100 Women Artists and Cultural Creators Respond to Centennial of the 19th Amendment and 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage in America in the Context of
COVID and Black Lives Matter
Cross-Disciplinary Group of Participants in 100 Years | 100 Women Initiative Includes Carrie Mae Weems, Deborah Willis, Toshi Reagon, Zoë Buckman, Andrea Jenkins,
Meshell Ndegeocello, and Martha Redbone
Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with National Black Theatre and 9 Partner Cultural Institutions, New Works to be Launched Online on August 18 at Public Viewing Party
New York, NY – August 4, 2020 – On August 18, marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Park Avenue Armory and lead partner National Black Theatre, together with nine other New York City cultural institutions, will unveil the next phase of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative. The project was launched in February 2020 with a day-long symposium and the announcement of the 100 commissioned artists and cultural creators who were invited to respond to and interrogate the complex legacy of women’s suffrage through their creative practices. In the time since, the creation of new works by the participants— including Zoë Buckman, Staceyann Chin, Karen Finley, Ebony Noelle Golden, Andrea Jenkins, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Martha Redbone, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis—has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, #BlackLivesMatter, and a divisive election season. In lieu of the in-person celebration of the commissions that was planned for the spring, the Armory is hosting an online launch party streamed on YouTube on August 18 at 2pm, which will feature a sneak peek at select commissioned works, remarks by artists and partner organizations, and appearances by special guests including Maya Wiley, Susan Herman, Jari Jones, Tantoo Cardinal, Rita Dove, Catherine Gray, and the Kasibahagua Taíno Cultural Society. The event will also include the premiere of a short film by Armory/Museum of the Moving Image-commissioned filmmaker Shola Lynch documenting the inspirations and processes behind the participants’ contributions, as well as the ways in which the issues of the current moment have informed their work.
Immediately following the launch party, the Armory will publicly debut an interactive digital archive of the initiative that provides access for audiences to explore each participant's profile and creative work, as well as additional resources. On this website, audiences will be able to view all the projects created for the initiative, including:
Hold on Tight, Carrie Mae Weems’ stirring video portrait honoring her mother
The installation The Right to Vote: ‘Women’s Work Never Praised/Never Done!’ A Reimagining by Deborah Willis, which is comprised of photos and images focused on women's labor, dress and domestic work alongside images of Black women suffragists in the early 20th century
A portrait of 100 Indigenous Women of Turtle Island (North America) created by Indigenous beadwork maker Joselyn Kaxhyek Borrero (Tlingit of Yukon, Canada) and Roberto Borrero (kasike (chief) of the Guainía Taíno tribal community)
The Last Gasp, a video created by Split Britches duo Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver that includes meditations on the last breaths of victims of police brutality
Equality Tea, a performance by Jaime Sunwoo drawing parallels between the fraught histories of the tea trade and the suffrage movement
A powerful self-portrait series by disability inclusion activists, including actresses Marilee Talkington and Christine Bruno
The Future of Feminism Is Only As Powerful As the Future of Anti-Racism, an original piece by artist and poet Cleo Wade, which articulates a call to action asking us to build holistically and intersectionally
“On August 18, with our lead partner National Black Theatre and nine other New York institutions, the Armory will unveil 100 commissioned works in video, spoken work, theater, photography, dance and other art forms by 100 extraordinarily talented women artists and cultural creators. The works reflect not only the complexity of women’s suffrage, but also the issues of rights and recognition in the era of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and the lead-up to a critical presidential election,” said Rebecca Robertson, Founding President and Executive Producer of Park Avenue Armory. “Collectively, the works form a profound and thought-provoking archive from an unprecedented time that will live beyond the unveiling and watch party. We are so grateful to the artists and to the institutional partners for their commitment, perseverance, and insights.”
“This project is an incredible opportunity of uplifting and connecting communities together. In a time of so much civic unrest, this is our present pulse, our day-to-day mission: knocking down these walls and shining lights in the darkest corners of our own stories. We are honored to work in partnership with the Park Avenue Armory and nine other fantastic sister organizations to present this event which stands at the nexus of gender, identity, and representation. Through this short, the archive, and website we aspire to help us as a community to continue a conversation our founder, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, and her contemporaries were part of more than fifty years ago,” said Sade Lythcott, CEO of National Black Theatre.
Commissioned artists, activists, scholars, community leaders, and collectives include:
• 100 Indigenous Women, Multidisciplinary
• 17 Armory Youth Corp students, Multidisciplinary
• Abdu Ali, Music
• Sama Alshaibi, Visual Art
• Zalika Azim, Visual Art
• Lucas Balmaceda Pascal, Drama
• Jennifer Baumgardner, Journalism
• Stephanie Berger, Photography
• Zoë Buckman, Visual Art
• Christine Bruno, Acting/Disability Activist
• Rashida Bumbray, Performance Art
• Vinie Burrows, Performance/Activism
• Jayla Chee, Music
• Sofiya Cheyenne, Performance/Activism
• Staceyann Chin, Spoken Word
• Olivia Chindamo, Music
• Elizabeth Colomba, Visual Art
• Renee Cox, Visual Art
• Tendayi Kuumba, Dance
• Kate Clarke Lemay, Museum Curation
• Mimi Lien, Scenic Design/Architecture
• Shola Lynch, Film
• Tsedaye Makonnen, Visual Art
• Love Muwwakkil, Dance
• Premilla Nadasen, History of Race & Gender
• Meshell Ndegeocello, Music
• Lorie Novak, Visual Art
• Zoe Obadia, Music
• Michele Pred, Art/Activism
• Alba Pujals-Roigé, Music
• Toshi Reagon, Music
• Martha Redbone, Music/Activism
• Jewel Rodgers, Spoken Word
• Yelaine Rodriguez, Visual Art
• Hannah Rosenzweig, Film
• Rhonda Ross, Multidisciplinary
• Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Visual Art
• Caridad (La Bruja) De La Luz, Spoken Word
• Rose DeSiano, Visual Art
• LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Multidisciplinary
• Catherine D’Ignazio, Data Literacy
• Abby Dobson, Sonic Conceptual Performance Art
• Nekisha Durrett, Visual Art
• Joan Dwiartanto, Dance
• Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, Performance
• Adama Delphine Fawundu, Visual Art
• Gayle Fekete, Dance
• Karen Finley, Visual Art
• Kaiama L. Glover, French & Africana Studies
• Ebony Noelle Golden, Performance Art
• Sarah Gooch, Music
• Amanda Gookin, Music
• Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez, Dance
• Jasmine Hearn, Performance & Dance
• Susan Herman, ACLU/Constitutional Law
• Andrea Jenkins, Politics/Performance Art
• Michi Jigarjian, Artist/Facilitator/Educator
• Christine Jones, Scenic Design
• Chanon Judson, Dance
• Risha Rox, Interdisciplinary
• Wendy Sachs, Film
• Maggie Scrantom, Drama
• Peggy Shaw, Theater
• Lakshmi Shyamakrishnan, Acting
• Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Multidisciplinary
• Samantha Speis, Dance
• Jaime Sunwoo, Performance/Multimedia
• Marilee Talkington, Acting/Disability Activist
• Murielle Borst Tarrant, Theater
• Henu Josephine Tarrant, Theater
• Katherine Toukhy, Mixed Media
• Carmelita Tropicana, Performance Art
• S. Katy Tucker, Video/Projection Design
• Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah, Theater
• Imani Uzuri, Music
• Elaisa Van Der Kust, Performance & Dance
• Cleo Wade, Literature
• Mikaila Ware, Performance & Dance
• Lois Weaver, Theater
• Carrie Mae Weems, Multidisciplinary
• Lark White, Drama
• Deborah Willis, Visual Art
• Eryn Wise, Indigenous Media Curation
• Pamela Z, Music/Composition
100 Years | 100 Women launched in February 2020 as part of the Armory’s annual “Culture in a Changing America” symposium, which this year convened artists, activists, scholars, and civic and cultural leaders for a day of conversations, performances, and salons reflecting on womanhood, citizenship, intersectional feminism, and the myriad ways in which artists navigate these issues. Collectively, the eleven partner institutions nominated 100 artists, activists, scholars, students, and community leaders to respond to the centennial with new work to be presented as part of a gathering, showcase, and celebration originally scheduled to take place in the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall this past spring. With the unforeseen impacts of COVID-19, which led to the cancellation of this in-person culminating event, the project and many of the commissioned works have evolved to respond to the volatile times in which it was created. 100 Years | 100 Women now acknowledges not only the fight for gender equality and women’s right to vote, but also reckons with the long thread of history that has led us to this tumultuous moment, uplifting the voices of creatives, activists, and thought leaders working to unpack it.
In addition to Park Avenue Armory and National Black Theater, the group of commissioning partners includes Apollo Theater; The Juilliard School; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club; The Laundromat Project; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of the Moving Image; National Sawdust; New York University (Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts; Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation; and Institute of African American Affairs & Center for Black Visual Culture); and Urban Bush Women.
100 Years | 100 Women is part of the Armory’s Interrogations of Form conversation series, which unites artists, thought leaders, and social trailblazers for creative, multidimensional explorations of today’s social and cultural landscape.
Additional details will be announced at www.armoryonpark.org. Register to attend the viewing party HERE.
SPONSORSHIP
Citi and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the Armory’s 2020 season sponsors.
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. The artistic season is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support has been provided by the Armory's Artistic Council.
Interrogations of Form are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council. The Armory’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Park Avenue Armory and the 100 Years | 100 Women project are honored to be part of the The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial Consortium, a collaboration of cultural organizations citywide that foregrounds exhibitions and programs that, together, offer a multi-dimensional picture of the history of women’s suffrage and its lasting, ongoing impact. The consortium has launched www.WomensSuffrageNYC.org to highlight the activities being presented across New York City throughout 2020.
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory fills a critical void in the cultural ecology of New York by enabling artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience, unconventional work that cannot be mounted in traditional performance halls and museums. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory offers a platform for creativity across all art forms. Together, these and other spaces within the historic building utilized for arts programming comprise the Thompson Arts Center, named in recognition of the Thompson family’s ongoing support of the institution.
Since its first production in September 2007, the Armory has organized and commissioned immersive performances, installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations in its vast Drill Hall that defy traditional categorization and challenge artists to push the boundaries of their practice. In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents small-scale performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; and the new Artists Studio series in the newly restored Veterans Room, which features innovative artists and artistic pairings that harken back to the imaginative collaboration and improvisation of the original group of designers who conceived the space. The Armory also supports artists across genres in the creation and development of new work through its Artist-in-Residence program, which each year offers several artists space and resources to produce new works and present them as part of the Armory’s programming. Theaster Gates is a current Armory Artist-in-Residence. Other current Artists-in-Residence include: Mimi Lien, Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring, Sara Serpa, Christine Jones, Steven Hoggett, Lynn Nottage, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Carmelita Tropicana.
The Armory also offers robust arts education programs at no cost to underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and the building’s history and architecture. These programs, which serve more than 5,000 students per year, include student-only performances and workshops for every production, commissioned works for family programming, school partnerships, and paid internships.
Programmatic highlights from the Armory include The Let Go, a site-specific immersive dance celebration by Nick Cave; a Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium, the first congregation of Lenape Leaders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino, a large-scale, interactive sculpture and labyrinth comprising a 120 by 180-foot canopy extended across the Drill Hall and 60-foot aromatic fabric stalactites; FLEXN, an Armory-commissioned presentation of the Brooklyn-born street dance Flex, created by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and Director Peter Sellars; Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto, a multi-channel cinematic installation featuring Cate Blanchett; eight-time Drama Desk-nominated play The Hairy Ape, directed by Richard Jones and starring Bobby Cannavale; William Kentridge’s The Head & The Load, a multidisciplinary tribute to the millions of African porters who served in WWI; Satoshi Miyagi’s intercultural reimagining of Antigone, which unfolded within an 18,000-gallon pool of water in the Drill Hall; and Sam Mendes’ critically acclaimed production of The Lehman Trilogy, starring Adam Godley, Ben Miles, and Simon Russell Beale.
Concurrent with its artistic program, the Armory has undertaken an ongoing $215-million revitalization of its historic building, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.
ABOUT NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE
Founded by visionary Dr. Barbara Ann Teer in 1968, National Black Theatre (NBT) is a nationally recognized cultural and educational institution. Dr. Teer pioneered “the healing art of Black theater as an instrument for wholeness in urban communities where entrepreneurial artists of African descent live and work.” In 1983, Dr. Teer expanded the vision of NBT by purchasing a 64,000-square-foot building on 125th Street and Fifth Avenue (renamed “National Black Theatre Way” by local law in 1994). This was the first revenue-generating Black arts complex in the country, an innovative arrangement through which for-profit businesses who shared NBT’s spiritual and aesthetic values rented retail space to subsidize the arts. Out of her vision, NBT houses the largest collection of Nigerian New Sacred Art in the Western hemisphere and is considered the authentic representation of a model whose time has come. NBT is supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust, Time Warner Corporation. Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, City Council of New York, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Columbia Service Society and private donations. Visit www.nationalblacktheatre.org or follow NBT on Facebook (@NationalBlackTheatre) and Twitter/Instagram (@NatBlackTheatre).
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