Past Collaborations

MOTHERWORLD

Northstar Church of the Arts and Conjure Tech collaborated to present motherworld: a choreopoetic experience

An adaptation of Destiny Hemphill's forthcoming manuscript, motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life, five seekers find themselves drawn to a portal to a new world. Along their journey they must shed, peel, grow, transmute and transform to become the world that they need. This piece was an invitation and invocation, inviting us all to manifest a motherworld.

Featuring Destiny Hemphill, Monèt Noelle Marshall, Raafe Purnsley, King Sage, Serayah Silver and Brittany Bennett Weston

From the artists, as published by Dustin K. Britt in Chatham Life and Times:

BRITT: My first time at NorthStar Church of the Arts was in 2019 at Tristan André Parks' workshop of They Do Not Know Harlem: In Communion with James Baldwin. That room was perfect for that piece -- and seems like the obvious choice for motherworld.

SILVER: A repurposed church matches our idea: a repurposed ritual, a repurposed ceremony, a repurposed religion. When you're dealing with ancestral things and Black art, you can't help but think about church. I agree with you -- NorthStar is the only place to do it.

MARSHALL: NorthStar gave us a grant two years ago to produce this work -- we didn't even know what it was going to be. It was just like "we have an idea." They said yes, here you go, here's some support to make that happen. The cast is all Black, predominantly queer, and we're all in the south. This piece is calling us to reach out to find gods that actually look like us and sound like us -- that sound like our mama-n-em.

WAY OUT OF NO WAY

The Way Out Of No Way Humanities series was a partnership between NorthStar, the NC Humanities Council, and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. These community engagement presentations included lectures, literary readings, and panel discussions on a variety of topics linked by an overarching theme of creativity in making a Way Out of No Way. The series was co-curated by angel iset dozier and included talks from adrienne maree brown and Jaki Shelton Green, Meshell Ndegeocell and Ronald K. Brown, Mark Anthony Neal, Nnenna Freelon and Karla FC Holloway, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and more.

Described as a willingness to press on through difficult circumstances even when the outlook is decidedly bleak, this 8-month celebration of resilience, creativity, advocacy, and determination fell in the African American tradition of way-making. Evidence of way-making can be observed in both historic and modern narratives of struggle and triumph. Black American victory stories are more often than not, woven with threads of resistance-thinking and creative workarounds. Embedded history of enslavement, bigotry, and racism as well as institutionalized forms of marginalization, way-making strategies are a means of survival.

THEY DO NOT KNOW HARLEM

They Do Not Know Harlem allowed audiences to bear witness to an extraordinary, immersive performance by artist, dancer and storyteller Tristan André, who summons the spirit of James Baldwin in an excavation of a Black and queer life lived in a not always welcoming world.

From the artist, as published by Jacqueline E. Lawton in Playmakers Repertory Company:

It makes absolute sense to have this work be shared with the community at NorthStar. It first began as a collaboration with Mars who is the creator of Young, Gifted & Broke – a pop-up art gallery and creative consultancy. She partnered with NorthStar during the Spring of 2019, and I’ve had this desire to present a half-hour workshop of the piece and all that we had been working on in Tracy’s class with her. It was a leap of faith to see how the work would land with the greater Triangle community and the response was fulfilling for us both. That has now led to my collaboration with PlayMakers, who has received the Spark the Arts grant from the North Carolina Arts Council that allows us to continue to develop the work where we have witnessed eyes on the work that leads us to the March premiere. It’s a way of ensuring that we as artists don’t work in a beleaguered bubble. It’s our way of ensuring that our art, our story, our music, song and dance is in constant conversation with the community. They Do Not Know Harlem is a story that belongs to so many people and to have them act as a witness in the development process is vital. Deeply grateful to Germane James, NaTasha Thompson (Our Community Engagement Liaison), and King who so lovingly blessed our NorthStar partnership as “bearing witness whilst in process”.  

COUNTRY SOUL SONGBOOK

Country Soul Songbook is a Durham artist-driven and -focused media platform and production team that curates performances and facilitates interviews, in-depth conversations and cultural offerings rooted in their mission to amplify historically marginalized voices (BIPOC/LGBTQIA+) in country, Americana, roots and rock music.

NorthStar was proud to collaborate with CSSB to host their Country Soul Songbook Summit and several affiliated events. We provided the space for small, intimate field recordings and CSSB’s Big Sing with musicians Kamara Thomas, Shana Tucker, Alice Gerrard, Rissi Palmer, Phil Cook, Kym Register, Libby Rodenborough and more. Due to the pandemic, many of these events were performed socially distanced and live-streamed. We were honored to innovate alongside CSSB to bring quality music by BIPOC artists to our community. Performances from the first virtual Country Soul Songbook Summit area available to view via CSSB’s YouTube channel.