Projects

Ark of Bones

Ark of Bones grows out of desire to build on collaborative performance work we’ve done together in the past by putting an exploration of creative music, “Music” and deep listening at the center of our work on this project. Collaborators include David Boyce, who has been experimenting, innovating and improvising with the Broun Fellinis, an avant jazz group he co-founded for 20 years, and Marshall Trammell, a percussionist who combines a deep commitment to musical exploration and experimentation, work with social activist groups, deep knowledge of the theories that have emerged out of the creative music tradition. The name Ark of Bones comes from a short story by Henry Dumas. For more see Ark of Bones/Reconstruction.

ArtComplex

ArtComplex was a pop-up exhibition in a former dentist building in Oakland in early 2014 co-curated by Ernest Jolly and myself and managed by Art Consultant Marianna Stark.  Visual Arts Curator Ernest Jolly brought together a diverse group of 12 Oakland-based artists to create installations in former dentist office building. Visitors were invited to enter into an immersive experience of these installations. We activated the space further through sound and movement performances with a diverse group of musicians and dancers. Performances in the space included improvisations by Bandelion and Fractures, an improvisation that brought together the Broun Fellinis, and dancers Byb Bibene, Sheena Johnson, Daria Kaufman, Nadia Oka and myself.

Photos by Michael Topolovac

Bandelion

From the Bandelion website “Bandelion is Eric Kupers’ ensemble within Dandelion Dancetheater, that exists somewhere in between the constructs of band, performance ensemble, dance company, tribe, extended family, research team, gang of misfits, and legion of artistic missionaries. Bandelion is a group of dancers, actors, musicians, and designer/technicians, all collaborators in the creation process. Also diverse in terms of size, age, sexual orientation, ability/disability, and cultural background, these artists are dedicated to in-depth research into the ways in which their multifarious backgrounds and artistic forms intersect.” For more visit: Bandelion

Community Property

Began while visual artist Ernest Jolly and Chris Evans were in residence at the Luggage Store annex space in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco with the idea that a community breathes, moves, and connects people to the space, sounds, movement and people around them in its own unique way. This is the foundation of a community’s artistic patrimony. The job of the artists is to investigate, excavate, and shape these sights and sounds into the community’s works of art.

Skin Talk, Skin Mood

Began as a collaboration between choreographer and dancer Byb Chanel Bibene, vocalist Jeff Bennett and Chris Evans exploring Byb’s experience learning racism as an adult when he leaves Congo to tour in Europe, Asia and the US. The exploration is continuing in the CHIME Residency with Byb Bibene (mentee) and Folawole (mentor) with an investigation into the different forms of invisibility racism teaches us.

WaterSaw

Led by Nicole Laby, Watersaw is a musical collaboration between cellist Chris Evans, bass/guitarist Mark Fassett, vocalist Nicole Laby, and percussionist Michael Tornatore. Working with Bay Area choreographers, the group uses looping and effects pedals to create richly textured layers of sound for dance performances.