Moved by the Motion: Sudden Rise
Apr 26–27, 2019
Production still, Sudden Rise. Photography by Mick Bello/EMPAC. Courtesy the artists
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Floor 3, Theater
Sudden Rise is a boundary-defying series of performances by Moved by the Motion that draws on a collection of fragments excerpted from the text Sudden Rise at a Given Tune, co-written by Wu Tsang, boychild, and Fred Moten, to present a collage of words, film, movements, and sounds. Also interwoven are the language and actions of a number of pivotal twentieth-century civil rights activists, poets, and essayists, including Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and W.E.B. Du Bois, together with lyrics by Jimi Hendrix and musings by Hannah Arendt.
Friday, April 26
8 pm
Saturday, April 27
4 pm, 8 pm
All performances have reached ticketing capacity.
Sudden Rise is the New York City debut of Moved by the Motion, an ensemble formed in 2013 by recently named MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Wu Tsang, interdisciplinary artist boychild, and collaborators including cellist Patrick Belaga, dancer Josh Johnson, electronic musician Asma Maroof, and poet and critic Fred Moten.
Sudden Rise is commissioned by EMPAC / Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Whitney's presentation is organized by Adrienne Edwards, the Engell Speyer Family Curator and Curator of Performance, with Clémence White, curatorial assistant.