CREATIVE RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Since joining the faculty in 2013 I have cultivated three significant areas of research: one is a continuation of work I began in South Africa and the other two are new initiatives at UMass.
BROWN PAPER STUDIO is my Applied Theater methodology created in 2004 while a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Cape Town.
ART, LEGACY & COMMUNITY was launched at UMass in 2014 and what began as a two-year project and has grown into an on-going exploration of the forty year history of progressive Black scholarship and creative expression on our campus and community.
THE NEW MYTH is the working title for my most recent research stream that investigates how definitions of power within Pan-African spiritual traditions and the non-hierarchical structures of the #BlackLivesMatter movement are mutually invigorating.
All three areas relate directly to the theories and practices of Theater for Social Transformation.
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RESEARCH PROJECTS
BROWN PAPER STUDIO
Brown Paper Studio is an Applied Theater methodology I developed in post-apartheid South Africa as a way to express young people’s vision for their newly democratic country. It derives its name from the practice of posting large sheets of brown paper on studio walls and encouraging participants to write and express themselves freely as the group engages in theater games, exercises, and improvisations towards devising original scripts for performance. Designed to awaken creativity in individuals and groups the process combines original and selected text, music, movement, visual media and improvisation in a style similar practices in Hip Hop culture.
BROWN PAPER STUDIO CLASS>>>
BROWN PAPER STUDIO GALLERY>>>
Brown Paper Studio is an Applied Theater methodology I developed in post-apartheid South Africa as a way to express young people’s vision for their newly democratic country. It derives its name from the practice of posting large sheets of brown paper on studio walls and encouraging participants to write and express themselves freely as the group engages in theater games, exercises, and improvisations towards devising original scripts for performance. Designed to awaken creativity in individuals and groups the process combines original and selected text, music, movement, visual media and improvisation in a style similar practices in Hip Hop culture.
BROWN PAPER STUDIO CLASS>>>
BROWN PAPER STUDIO GALLERY>>>
“Hip-hop is a family, so everybody has got to pitch in. East, west, north or south – we come from one coast and that coast was Africa”
DJ Kool Herc, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
DJ Kool Herc, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
ART LEGACY & COMMUNITY:
As escalating incidents of racialized violence continue to occur across the USA – including the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and Tamir Rice – I devised Art, Legacy & Community as a forum where artists use creative expression to document, intervene, organize and agitate for social justice.
We interrogated the relationship between art and activism with the specific goal of transforming our society into one that truly reflects the diversity of the world and that values justice in all its forms. Art, Legacy & Community was a two-year intervention (2014-2016) to use artistic process and production as a forum for our students at UMass and the Five Colleges to examine race, racial representation, and racial justice on our campuses, in our region, and across our nation.
As part of this project, I produced Ping Chong and Talvin Wilks' Collidescope 2.0: Adventures in Pre- And Post-Racial America at UMass in Spring 2016.
MORE on COLLIDESCOPE>>>
VISIT THE ART LEGACY & COMMUNITY WEBSITE>>>
As escalating incidents of racialized violence continue to occur across the USA – including the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, and Tamir Rice – I devised Art, Legacy & Community as a forum where artists use creative expression to document, intervene, organize and agitate for social justice.
We interrogated the relationship between art and activism with the specific goal of transforming our society into one that truly reflects the diversity of the world and that values justice in all its forms. Art, Legacy & Community was a two-year intervention (2014-2016) to use artistic process and production as a forum for our students at UMass and the Five Colleges to examine race, racial representation, and racial justice on our campuses, in our region, and across our nation.
As part of this project, I produced Ping Chong and Talvin Wilks' Collidescope 2.0: Adventures in Pre- And Post-Racial America at UMass in Spring 2016.
MORE on COLLIDESCOPE>>>
VISIT THE ART LEGACY & COMMUNITY WEBSITE>>>
“SANKOFA; proverbial symbol of the Akan people of Ghana meaning ‘It is not taboo to return to take back what you forgot’”
Adolph Hilary Agbo, Values of Adinkra Symbols
Adolph Hilary Agbo, Values of Adinkra Symbols
THE NEW MYTH
My new research stream is focused on myth, with its enduring capacity to instruct and uplift, and its encouragement to think beyond the everyday and mundane. At this juncture in history we need to tell the most expansive and legendary stories possible, the kind of epic tales that are larger than life. Perhaps the most striking example of the convergence of myth and contemporary political discourse is the recent, blockbuster success of the Hollywood movie, Black Panther where archetypal superheroes are called to address social justice issues concerning the identity, survival and humanity of African and African diasporic people.
My new research stream is focused on myth, with its enduring capacity to instruct and uplift, and its encouragement to think beyond the everyday and mundane. At this juncture in history we need to tell the most expansive and legendary stories possible, the kind of epic tales that are larger than life. Perhaps the most striking example of the convergence of myth and contemporary political discourse is the recent, blockbuster success of the Hollywood movie, Black Panther where archetypal superheroes are called to address social justice issues concerning the identity, survival and humanity of African and African diasporic people.
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Judyie Al-Bilali Talks About the WaWaWa Diaspora Centre https://youtu.be/Ham6ddx5FGY |
“Choose the myths you live by”
Ashley Taylor, astrologer
Ashley Taylor, astrologer
NEW AFRICA HOUSE - A Black Theater Experimental Lab
Located in the basement of New Africa House, the recently renovated space has historic signifigance. Since the Afro-Am department’s founding in the 1970s and up until the past several years that area of the basement has been a site for performing and visual arts; alternately as a theater and dance rehearsal studio, a classroom, a sculpture studio and more. Dance, music, theater, poetry, clothing and hair fashion, etc. are the means by which we transmit and preserve knowledge in the African Diaspora. This tradition of combining arts and culture with intellectual discourse and rigorous scholarly research is crucial to the effectiveness of any Black Studies program.
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DIRECTING
In my career as a director over the past thirty years, I have primarily developed new work by women playwrights and created devised pieces. I’m encouraged by the increasing number of projects from professional to collegiate to community theater that address issues of inclusion, identity and sovereignty.
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In my career as a director over the past thirty years, I have primarily developed new work by women playwrights and created devised pieces. I’m encouraged by the increasing number of projects from professional to collegiate to community theater that address issues of inclusion, identity and sovereignty.
MORE>>>
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PUBLICATIONS
Al-Bilali, Judyie. "Reflections from Distinguished Practitioners" and "Words of Wisdom from Distinguished Practitioners," in Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches Edited by Sharrell Luckett, Tia M. Shaffer, (Routledge, 2017). DOWNLOAD Al-Bilali, Judyie. “The Circle,” Imagined Theatres: South Africa. Curated by Megan Lewis. http://imaginedtheatres.com/south-africa/, (Routledge, 2017). Al-Bilali, Judyie. For the Feeling: Love & Transformation from New York to Cape Town. (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012). VIEW Flockemann, Miki with Judyie Al-Bilali and Verity Vass. "Jumping into creativity: encounters with performance as pedagogic intervention in on and off-campus contexts," International Journal of Learning (2008) (article submitted) DOWNLOAD |
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