of two Caribbeans — one born in the 1st surviving republic in the Western Hemisphere to throw off the yoke of slavery, the other in a colony, Ayinde Jean-Baptiste (Ayinsko: he\they\li) does what it takes, using voice to shift culture, engaging with communities of listening, memory-making, and movement.

Disciple of Kamau Brathwaite, Ayinsko is a sanba/ keeper of memory, whose modal practice shifts as needed — the participatory media project DuSable City, the online creative sousou Someplace Like Home, the experi(m)ent(i)al podcapsule trance-mission DrumLanguage (2013-16), occasional acts of journalism.

Over the past decade this work has been supported by City Lore, Chicago Community Trust, Black Metropolis Research Consortium, THREAD at Yale, City Bureau, CCCADI, Voqal, & the Center for Cultural Power.

Ayinsko has also served as multiformat arts presenter with The Brooklyn Museum, Haiti Cultural Exchange, City Lore, the DuSable Museum, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Franke Center for the Arts & more, as well as in advisory & solidarity roles with Let Us Breathe Collective & Honey Pot Performance.

@Ayinsko, anywhere

@DuSableCity, right here

Content Warning: This show includes bright lights and moving projections.

Masks are strongly recommended and will be available at the box office.

651 ARTS will provide dispersed wheelchair seating, large-print materials, and scalable materials upon request. For questions about our Accessibility accommodations, please contact us at [email protected].

Since its founding in 1988, 651 ARTS has become a trusted convener of contemporary African Diasporic artistic expression, a champion and nurturer for emerging artists and their work and a vital cultural resource for its surrounding community. As it moves forward, part of 651 ARTS’ mission is to preserve the legacy of Black culture in Brooklyn, celebrate the eclecticism of Black performance and to pioneer new visions of African Diaspora artists. This year – the transition year – is integral for the institution as it continues to lay the framework that will further help to reinforce 651 ARTS’ role as a leader of African Diasporic culture while also establishing it an incubator for artistic innovation in the 21st century.

Renegade Performance Group is a Brooklyn-based dance company creating innovative artistic projects grounded in Black and African Diaspora aesthetics and expressions through theatrical, immersive and site-specific performance as well as film, multimedia and technology.

Host or Publisher 651 ARTS