James Allister Sprang (Courtesy of James Allister Sprang)
Do you have a vision about theater’s future? Ars Nova, “a company known for pop-culture-savvy experimentation, with a hipness that sets it apart” (New York Times), does. The company has announced its fifth slate of 2021 programming, including five events curated by Starr Busby as part of the new Ars Nova Vision Residency program. All events will take place on Ars Nova Supra, a new streaming platform from Ars Nova that showcases some of New York City’s most promising emerging artists and currently serves as the online home for the majority of Ars Nova presentations.
The Vision Residency expands Ars Nova’s artistic vision by inviting seven artist-curators to each program one month of events on Ars Nova Supra. Programming can include their own work as well as work by artists they champion and admire, with Ars Nova providing financial and staff resources to develop each piece. In addition to Busby, the 2020-2021 Vision Residents include nicHi douglas, JJJJJerome Ellis, raja feather kelly, Jenny Koons, David Mendizábal, and Rona Siddiqui.
“I feel so fortunate to get to share the curation of our season on Ars Nova Supra with this newly formed cohort,” commented Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan. “Bringing this incredible group of artists and thinkers into conversation about who and what will be featured on our platform this year expands our — and their — potential. The Ars Nova community has always thrived most when it is looking forward, and I am thrilled to discover where these visionaries will take us next.”
Busby Starr (Photo provided by Everyman Agency)
“I curated this residency with the intention of serving Black artists with Space. Space to create, to exist, to be their full selves. I chose these artists because in working with or observing them, I’ve found and rediscovered parts of myself I need. Parts that remind me of my ability to expand, to shift, to influence, to make the Divine tangible,” said Vision Resident Starr Busby. “It is my hope that these artists will be received in wonder and adoration and love. And it is my intention that all who encounter the work of this residency will be expanded, shifted, and reminded of their own ability to make the Divine tangible.”
Starr Busby’s Vision Residency programming includes two free events along with three events with $10 single tickets. Subscriptions to Ars Nova Supra livestream are available for $15 per month. Subscribers receive access to all monthly livestreams at one low price, plus exclusive on-demand access to the Ars Nova Supra library, where they can catch any shows they may have missed.
ARS NOVA SUPRA Lineup
April 5 – May 1, 2021
April 5 – 26 at 7PM ET
Vision Residency: Healing Soundboxes: A Series of Aquifers
Created & Performed by Starr Busby & James Allister Sprang
Curated by Vision Resident Starr Busby
$10
Healing Soundboxes: A Series of Aquifers are four recordings of voice and modular synths performed by Starr Busby and James Allister Sprang to be released weekly throughout April. These recordings are meant to support meditative, deep listening and joy. Join these artists in deep listening and become an aquifer to the present moment. We welcome our bodies, our ancestors, our traumas, our pain, our longings, visions and dreams.
James and Starr invite you to submit your healing needs and desires, as well as words of communal care, via this 24-hour voicemail box: (646) 828-7907 and they will consider and incorporate them with the creation of each Soundbox.
Your ticket includes access to all four installments of Healing Soundboxes: A Series of Aquifers. Each installment is an audio experience that can be played at your convenience following its release on April 5, 12, 20 & 26. Join us for the final installment live at 7PM ET on April 26, followed by a conversation between James Allister Sprang and Starr Busby.
April 15 at 7 PM ET
Vision Residency: SOUTHERN GOTH
Created, Performed & Directed by MERCY
Curated by Vision Resident Starr Busby
60 minutes; FREE
An archive of the glorious self. A reimagining of the baby picture for the growing transgender body. Documenting womanhood, pain, growth, god, love and joy. Blessed are the trans!
This evening includes the premiere of SOUTHERN GOTH followed by a conversation with MERCY and Vision Resident Starr Busby.
April 16 at 7 PM ET
Vision Residency: The Black Beginning
Curated & Produced by LEGACY: A Black Queer Production Collective
Contributing Artists Basit, Anya Clarke, Alexander Paris, Ximone Rose, The Dragon Sisters
Curated by Vision Resident Starr Busby
50 minutes; $10
The Black Beginning is a multidisciplinary cabaret featuring Black queer artists and performers based in New York City. Each participating artist creatively responds to the concept of “The Black Beginning,” — whether on historical developments of the arts, identity formation, the origin of the universe, or any number of other questionings and answerings.
kim mayo (Photo by Michael Achs)
April 22 at 7PM ET
Vision Residency: addy gets a childhood
Poem & Video by kim mayo
Video Assistance from Michael Sachs
Music by kim mayo & Michael Sachs
Curated by Vision Resident Starr Busby
35 minutes; Free
addy gets a childhood is a poem, video, pleasure & reclamation project created by poet/musician/composer/artist kim mayo, aka moonheart. ‘addy’ reimagines the life of the (until recently) only black American Girl Doll, Addy Walker, whose white creators saw a black doll & called her an enslaved child, a child who had to escape that, a child who was not afforded what should have been her birthright, had she not been born into this anti-black, imperialist, white supremacist, hetero-patriarchal, capitalist world-a childhood. This project seeks to give to Addy all of the joy, the pleasure, the play, the freedom, the candies, the safety, the rambling afternoons, the delights of childhood that she was not afforded. It is a blessing sent back to mayo’s baby ancestors & one sent toward the future, where mayo envisions a world in which each black child is allowed to be one.
This evening includes the premiere of addy gets a childhood followed by a conversation with kim mayo and Vision Resident Starr Busby.
May 1 at 7 PM ET
Vision Residency: 9 C u p s i n t h e M o o N
Created & Performed by Vision Resident Starr Busby
Creative Direction by Lilleth Glimcher
Video Direction by Muse Dodd
Music by Vision Resident Starr Busby
Music Production (“Sweep the Dust” & “Wishing Tree”) Adam Schatz
Music Production (“Underwater” & “JOY”) Love Science Music
45 minutes; $10
“As I am impelled to evolve beyond my fears and insecurities, walking the path of self-knowledge through the unknown inner realms of myself. I manifest what I want by visualizing it clearly and precisely” – paraphrased from Tarot for Your Self by Mary K. Greer
9 C u p s i n t h e M o o N is an exploration into the murk of being. Desire, disappointment, agency, inertia, faith and fulfillment all play a role. How do we visualize the future we want to see amidst the dark challenges of our present? How do we allow ourselves to grow and evolve while sifting through the mess of our past?
