NOW:FUTURE ARTIST SUMMIT: Illuminating Mutual Aid Systems in Detroit: Panel + Discussion, June 15, 2021 at 10:30 AM EST

NOW:FUTURE

A VIRTUAL AND SOCIALLY-DISTANCED PERFORMANCE SERIES
Featuring KRESGE ARTS FELLOWS AND GILDA AWARD RECIPIENTS

The theme, NOW:FUTURE asks artists to reflect on their experiences and the world around them as it relates to our current cultural, political, and personal landscape.

NOW:FUTURE kicks off with a mobile, neighborhood concert series happening every Friday from July 24 to August 20th, featuring Rick Robinson, Thornetta Davis, Britney Stoney, and Marion Hayden. Each concert will be held in a different neighborhood and will feature a different artist.  These pop-up, mobile concerts bring the artist directly to Detroit neighborhoods and are meant to be intimate, viewed from the porch, the front yard, or from the comfort and safety of one’s home. 

Sidewalk Detroit is encouraging artists to explore what it means to shape their narrative, presently and for the future.  Original online film premiers will debut over the next month featuring performance art and theatre group, A Host of People in a performance focusing on care and employing their own take on "unboxing".  Erika “Red” Stowall's dance on film, Quarantine Chronicle is centered in the home, domesticity, caring for her father, and how the pandemic has affected her daily routines. Gilda Award Recipient and dancer, Marsae Mitchell layers original dance choreography and poetry with samples from Nina Simone songs and interviews in her piece Reflect.Black.Times. Both Stowall and Mitchell are collaborating with filmmaker Julia Yezbick. These original works will be premiered online the following Thursdays, July 30th and 13th at 7pm.

A dedicated group of artists to lead in a two-part panel program, one focusing on a younger generation of artists and the other highlighting some of Detroit’s great elders, both will be diving into the grit of the matter, What is the story of Detroit Artist(s) Today, and what is the future we want for our community?

Live Streams can be viewed at the Facebook pages of Sidewalk Detroit and Kresge Arts in Detroit.