Performing Arts
Upcoming
2020-2021 Inter[SECTOR] Programs
Inter[SECTOR] is the CAC’s three-year multidisciplinary arts programming centering cross-sector engagements with the fields of carceral justice, healthcare, and the environment. During the 20-21 season Inter[SECTOR] examines the impact of mass incarceration on our community through performances, workshops, and virtual conversations created and led by women and non-binary artists alongside individuals impacted by the in justices in the prison system. Explore these programs and more, below!
Contemporary Arts Center
Performance Showcases: Works-in-Process by Performing Artists-in-Residence
August 27, 2021 to August 29, 2021
Join us for a weekend of nightly performance showcases featuring bold new works-in-process created by the CAC's 2021 performing artists-in-residence paris "cyan" cian, Jarrell Hamilton / De La SoL Dance Theatre Co., and Rebecca Elizabeth Hollingsworth.
Reserve Tickets
CAC Studio Sundays
July 11 & 25, August 22, 2021
11 am – 2 pm | Free admission
Contemporary Arts Center
The Graduates: Life
A CAC Inter[SECTOR] Program September 17, 2021The Graduates are a New Orleans-based performance ensemble of formerly-incarcerated women who were former members of the Drama Club at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW). Life is a performance that was created by The Graduates to accompany The Life Quilt (2018), a hand-beaded quilt adorned with the names of the 107 women serving life sentences in Louisiana.
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Contemporary Arts Center
The Graduates: Sacred Journey (World Premiere)
A CAC Inter[SECTOR] Program September 18, 2021The Graduates are a New Orleans-based performance ensemble of formerly-incarcerated women who were former members of the Drama Club at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW). Created during their year-long Sacred Wellness 360º residency at the CAC, Sacred Journey is a new work by the ensemble. Each piece of the performance will address the thoughts, challenges, and needs faced by members as they continue to heal from the carceral system.
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Contemporary Arts Center
Flyaway Productions: The Wait Room
A CAC Inter[SECTOR] ProgramSeptember 24, 2021 to September 26, 2021
The Wait Room exposes the physical, psychic, and emotional burden on women with incarcerated loved ones. Utilizing a large hydraulic stage shaped as a clock dial, the performance incorporates dance, installation, an original score by Pamela Z, and oral histories of women whose families are f ractured by the carceral system. The work is Part One of Jo Kreiter’s "Decarceration Trilogy: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex One Dance at a Time."
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Contemporary Arts Center
The Gorgeous Offerings: The Black Ophelia, A Film Screening & Community Discussion
A CAC Inter[SECTOR] ResidencyNovember 5, 2021 to November 6, 2021
"The Gorgeous Offerings" are a series of rituals, sacred spaces, workshops, and community gatherings created to support healing from the loss and disorientation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Open to all, these events are created to respond to the particular burden of grief held in the BIPOC community, compounded by layers of embodied stress and disruptions to communal forms of mourning and healing.
The Black Ophelia: A Film Screening & Community Discussion
November 5 - 6, 2021 at 6:30 pm
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Contemporary Arts Center
Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever
December 3, 2021 to December 5, 2021
Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a multidisciplinary performance set to new music by Haitian-American singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla. The project explores the legacy of Radio Haiti-Inter, Haiti’s first privately owned Creole-speaking radio station, and the assassination of its owner, Jean Dominique, in 2000. The title is derived from a proverb used by Dominique to describe the spirit of Haiti’s marginalized poor in the face of violence and political oppression.
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Contemporary Arts Center and The Beaubourg Theatre
re:FRAME: Every Body Dance Now
December 13, 2021 to December 19, 2021
re:FRAME is a movement-research collective of six dance-makers exploring alternative systems for cultivating artistic community, exchange and sustainability. Rehearsing in residence since 2020, re:FRAME is currently developing five evening-length solo works for joint presentation at the CAC.
Every Body Dance Now
December 13 – 19, 2021
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Contemporary Arts Center
KM Dance Project: Raw Fruit
January 14, 2022 to January 16, 2022
Raw Fruit is a collection of stories that reveals the essence of ancestral values which have been woven into the cultural fabric of our lives. This multidisciplinary work uses the technology of the kitchen to examine legacy, identity, socialization, unity, and friction inside the southern Black family dynamic. Raw Fruit is a celebration of New Orleans culture juxtaposed to the complexities of the African American experience in the south.
Read more →Residencies & Resources
Explore the CAC's ongoing performing artist residencies and other performance-related programs, below!
Contemporary Arts Center
"Let's Talk About It" by The Graduates Rising - A Work In Progress
October 28, 2020As part of its Gender (in)Justice series of programming, the CAC presents a virtual table reading of Let's Talk About It, a work-in-progress play by Ausettua AmorAmenkum and The Graduates Rising, a New Orleans-based performing ensemble and CAC Artists-In-Residence.
The performance, recorded inside the CAC's Black Box Theater, will be available for your viewing pleasure on the CAC's YouTube channel at 7 pm CDT on Wednesday, October 28.
The Graduates Rising - CAC Artist Residency
The Graduates, founded in 2012, is a New Orleans-based performing arts organization comprised of former members of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) Drama Club. Current ensemble members include: Taece Defillo, Carry Emerson, Jackie Hall, Ivy Matthis and Fox Rich.
2021 Artists-in-Residence
About CAC Artist Residencies
The CAC's Artist Residencies are an application-based program offering time, space, resources, and professional development opportunities for both visual and performing artists in New Orleans. Each summer, performing artists and companies are selected for intensive two-week residencies in the CAC's Black Box Theater with support from CAC technical and curatorial staff. The residents return in August to rehearse and perform work-in-process showings, open to the public.