Sheena Hampton-Johnson/ZYAH Collective

Hello Everyone! I was accepted to the Summer Leadership Institute lead by Urban Bush Women July 22-31 in New Orleans to study dance as a tool for social justice. Exciting!! Though I have received a partial tuition scholarship I still need to raise some funds to pay for lodging and my plane ticket. The goal is $1000!  To raise funds I will be hosting a First Friday Performance Salon (w/ amazing performers) on June 3rd. If you can't make it please consider making a tax-deductible d onation* of $10-$1,000 TODAY : First Friday Performance Salon June 3rd, 2011 6-9pm @ the Joyce Gordon Gallery  406 14th St, Oakland (Near 12th Street BART) Donations $10-$1,000 accepted &  No one turned away for lack of funds.  Donations will help send me to New Orleans to study dance as a tool for social justice with Urban Bush Women   PERFORMERS INCLUDE: Valerie Troutt (vocalist), Chris Evans (cellist), Oluyemi & Ijeoma Thomas of Positive Knowledge (bass...

Freedom Study 1 is a collaboration between SJRH and the multi-talented Chris Evans. The work will premier at the  Black Choreographers Festival   on Feb 26th & 27th at Dance Mission.  Central to the work is the question: When have you felt most free?  Source material for the work includes interviews with people on the question posited and Plato's Allegory of the Cave. MORE ABOUT Chris Evans:  Chris Evans is a cellist, sound artist, video artist and dancer. Her interest is in interdisciplinary collaboration and improvisation and the potential for these collaborations to create artistic spaces for the play of imagination between artist and audience. Recent collaborations include the Community Property show, at the  Luggage Store Annex  and In the Loop, at  Space Gallery . She also regularly collaborates with  Ernest Jolly  to create soundscapes for his visual installations –  ...

Women on the Way Festival presents Land / Home                      photo by Seluvaia Fonua, L to R: Sophia Leiby, Jochelle Perena, Nzinga Woods, Sheena Johnson (down center) Choreographed by Sheena Johnson   Performed by Sheena Johnson, Peiling Kao, Sophia Leiby, Jochelle Perena and Nzinga Woods Set Design by Ernest Jolly January 14th, 16th & 27th @ 8pm  The Garage , 975 Howard Street, 5th/6th Streets, SF 94103 $15-20  Reserve in advance limited seats! If you reserve tickets by sending an email to johnson.sheena@gmail.com part of proceeds will go to the SJRH;  Otherwise you can purchase tickets at  www.brownpapertickets.com/ producer/593 0   o r at the door cash/checks only   MORE ABOUT  Land/Home : "Land/Home"  is an excavation of the self in space. As human beings we each seek, crave and create home for ourselves. How do we create a home that holds al...

Left to Right: Sophia Leiby, Jochelle Perena, Nzinga Woods, Sheena Johnson (down center) In early December SJRH played outside on the beautiful Mills Campus and took photos inspired by my new work Land/Home . These photos were taken by photographer Seluvaia Fonua. You can learn more about her work at  www.mysticeyephotography.com .  Check out what we came up with below....

Photos by Keira Hew-Jwyn Chang  So Land/Home is well on its way. The work is revealing itself to me as we continue to dive deep (as always).  I am so blessed to be working with a group of amazing dance artists: Peiling Kao,   Sophia Leiby, Jochelle Perena and Nzinga Woods. For this piece I am interested in creating a "home" with my dancers on stage that holds all the beauty and complexity of what it means to be people displaced from the physicality of our homelands.  Our shared physical location of home is the U.S. For me, I do not think we can be at home if we do not feel safe and valued. During the first rehearsal I asked my dancers the question: What are the myths we tell ourselves to maintain our complacency in the face of injustice in the U.S.?  This rehearsal was right after the announcement of the disheartening and upsetting Mehserle sentencing decision so we all had a lot to say. Some of the social control myths that folks came up with wer...