The opera-masquerade are works that deal with myth, music and theatrical performance.
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Four Electric Ghosts
photos from the live production
“Four Electric Ghosts definitely set a new plateau for multimedia work by this generation of AfroFuturist performer-conceptualists . . . What more could we ask for from a night at the theater than Dance Music Sex Romance Mysticism and a newfangled notion of global village literature?” -- Greg Tate, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber
“[H]auntingly beautiful” -- Conscious Vibration
“My jaw was on the floor.” – Vijay Iyer, Artforum
Inspired by Amos Tutuola's 1954 novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Toru Iwatani's influential 1980s video game Pac Man, Four Electric Ghosts follows the afterlives of four ghosts who separately encounter the same mortal in their journey through the Land of the Dead. The story is told through dance, narration, and original music.
The story begins in the Land of the Living. A wise farmer splits a kola nut into four parts and gives them to her four daughters. She also gives them protective chalk. The daughters plant their protective chalk and each reaps a special gift that they are to use for the good of their community: a powerful axe, a magical quill pen, a miraculous loom, and enchanted bells that can charm any audience. When the sisters later arrive as ghosts in the Land of the Dead, they still carry their gifts. But they decide to venture out and explore the Land of the Dead on their own.
We travel with each sister to a different ghost town, and in each town we learn that the laws, customs, and materials are different from the next. The ghosts find praise, acceptance, love, and fame in the afterlife, but when they forget the true purpose of their gifts, they lose everything they have gained. Each journey is punctuated with songs in the related traditions of funk, rock, and R&B. The story ends with an invitation to join the performers in a final dance.
Four Electric Ghosts was listed in Artforum's the Best of the Year by Vijay Iyer
Remix, Storytelling, and Soul Flare in Four Electric Ghosts by Angelique V. Nixon
Get There: A Review of Four Electric Ghosts by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Buy the book from 1913 Press. Four Electric Ghosts was developed at Toni Morrison's Atelier at Princeton and commissioned by the Kitchen in New York.
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The Sour Thunder
The Sour Thunder is an internet opera which was started in 1996 and staged with actors, website designer and a live webcast in 2002. It tells a double-sided story blending autobiography and speculative fiction. Sesom travels from a land where scent is language to a land where language is spoken. Mendi travels from Atlanta (the U.S.) to Santiago (the D.R.).
The project was commissioned to be the first webcast from the Yale Cabaret and received additional support from the Afro-American Cultural Center and Digital Media center at Yale University. the live video is no longer available however all mp3s,and text are accessible at the site.http://www.blacknetart.com/sour.html
Purchase the CD from Bridge Records
Purchase the CD from Amazon.com
staged productions:
Yale Cabaret / Yale university Afro-American Cultural Center
concert readings:
Duke University
Studio Museum in Harlem
Neuberger Museum of Art
broadcasts:
93.9 FM (WNYC) New York
104.1 Fm (Reboot FM/ Juni Radio) Berlin (complete work)
90.7 FM (WGXC) Greene County, NY - Wave Farm (complete work)
exhibitions:
Carbonist School Study Hall at Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery (Atlanta)
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Credits for the Yale Production:
Concept, text and music: Mendi + Keith Obadike
Yale Cabaret Artistic Director: Tamilla Woodard
Performers: Peter Macon as Blue Jasper
Laurie Woodard as Mendi
Marcus Gardley as Elusive Black Presnece
Iona Rozeal Brown as the Warm Hearted Child
Mendi Obadike as Sesom
The Chorus : Susan Finque, Gia Forakis, Brendan Hughes, Shaunda Miles, Sallie Sanders, Marcella Smith and Marnye Young
Hypertext e-Mix: Houston Baker, Christian Campbell, Coco Fusco, Duriel Harris, Nalo Hopkinson, John Keene, Ferentz Lafargue, Wahneema Lubiano, Dawn Lundy Martin, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, and Ronaldo Wilson
Design Team:
Web Design and Programming: John Vega
Stage Direction: Marcus Gardley
Stage Management: Maddalena Deichmann
Set Design: Torkwase Dyson
Choreography: Tim Acito
Lighting Design: Tan Falkkowski
Costumes: Camille Assaf
Sound System Design: Keith Obadike
Live Sound Engineers: Daniel Baker and Philip Peglow
Scent Design: Iona Rozeal Brown
Streaming Video Technical Director: Dave Deitch
Streaming Video System Installation: George Dobuzinsky
Scenic Technical Design and Construction: Colin Buckhurst