ART | HEALTH | LIBERATION
Actors Bridge presents The Vagina Monologues at City Winery Nashville on Thursday, 2/13/25. The event is a fundraiser for the outstanding writing and performance program, Act Like a GRRRL!! Doors open at 6pm and show starts at 7:30 pm.
Ticket Link: https://citywinery.com/nashville/events/actors-bridge-ensemble-presents-the-vagina-monol-8fvi76
Very excited to chat with Lydia and Christine about what progressive means in the Nashville Arts scene.
February 1, 2025
Lead artist, Cynthia C. Harris, MPH will serve as playwright and facilitator for proposed choreopoem and performance project, funded in part with support from a Metro Arts THRIVE Project award. In partnership with Leah Alexander, PHD, MPH Director and Associate Professor with Meharry Medical College’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program in the School of Graduate Studies. Thirteen second-year students will work with the lead artist to develop an original choreopoem around the social and political determinants of health as they impact their own lives.
Ms. Harris is uniquely suited for this work based on her 20 years of practice and training in behavioral health, cultural competency, and community engagement. Ms. Harris has led several programs based in autobiographical writing and performance. Ms. Harris has been creating original choreopoems since 2002 and creating a resurgence of the choreopoem for Nashville audiences, with plays like HOW TO CATCH A FLYING WOMAN(2018) and THE CALLING IS IN THE BODY (2022), which have both received high praise from audiences and critics alike. The term “choreopoem” was first coined by playwright Ntozake Shange, a dancer and poet, to describe her groundbreaking work For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. It has come to represent a body of work that combines personal narrative, oral history, movement, and music. Choreopoems are a particular form of artmaking that speak directly to the experience of being Black or marginalized in America, playing on Black Aesthetics of performance, like call and response. The choreopoem focuses on creating an emotional response from the audience. Ms. Harris believes this emotional response to be an important tool for sharing and processing factors that impact the health of communities of color.
The Creative Team!!!
Beginning with an introduction to choreopoems workshop, created and facilitated by Cynthia C. Harris. MPH, students will be guided through the process of creating autobiographical monologues, songs, and poems from writing prompts. A vocabulary of movement to be included in the final performance will also be developed during the Fall 2023 semester in conjunction with their Health Education and Promotion course, which is required for all second year graduate students. The performance will be further developed and rehearsed during the Spring 2024 semester. Student-participants will be welcomed to perform or the lead artist will identify community artists to join the production as needed.
Actors
Tyler Bibb
Briana Finley
Milton Jackson
Patrićyonna Rodgers
Natalie Tita
Brayonna Townsend
Co- Directors
Cynthia C. Harris
Alicia Haymer
Choreography and Movement Direction
Gabrielle Saliba
Producer and Acting Coach
Vali Forrister
Writers
Sydney Batts
Robyn McDaniel
Mia Barber
Maurice Swift
Dr. Leah Alexander
Tredarius Lassiter
Kendra Bettis
Kaylah Dowdell
Jayla Williams
Sariah Harris
Elijah Johnson
Doresha Robinson
Alisha Puri
Alexis Cunningham
Based on the Act Like a GRRRL model, Big GRRRL is for female-identifying adults over 18. Participants write autobiographical narratives in response to prompts from Vali and Cynthia, then share their writing at our weekly meetings, giving and receiving supportive feedback along the way. The program concludes with public performances of 2 selections from the many pieces created during this 6-week program. You choose which writings you are ready to share in front of a live audience.
This is a 6-week intensive that meets 3 hours per week plus 2 rehearsals and 2 performances. All sessions take place at the Actors Bridge Studio.
Memorization is encouraged but not required.
No prerequisites.
Led by Vali Forrister and Cynthia Harris
Tuesdays
Jan 30-Mar 5
6-9 p.m.
With rehearsals Mar 7-8
Performances Mar 9-10
$475
A failed journalist hired by the Federal Writers Project in 1932, catches hold of a highly sought meeting with a former slave who mysteriously acquired his former master’s fortune, including over 100 acres of land. Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the Slave Narratives gathered by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930’s, Narrative of the Life of Cedric Bartholomew, tells an epic story of legacy, love, and tragedy.
We need a mayor who supports an increase in funding the arts from 0.17% to at least 1% of the overall budget.
Cynthia C. Harris, Guest Columnist | June 13, 2023
Growing up in Nashville, my first experience with the arts was through ballet with Dancearts Centre directed by Ms. Peggy Williams. She exposed hundreds of African American girls from a range of economic experiences to ballet for over 30 years. I first learned with Ms. Williams in a house, and later in a building on Buchanan that still stands today.
I’ve been thinking about those classes and Ms. Williams a lot lately. North Nashville has always been filled with professionals dedicated to sharing their creative gifts with future generations. These have often been labors of love, often maintained with personal finances and the small fees collected from families. They offered arts programs and education through their connections to local schools, churches, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They were fixtures in our community and generations of young people benefited.
I recently found a program from our recital in 1982. I see names of then girls, now women whom I admire and respect. I see accomplished women representing a number of professions, parents, clergy, and leaders. I am reminded of the deep necessity of resources, spaces, and infrastructure when it comes to making art in community.
This summer I’ll co-lead Actors Bridge Ensemble’s Act Like a Grrrl program where we serve about 12 female identifying students ages 12-18, like we have each summer for the past 19 years. We are sometimes overlooked for grant funding because our numbers are small. We keep our program small because we want each young person to have all the attention and support needed to come to voice during our time together.
After working primarily in the public health field for 20 years while writing and performing on the side, I moved my passion for theater front and center this year. I’ll continue consulting with local arts organizations, performing, building community, and creating plays. Still I worry about how plausible it is to sustain myself long term as a theater artist.
The future of the arts in Nashville matters deeply to me. I am clear that we need a mayor who supports an increase in funding the arts from 0.17% to at least 1% of the overall budget. Dallas, Austin, Cleveland, and Phoenix (cities growing at the same rate as Nashville) all have higher arts budgets with greater per capita funding for the arts.
These cities recognize that artists create the fabric of our communities and they all invest substantially more in the arts. They understand something we as Music City and Athens of the South must reflect in our policies. The arts enrich our lives through more than the bottom line, uplifting every aspect of life.
We need a dedicated funding source for the arts. We need to make sure the funds are distributed equitably so that independent artists, artists of color, and small arts organizations have an opportunity to innovate and thrive.
We also need an infrastructure in place for artists that nurtures and sustains us. We need representation for the creative class in all its vibrant facets, and we need to reinvest in the arts and artists who bring so much real value to Nashville.
Arts and culture are part of our civic rights and are integral to our identity.
Engaging in the arts is essential to the overall well being of a community. Practitioners and scholars have long connected the dots between art and health, typically in the form of art therapy. That exploration has now expanded to art and public health. One way to understand the distinction is that art and health/medicine focus on the well being of the individual, while art and public health focus on the well being of a collective or community.
I believe in the power of the arts as a form of health intervention. The infographics below share recent evidence of arts on public health issues like trauma, racism, isolation, mental health, and chronic disease.
Arts Equity Mayoral Candidate Forum
moderated by Judge Sheila Calloway
Register here! Please share with your networks!
Mayoral Candidates: Natisha Brooks, Fran Bush, Heidi Campbell, Jim Gingrich, Sharon Hurt, Stephanie Johnson, Freddie O’Connell, Vivian Wilhoite, Matt Wiltshire, and Jeff Yarbro
June 14, 2023 at Nashville Children’s Theatre
6:30 PM reception
8 PM forum start
10-11 PM after-party
Reception and after-party DJ is Jason Eskridge
Local artists and organizations join in asking our next mayor to equitably fund the arts.
We are Music City and the Athens of the South!
Cosponsors (this list is growing daily):
abrasiveMedia, Actors Bridge Ensemble, April Gloaming Publishing, Art & Soul Nashville, Arts Bellevue, COOP Gallery, Dewey Comedy Productions, Elmahaba Center, FALL, Found Movement Group, Free Nashville Poetry Library, Global Education Center, International Black Film Festival, Kindling Arts, Liberated Grounds, Music for Seniors, Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Arts Coalition, Nashville Creative Group, Nashville Dance Collective, Nashville Filmmakers Guild, Nashville Musicians for Change, Nashville Women in Jazz, Nashville in Harmony, North Nashville Action, North Nashville Arts Coalition, One Drop Ink Tattoo, Poboys & Poets, Queen Bee Ink LLC, Southern Word, Sylvan Heights Neighborhood Association, TMProductions, The 37208, The African American Cultural Alliance, The Museum of Presence, The Native American Indian Association of Tennessee, The Porch, The Nashville Children’s Theatre, The Radicle, The Upcoming Artist Organization, We Keep The Faith Corp, Noel Marie Alexander, Audra Almond-Harvey, Alayna Renae Anderson, Rebekah Hampton Barger, Gina Carrillo, Telisha Cobb, Jo Collins, Chris Crofton, Jasmine Dominique, Susannah J. Felts, Collier Goodlett, Christine Hall, Cynthia C. Harris, Vali Forrister, Michelle Harris, Shayna Hobbs, Amy Hoskins, Beth Inglish, Courtney Adair Johnson, Perris (Spoke) Johnson, Megan Jordan, Hazel Joyner-Smith, Leslie LaChance, Candace-Omnira LaFayette, Matthew Ezell “Honest” Lewis, Leah Light, Dana Malone, Barton Mangrum, Tosha Marie, Elisheba Mrozik, Matthew Robinson, Andee Rudloff, Landrew Sevel, Abby Whisenant, Rev. Dr. Donna Krupkin Whitney, Caroline Randall Williams, Robin Wolfenden, and Alex Wong
Join as a cosponsor: https://forms.gle/V9upBNd6t3VDQVog6
There is no cost associated—we only ask you sign onto the call for arts equity. We will share mayoral candidates’ statements with our cosponsors for the opportunity to prepare questions ahead of the forum.
Date: Saturday, March 4th
Location: Actors Bridge Ensemble at Darkhorse Theatre
Time: 11:30 am – 4:00 pm
Fee/Suggested Donation: $25
Are you a theater maker looking for new tools? Are you a theater student? Do you work in community engagement? Do you create programs for young people?
Come explore choreopoems with playwright, Cynthia C Harris, MPH. Learn about her unique method of community-engaged theater making. Use a personal narrative approach to build performances that combine poetry, monologues, call and response, choral refrains, movement, and music. This workshop is for all levels. Ages 12+. Come ready to play!
WHAT WILL YOU TAKE AWAY?
-Crafting the “good invitation to play.” Laying the foundation for collaborative work among diverse groups.
-Use individual writing prompts to build choreopoems in small groups.
-Find points of connection in individual writing.
-Use individual writing to introduce to build movement and create tableaus.
-Create call and response and choral refrains.
-Shape the choreopoem, identify transitions.
Healing Waters Productions 