A Studio in the Woods

Virtual Writer's Cabin Dedication
2020-04-29 08:00 - 2020-05-29 17:00 UTC | LA
The Writer’s Cabin was a long-held dream of our founder, Lucianne Carmichael, that we’ve worked on over the last decade to make a reality. This winter it was finally completed and we scheduled a dedication full of readings, remarks and celebration for March 18, 2020. The global pandemic cancelled the event, but now we would like to (virtually) invite you in. Take a tour, read reflections, and dream of what could happen in this space. We invite you to submit your wishes for the future of the cabin here or suggest a book for the Writer’s Cabin library here.
The Writer’s Cabin at A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, celebrates writers of every genre by offering a 300-square foot live-work space to host both emerging and established playwrights, composers, authors, choreographers, and scholars. This addition to the Studio campus will allow us to support more artists and scholars and greatly increase our impact.

“Tulane has long been home to some of the country’s most influential writers and poets. The Writer’s Cabin at A Studio in the Woods will serve as an invaluable resource for the Tulane community, providing the space and setting for creativity to flourish and adding to our growing network of interdisciplinary academic hubs across the university that spur innovation and creative collaboration.” – Michael A. Fitts, President, Tulane University
“Friends extends our appreciation to the generous donors and Tulane University as we celebrate the completion of the Writer’s Cabin. We honor the intent of Studio’s founders – Lucianne and Joe – as we open the final building phase of their long-held vision for this respite in the woods. To future artists and writers – may you find inspiration and courage to put pen to paper.” – Mary Len Costa, Chair, Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors
“I had an extremely productive time during my residency, which provided me with the time and solitude I needed to complete my project. I loved being in the writer’s studio and it was truly a gift to be able to work in such a peaceful and idyllic setting.” – Ladee Hubbard, Writer and Inaugural Writer’s Cabin Resident
“While here at A Studio in the Woods, free to really concentrate on a project I’ve been working on, in one way or another, for about a decade, I have finally experienced coming into my own as a storyteller, a researcher, and a poet.” – Jeffery Darensbourg, Writer and Former Resident
“This Writers Cabin is more than a new building, it is a broad new window of opportunity for creative expression, interdisciplinary collaboration and just plain wonder. It is a gift to artists and scholars everywhere and it only goes to show why A Studio in the Woods is so important.” – Mark S. Davis, J.D., Director, Tulane ByWater Institute
“At long last, the first permanent home for writers in the Gulf South, thanks to the vision of A Studio in the Woods. In coastal Louisiana, Virginia Woolf’s dream come true: truly, a room of one’s own.” – Benjamin Morris, Writer and Former Resident; Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors
“The Writer’s Cabin is designed to foster an intimate connection with nature. The dogtrot is a threshold between the living space and the writing studio but the cross axis allows nature to pierce the building form. The structure is simple and wood-framed, explicitly referencing the vertical trunks of the forest and the spreading canopy overhead.” – John Anderson AIA, LEED-AP, Writer’s Cabin Architect, Unabridged Architecture
Acknowledgements
The Studio would like to thank the generous donors who made the construction of the Writer’s Cabin possible: A Friend Of A Studio In The Woods, A Friend Of A Studio In The Woods – In Honor Of Lake Douglas, The Family of Stephen E. Ambrose, Dawn Barrios, Carol Bebelle, Jason Berry, Lynne Burkart, Sarah Burnette, Joe Carmichael, Bridget Carter, Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation, Richard C. Colton, Jr., Mary Len & Lou Costa, Foster Creppel, Luann Dozier, Eleanor Duckworth, Janet Daley Duval, Marilee Eaves, Ella West Freeman Foundation, William Fagaly, Terry & Michael Fontham, Alicia Franck & Brinkley Serkedakis, Carol Gelderman, Gustaf W. McIlhenny Foundation, Elizabeth & Oliver Houck, Anne & James Hubbell, Keller Family Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Amy Lesen, Jamie M. Manders & James M. Riopelle, Miggy & Jay Monroe, Benjamin Morris, Julian Mutter – Doerr Furniture, Libra LaGrone Pealer & Casius Pealer, Renée & Stewart Peck, Laura & Robert Perez, Nancy Picard & Clif St. Germain, Donna & Ben Rosen, Jane & William Sizeler, Liz & Poco Sloss, Kristen Struebing-Beazley, Jackie Sullivan, Thomas Tews, Catherine Tremaine, Mary & Rodney Yanker, and Lea Young.
The Studio would also like to thank the following individuals, whose unique contributions of time and talent have helped make the Writer’s Cabin a reality: John Anderson, John Kleinschmidt, Susan Norris-Davis, Werling Brothers, Anne Mueller, Cathy Hernandez, Kim Krupa, Brinkley Serkedakis, Tulane Capital Projects, Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors, and the dedicated staff of A Studio in the Woods.
Donors who made gifts of $500 and above to the Campaign for the Writer’s Cabin at A Studio in the Woods are recognized via a permanent plaque on the Writer’s Cabin porch.
Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors
Mary Len Costa, Chair; Lynne Burkart, Treasurer; Benjamin Morris, Secretary; Katrina Andry, Joe M. Carmichael, Luann Dozier, Mignon Faget, Alicia Franck, Tina Freeman, Robert Hopkins, Scott Hutcheson, John Kleinschmidt, Baishali Mallik, Alexandra Mora, Libra LaGrone Pealer, Ylva Rouse, Jackie Sullivan, and Dawn Wesson.

Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy Book Release
2020-08-06 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | https://tulane.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctcO-spjIsGNfbbNo7WsTmPzBaZ6HpmmcS
Garden District Book Shop, A Studio in the Woods, and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University present a virtual event, Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy, author Edward Ball in conversation with Dr. Lydia Pelot-Hobbs
Thursday, August 6, 2020
6pm CST, via Zoom
Registration link: https://tulane.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJctcO-spjIsGNfbbNo7WsTmPzBaZ6HpmmcS
Please join us for the release of Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy, with National Book Award-winner Edward Ball and geographer Dr. Lydia Pelot-Hobbs. Life of a Klansman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 8/4/20), Ball’s sixth book of non-fiction, tells the story of a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in New Orleans who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. A descendant of the Klansman, Ball paints a portrait of his family’s anti-Black militant that is part history, part memoir rich in personal detail and critical reflection. Ball and Pelot-Hobbs will discuss this story and its significance to our current national reckoning with racism. The discussion will be followed by a q&a with attendees.
Edward Ball’s books include The Inventor and the Tycoon, about the birth of moving pictures in California, and Slaves in the Family, an account of his family’s history as slaveholders in South Carolina, which received the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He has taught at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. He is also the recipient of a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with New York University’s Prison Education Program and will be joining the faculty of the Geography department and African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky this fall. Her research and writing has been widely published in academic and public venues and focuses on questions of the carceral state, racial capitalism, and freedom struggles in Louisiana. She has also been active in anti-racist movements in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.
In 2017-2018, Edward Ball was the inaugural Gulf South Writer in the Woods while researching and writing Life of a Klansman. The Gulf South Writer in the Woods program, a partnership between A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, is designed to support the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region. The 2019-2020 Gulf South Writer in the Woods is novelist Ladee Hubbard.
Garden District Book Shop is an independent bookstore that has been serving the local community for the past 40 years
Order Edward’s new book and/or CD-audio of Life of a Klansman here: https://www.gardendistrictbookshop.com/search/site/life%20of%20a%20klansman
Access select writing by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs here: https://nyu.academia.edu/LydiaPelotHobbs

We're Hiring - Development Manager
2020-10-05 | LA
A Studio in the Woods is seeking a part-time Development Manager to spearhead the organization’s fundraising efforts. A successful candidate will possess the ability to build and execute a comprehensive fundraising plan for the organization while working closely and collaboratively with the organization’s staff, the Tulane University development office, and the Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors to meet the Studio’s development goals. Friends of A Studio in the Woods’ operating budget is $300,000 with approximately 88% in contributed revenue from individuals, corporations, and government and foundation grants, and 12% in earned revenue from special events and fees.
ABOUT A STUDIO IN THE WOODS
A Studio in the Woods, a program of the ByWater Institute at Tulane University, is committed to fostering creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in a protected forest on the Mississippi River. Since its founding, the Studio has become one of the leading artistic and academic residency programs in the Gulf South region.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Design and implement a fundraising program which includes strategies for two annual special events, donor stewardship, and individual, corporate and foundation giving.
Cultivate a portfolio of current and prospective donors.
Direct the annual fund campaigns, which include donor solicitations and GiveNOLA Day strategies.
Oversee the grants management process, which includes prospect research, proposal writing, pipeline maintenance, and reporting requirements.
Oversee the creation of publications and other collateral which support fundraising activities, such as annual reports.
Manage the fundraising database (Little Green Light) and gift tracking functions.
Generate acknowledgement letters and tax receipts.
Provide support to the Managing Director and members of the Friends of A Studio in the Woods Board of Directors as they carry out essential fundraising activities.
Attend programmatic events to network with donors and support staff.

QUALIFICATIONS

Interest in and commitment to the mission of A Studio in the Woods.
Bachelor’s degree.
Two to three years of development experience or equivalent educational or nonprofit experience.
Ability to work collaboratively with a diverse board, staff, and community of stakeholders.
Excellent planning, organizational, and time management skills, as well as strong attention to detail.
Familiarity with or ability to adapt to new software quickly, specifically Little Green Light and Quickbooks Online
Flexibility and willingness to take on responsibilities outside of immediate development activities.
Commitment to equity and social justice.
Comfortable working in a natural environment.
Resident of the Greater New Orleans metro area.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
A Studio in the Woods thrives on a collaborative shared leadership model. This position will be a key part of an administrative team of four. Schedule is flexible with the possibility for remote work. Currently staff is working primarily remotely.
COMPENSATION
This is part-time contract employment for one year with the intention to grow into a full-time salaried position. $25,000 – $30,000 annual contract, dependent on experience.
TO APPLY
Letter of interest, resume, and two writing samples or fundraising assets you spearheaded (preferably a membership, individual giving campaign letter, or sponsorship appeal; and an excerpt from a grant narrative; feel free to redact as needed) should be sent to Managing Director Ama Rogan at arogan@tulane.edu. Priority will be given to applications received by October 5, 2020.
We strongly encourage applications from people of color and LGBTQ+ candidates.

FORESTival 2020
2020-11-14 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | LA
For last minute questions please contact us at 504-407-4410.
This year our annual celebration of art and nature will bring the magic of the bottomland hardwood forest into the city and your home. Choose your own adventure from an array of offerings and socially-distanced experiences that capture the essence of FORESTival while supporting the vital work of A Studio in the Woods.
BUILD YOUR FORESTival BY CLICKING HERE
Scroll down for more details on each item.

BUILD YOUR FORESTival BY CLICKING HERE

Choose one or choose them all!
All FORESTival “guests” will receive link to video song in the woods with ChE + kei slaughter and mailed FORESTival sticker.
Enter a drawing for two tickets to Floating Adaptations in Search of Invisible Rivers presented by Monique Verdin, Nick Slie, and Jeff Becker featuring outdoor performances, food, and portions of the Return to Yakni Chitto exhibition. December 12, 2020 at 2pm (Date subject to change pending weather). Secret location to be revealed, but must have car and ability to travel within 30 miles of Orleans Parish. Thanks to collaborators: Another Gulf is Possible, Mondo Bizarro, Neighborhood Story Project. Limited to 75 attendees. Drawing will happen live on our social media on November 14, 2020. $15
Letterpress broadside of a poem written in Ishakkoy by Jeffery Darensbourg during his Adaptations Residency. Will be mailed to you by November 20, 2020. $30
Native bird calendar designed by Pippin Frisbie-Calder. Will be mailed to you by November 20, 2020. $40
Sculpt-your-own clay forest materials will be hand delivered prior to November 14th to be enjoyed on the day of FORESTival, plan a collaborative activity with your neighborhood friends, or share your creations to our online community clay forest (Greater New Orleans only). $50
Urban forest scavenger hunt will be held on November 14th, 10am – 2pm, East Bank of New Orleans, accessible by bike or car (Date subject to change pending weather). Include up to 6 people on your quaran-team. Snacks and prizes included. $50
Have questions about being a Super Sponsor to send science students on the scavenger hunt? Contact us at info@astudiointhewoods.org.
Tickets to Floating Adaptations in Search of Invisible Rivers presented by Monique Verdin, Nick Slie, and Jeff Becker featuring outdoor performances, food, and portions of the Return to Yakni Chitto exhibition. December 12, 2020 at 2pm (Date subject to change pending weather). Secret location to be revealed, but must have car and ability to travel within 30 miles of Orleans Parish. Thanks to collaborators: Another Gulf is Possible, Mondo Bizarro, Neighborhood Story Project. Limited to 75 attendees. One ticket $75, two tickets $150, four tickets $250.
Private Art Party – New Addition! Jackie Ehle Inglefield will come to your house to lead a socially distanced art activity for two hours inclusive of setup and breakdown. Jackie will bring all the necessary supplies for up to five kids to craft their own menagerie from recycled materials. Includes a copy of Amelia Bedelia & Friends: Amelia Bedelia & Friends Paint the Town which features a character inspired by Jackie herself! Must be scheduled before 12/30/21 and subject to mutual availability. $250
Private Woods Walk with Studio Environmental Curator Dave Baker at the forest of your choosing in the Greater New Orleans area and a wine (or NA beverage of your choice) and cheese picnic. Examples include Woodlands Conservancy, Barataria Preserve, or your own property! Schedule based on availability. Limit 6 attendees. $500
Artist Studio Tour with Manon Bellet or Pippin Frisbie-Calder and a limited edition artwork by the artist. Schedule based on availability. Limit 2 attendees. $1000
Participants are required to wear masks and maintain social distance during all events.

BUILD YOUR FORESTival BY CLICKING HERE

Special thanks to all of the former residents supporting our work through their contributions to this year’s FORESTival, Manon Bellet, Jeffery U. Darensbourg, Pippin Frisbie-Calder, Monique Verdin, Nick Slie, and ChE + kei slaughter.

FORESTival: A Celebration of Art and Nature
2020-11-14 10:00 - 17:00 UTC | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Our 10th annual FORESTival will be held on Saturday, November 14, 2020. Stay tuned for details on art, music and more!

Open Call for Next Gulf South Writer in the Woods
2021-01-08 23:30 UTC | LA
Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region.
Specifically, this year we aim to support BILAPOC Speculative Fiction writers working in prose, poetry and stage/screenwriting. Special consideration will be given to southern voices, under-represented communities, and perspectives not often heard. Eligible writers must live in the Gulf South, be from/have heritage in the Gulf South, and/or write about the Gulf South. The awardee will receive a stipend of $5,000, a 6-week residency at A Studio in the Woods over 18 months, Tulane University library access, and staff support from the presenting partners.
DATES The term of the Gulf South Writer in the Woods will be Winter 2021 through Summer 2022. The six weeks of residency at A Studio in the Woods can be scheduled in up to three sessions between July 2021-June 2022.
REQUIREMENTS

Exploration and early development of concept for a significant manuscript
Creative and radical thinking
Participation in six week residency
Giving a public lecture
Design and implement a community engagement event
Participating in a public dinner

DEADLINE Proposals are due January 8th and residency will be awarded by February 26, 2021.
ELIGIBILITY Creative writers working in Speculative Fiction in the format of prose, poetry, or stage/screenwriting will be considered. This year we aim to support BILAPOC writers working in prose, poetry and stage/screenwriting who live in the Gulf South, are from/have heritage in the Gulf South, and/or write about the Gulf South. There are no degree requirements. If the applicant is a student, they must be an active and advanced graduate student—in their second year of coursework and beyond. Note that this is an opportunity for a single writer, not a collaborative team or ensemble. Foreign language projects are welcome, however application and primary work sample must be in English.
SPECULATIVE FICTION Speculative Fiction is a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with certain elements that do not exist in terms of the recorded history and observed phenomena of the current universe, covering various themes in the context of the supernatural, futuristic, and many other imaginative topics.[1] Under this umbrella category, the genres include, but are not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopian and dystopian fiction, and supernatural fiction, as well as combinations thereof (e.g. science fantasy).[2]
SELECTION PROCESS Every two years, a new Gulf South Writer in the Woods is selected through a jury process. The position will be awarded on the merit of the proposal, the stage of the manuscript, and its potential to result in new and refreshed understandings about this region. We will also consider the impact of the position on the writer’s career trajectory. The next selection process will take place in Winter 2023.
SUPPORT The awardee will receive a stipend of $5,000, a 6-week residency at A Studio in the Woods over 18 months, Tulane University library access, and staff support from the presenting partners. We are looking to support projects in the exploratory phase and will endeavor to connect the writer with faculty and experts in relevant fields. We will provide full room and board including food, utilities for living and studio space to selected resident. Resident is expected to cover personal living expenses, additional materials and supplies, and any other expenses relating to the cost of producing work incurred while in the program. Travel and shipping expenses to and from A Studio in the Woods for the residency are also the responsibility of the artist. To better understand project impact, each artist will work with an external evaluator.
Click HERE to submit proposal online.
GUIDELINES
Gulf South Writer in the Woods proposals should include the following:

500-word project summary.
Project narrative of no more than five double-spaced pages.

Please address the following:

Project description.
Project status and production/publication timeline.
What resources can ASITW/NOCGS provide at this stage of writing?
Proposed community engagement that fosters new imaginings.
What is your relationship to any community/ies that your work will depict?
Why is being in the Gulf South fertile for this stage of the project?
Foreign language projects welcome, however application and primary work sample must be in English.

Attachments:

5000 words or less, double-spaced excerpt of recent (past three years) creative work.
Up-to-date CV.
Two letters of recommendation sent directly by references to gulfsouth@tulane.edu
Not required, but permitted as supplemental materials: letters of interest from publishers, previous work.

Click HERE to submit proposal online.
For questions or more information, please contact Cammie Hill-Prewitt at info@astudiointhewoods.org
Image: Esther Solondz, Bee Palace, 2017

Gulf South Writer in the Woods Ladee Hubbard In Conversation with Dr. Jessica B. Harris
2021-01-26 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | LA
Join Gulf South Writer in the Woods Ladee Hubbard and culinary historian Jessica Harris for a discussion of Hubbard’s new novel, The Rib King (HarperCollins 1/19/21) moderated by Denise Frasier, Assistant Director, New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 6pm CT, register here.
Hubbard works to deconstruct painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in the early twentieth century, that centers around the Black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family. Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, The Rib King is an unsparing examination of America’s fascination with Black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful, disturbing, and timely novel, Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are, and most importantly, who and what they are not.
Ladee Hubbard served as the 2019-2020 Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South that supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region.
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Ladee Hubbard is the author of The Talented Ribkins which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Times Literary Supplement, Arkansas International, Copper Nickel and Callaloo among other venues. She is a recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and has also received fellowships from Art Omi, the Sacatar Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among other places. Born in Massachusetts and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, she currently lives in New Orleans with her husband and three children.
Jessica B. Harris is an award-winning food historian and one of the world’s leading experts on African Diaspora cooking. She is the author of the memoir, My Soul Looks Back (Simon & Schuster, 2017) about her youth in Harlem in the Seventies, where her social circle included James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and other leading black intellectuals and artists of the time. She is the author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora as well, including Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking, Sky Juice and Flying Fish Traditional Caribbean Cooking, The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking, The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent, and Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim. Harris also conceptualized and organized The Black Family Reunion Cookbook. Her book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history.
Photo Credits: Ladee Hubbard by Zack Smith, Dr. Jessica Harris by Rog Walker/ Paper Monday

Floating Adaptations In Search of Invisible Rivers
2021-03-21 13:15 - 15:30 UTC | Super Secret Location TBA
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Floating Adaptations In Search of Invisible Rivers is an installation conceived by Jeff Becker, Nick Slie and Monique Verdin that features visual art, live performance and food. In this one time event, the artists are physically modeling ideas about how we can learn to live with fluctuation, to live with uncertainty, to live in symbiosis with our increasingly watery world. The event will also feature live music by Denise Frazier.
March 21, 2021 with showings beginning at 1:15pm, 2pm and 2:45pm. Secret location to be revealed, but must have car and ability to travel within 10 miles of Orleans Parish. Thanks to collaborators: Another Gulf is Possible, Mondo Bizarro, Delta Collective, and Neighborhood Story Project.
Venue is outdoors with plenty of room to spread out. Each showing is limited to 25 attendees. All attendees are required to wear masks and maintain social distance.
Tickets are $75 or you can donate $15 to be entered into a drawing to win two tickets. All proceeds from this performance will support the programming of A Studio in the Woods.
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Reckoning with the History of Whiteness in New Orleans: A conversation with author Edward Ball and historian Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley
2021-03-31 18:00 - 19:15 (America/Chicago) | LA
REGISTER HERE
The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and A Studio in the Woods present a virtual discussion with National Book Award winner and 2016-18 Gulf South Writer in the Woods Edward Ball and Tulane historian Dr. Laura Rosanne Adderley about Ball’s book, Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy, which addresses painful truths of America’s racist past and present, engages with the vibrant national discussion of anti-racism, and serves as an anti-racist history of white supremacy in Louisiana. The program includes opening remarks by Dr. Anneliese Singh, Tulane University Associate Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development and Chief Diversity Officer.
Presented by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, housed within the Tulane School of Liberal Arts, and A Studio in the Woods, a program of the Tulane ByWater Institute, with co-sponsors Amistad Research Center and Garden District Book Shop.
Event Objectives

Empower contemporary anti-racist work by illuminating the often purposefully obscured history of white supremacy in order to better understand its patterns, insidious power, and crippling effects.
Educate our community about New Orleans’ role in the global construction of theories of race and its intertwined histories of white supremacist and racist mob violence, publications, and governance, and of anti-racist, Black-led organizing, publications, and governance.
Respond to the call to expose Tulane’s white supremacist history by educating ourselves about Tulane’s history and relationship to the global construction of race theory, as host of lectures by “race philosophers” instrumental in codifying and popularizing constructs of race, and to white radical terrorism, as meeting hall for local white vigilante terrorists who participated in mob violence, government insurrection, and massacre, which is detailed in this book.
Explore how 19th century organized white violence relates to white nationalism and violence today and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

REGISTER HERE

FAQ:
Due to the volume of questions we’ve received related to the original iteration of this event, we have developed a FAQ for those interested in learning more.
What is GSWW?
Gulf South Writer in the Woods (GSWW), a program of A Studio in the Woods (ASITW) and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS), supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region. The program was launched in 2016, and a new GSWW is selected every two years. The Gulf South Writer in the Woods now offers an 18-month fellowship with a $5,000 stipend and six-week residency at A Studio in the Woods and is responsible for participating in a public Residency Dinner, giving a lecture on Tulane’s campus, and leading a community-engaged event during their term. To learn more about our other Gulf South Writer in the Woods recipients, please visit this page.
Who is Edward Ball?
Edward Ball is an American author of six books of history and biography. He has been working to uncover and interrogate his family’s history as slaveholders and white supremacists since the 1990s. His first book, Slaves in the Family, an account of his family’s history as slaveholders in South Carolina, received the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1998. In six books of narrative nonfiction, Edward has told stories about film history, slavery, gender assignment, genetics, Black family history, and white supremacy. Edward has taught at Yale University and the State University of New York. He has been awarded fellowships by the Radcliffe Institute, at Harvard, and the New York Public Library, and is the recipient of a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. To view a sampling of previous talks with Ball, please visit: https://www.edwardball.com/talks.
Is Edward Ball a klansman?
No. Edward Ball is not a klansman, nor was he ever a klansman or a white nationalist. His maternal great great grandfather Constant Polycarp Lecorgne participated in antebellum, Confederate, and Reconstruction-era militarized and vigilante racial terrorism. Several of his ancestors, on his maternal and paternal sides, enslaved people of African descent. His book explores the violence of these ancestors through a strongly critical lens.
Why was Edward Ball selected as the inaugural Gulf South Writer in the Woods?
ASITW and NOCGS selected Edward Ball because of the wide impact of his earlier book Slaves in the Family and our understanding that the histories of the global construction of race theory, 19th century white terrorism in New Orleans, and the 19th century Black civil rights movement in New Orleans are all still widely underknown. The selection committee, made up of representatives from ASITW and NOCGS, felt that Ball’s research and storytelling would help make these important, intertwined, and timely narratives accessible to wide audiences.
During his tenure as the pilot Gulf South Writer in the Woods, ASITW and NOCGS hosted Edward Ball in several lectures on the impacts of slavery and a workshop he co-designed and led with Greg Osborn, New Orleans Public Library Archivist, called Inheriting Whiteness: A Workshop About Slavery, Race Mixing, and White Ancestors in Family History.
What is Life of a Klansman: A Family History of White Supremacy about?
Life of a Klansman is an anti-racist microhistory focused on Ball’s great great grandfather, Polycarp Constant Lecourgne. Microhistory is a method that studies dynamics amongst individuals and small groups to shed light on larger social movements and issues. Through his focus on one ancestor, Ball tells the story of white supremacy in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the country at large. In the book, Ball tracks the construction of race theory, campaigns of white terrorism, and the history of Black-led resistance to that violence. Along the way, Ball reckons with his personal relationship to this history—addressing how recent this past is and how it lives in his body, imagination, and reality today. In effect, within this personal strand, he stands in for the millions of white people in the United States who are contemporary descendents of the Klu Klux Klan and for all people who benefit from white privilege. He interviews multiple descendants of the 19th century Black-led civil rights movement to better understand the lasting impacts of klan violence today. Throughout the book, Ball reckons personally with these intertwined histories and their implications for our nation today.
Is Tulane University part of this story?
Tulane University appears throughout Life of a Klansman. In the 1850s, Tulane—then named the University of Louisiana’s School of Medicine—was the premiere white academic setting in New Orleans and home to faculty and national-circuit lecturers who were instrumental in creating and popularizing cruel, pseudo-scientific codifications of race and false representations of human biology that fueled white supremacy, violence, and terrorism. (For further detail, see Dr. Josiah Nott, Tulane professor of anatomy and author of Indigenous Races of the Earth, pp. 97-101, and Dr. Samuel Cartwright, “race philosopher” circuit lecturer, pp. 107-108.) During Reconstruction, on Commons Street, Tulane—while still named the University of Louisiana—was the meeting hall for one of the councils of the white vigilante terrorist group Knights of the White Camellia. Today, there is a growing call for our institution to expose its white supremacist history, and we intend for this event to add to the collective working knowledge of this history.
Why was this book discussion rescheduled?
The Life of a Klansman book discussion was originally scheduled for August 2020 and had more than 240 registrants. The event was timed to coincide with the national release of the book and organized in accordance with the intentions outlined in the Event Objectives section above. However, these intentions were not adequately publicized and many Tulane community members raised concerns related to the event, including but not limited to its timing, framing, publicity, and potentially harmful impact. We decided that rescheduling the event would give us time both to frame it in better accordance with our intended goals and to organize the event more rigorously to achieve those goals. In our planning for the rescheduled event, we have tried to address concerns brought up by our community. From multiple correspondences and meetings, we understand that our choice to host the event remains controversial and that our campus community holds a wide spectrum of opinions as to whether it is healing or harmful to host critical discussions about the histories of and ongoing presence of white supremacy in our lives, institution, and the world writ large.
Why should a descendent of a KKK member be leading a conversation about whiteness and white violence and domestic terrorism right now?
As an academic institution, we believe the conversation about the history of white supremacy in our institution, city, and nation should be ongoing. The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 makes clear the need for us to understand from where—psychologically and logistically— white radical terrorism erupts and is sustained and maintained. The Civil War and Reconstruction-era insurrection and sedition detailed in Ball’s book serves as an historical precedent to what unfolded this year and illuminates what made conditions ripe for this sort of terrorism. By Ball’s estimate, 50% of white people in this country have ancestors who belonged to white supremacist groups at some point in its history, and Ball provides a powerful example for how this large portion of the population can begin to face and reckon with their own families’ participation in anti-Black violence. This recognition and self-knowledge is an anti-racist act and a vital step towards undoing systems of oppression.
Is Edward Ball profiting off of his family’s history of racism?
Edward Ball is the author of two books that chronicle the histories and living legacies of racism and racialized violence in his family. These first-person projects and their distribution draw out questions about whether it is ethical for white scholars and artists to profit, financially or in reputation, from anti-racist work. What does it mean for white people to earn compensation or stature for their time, skillsets, and energy attempting antiracist work? This is a complex question that has been and will continue to be addressed by anti-racist organizers. As acknowledged above, our groups chose to support Edward Ball in the creation of this manuscript.
What is the value of this book?
These two responses to the book resonated for our teams:
“In this compelling narrative of the life of a klansman, Edward Ball reckons with the history of whiteness that has shaped the U.S. and which is his personal inheritance. Ball confronts the violence and hatred at the foundation of white authority and privilege by recounting his great-great-grandfather’s worldview and acts of brutality. It is easy to recoil from the ugliness documented in these pages; much more difficult is the task of acknowledging that murder and terror are the bedrock of the nation. Life of A Klansman is a must-read, now more than ever.” —Saidiya Hartman, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
“Ball’s direct but nimble prose cuts the contours of Constant Lecorgne’s life and grapples simultaneously with the coherent outline and structure that whiteness imposes . . . Though he claims Life of a Klansman is an investigation of his matrilineal ancestor, Ball has engineered another kind of coup: a public reckoning with white supremacy . . . Ball’s book is about the postbellum US and the US in 2020; it’s looking both directions at once.” —Walton Muyumba, The Boston Globe
How can I directly address questions and concerns to the organizers of this event?
Please email info@astudiointhewoods.org (ASITW team) and gulfsouth@tulane.edu (NOCGS team) with questions and concerns regarding this event.
How can I learn more about the presenting organizations?
Please begin by visiting our websites and reach out if you would like to connect with our teams.
A Studio in the Woods www.astudiointhewoods.org
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South www.liberalarts.tulane.edu/programs/nocgs
Amistad Research Center www.amistadresearchcenter.org
Garden District Book Shop www.gardendistrictbookshop.com
Image of Dr. Adderley by Rohan Preston

Virtual Opening of "Syndemic: COVID-19 and Health Disparities" Exhibition
2021-04-08 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Starting in January 2021 and for the entire Spring 2021 semester, Dr. Sacoby Wilson, (Associate Professor, Applied Environmental Health and the UMD Prevention Research Center at the University of Maryland, College Park) has been working remotely with Dillard faculty members John Barnes (Associate Professor of Visual Arts) and Keith Morris (Associate Professor of Film), and four Dillard independent study students to create film and art works about COVID-19 and health disparities in our region.
Inspiring Health Justice: A Collaborative Art-Science Scholar-in-Residence Program is a new collaboration between Dillard University’s Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center and A Studio in the Woods. The aim of this program is to bring the arts and public health together to address our region’s longstanding health disparities through creative, cross-disciplinary mentorship to focus the energy and passion of Dillard art students towards fostering health equity. On April 8th at 5:00 p.m. Central, Dillard hosts a virtual art opening, showcasing the work of our four Inspiring Health Justice Dillard University students-in-residence: Aaliyah Arnold (visual art), Hildevert Promesse Lafeuille (film), Jermaine Robinson (visual art), and Juwan Saint Charles (film).

Syndemic: Racism, Environment, and COVID-19
2021-04-14 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Please join us for a conversation about health disparities and COVID-19 between Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park, and Dr. Thomas LaVeist, Dean of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. This event in the ByWater Institute speaker series, Future Cities//Future Coasts, will explore how health disparities are deeply intertwined with issues of environmental justice that face our region and cities around the world.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Dillard University Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHHDRC) and A Studio in the Woods (ASITW). Dr. Wilson is a virtual scholar-in-residence at Dillard and ASITW this semester where he is working with Dillard Faculty Members, John Barnes (Associate Professor of Visual Arts) and Keith Morris (Associate Professor of Film), and students to create artwork inspired by these topics. The students will present and discuss their work after the lecture and Q&A.
Dr. Wilson is an environmental health scientist with over 15 years of experience in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-engaged research including crowd science and community-based participatory research (CBPR), water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency, and sustainability. He works primarily in partnership with community-based organizations to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translate research to action. Dr. Wilson is Director of the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH) laboratory, which is focused on providing technical assistance and research support to communities fighting against environmental injustice and environmental health disparities in the Washington DC Metropolitan region and across the nation. He is a member of the USEPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), member of the National Academy of Science’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST), board member of the Citizen Science Association, Editor in Chief of Environmental Justice, and has won numerous awards for his work.
REGISTER HERE

Deadline for Tulane Scholarly Retreat Applications
2021-04-15 | LA
The ByWater Institute and A Studio in the Woods seek to enhance and support the scholarship, creativity and cross-disciplinary activity of Tulane faculty and trainees by awarding one-week residencies during Academic Year F2021-S2022. These residencies will provide a retreat for faculty and trainees across disciplines to work on a discrete project or scholarly pursuit that can be new or complementary to ongoing work. Applications can be made independently, though collaborative cross-discipline team applications are also eligible. This opportunity may be considered similar to an artist residency, writing fellowship or grant-in-aid. Past honorees have used the retreat to analyze data, write an article, prepare for a conference or begin a new project.
Please click HERE for more information and to apply.
Open to Tulane University faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students (at the thesis or dissertation stage) with awards expected in each category. Open to any discipline or area of research though preference will be given to environmental, collaborative, and/or cross-disciplinary scholarship. Scholars of color are encouraged to apply. Deadline April 15, 2021. Please contact info@astudiointhewoods.org with questions or for more information.

Uncommon Exchanges: Indigo
2021-04-21 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Newcomb Art Museum in partnership with A Studio in the Woods, The ByWater Institute at Tulane University, and New Orleans Center for the Gulf South presents Uncommon Exchanges: Indigo, a unique dialogue between unlikely pairings of Tulane and Gulf South experts. Rising Resident LaChaun Moore and anthropologist Dr. Sabia McCoy-Torres will use the museum’s current exhibition, Transcommunality by Laura Anderson Barbata, as a catalyst for conversation to remedy missing narratives and provide paths forward –through creative means – to a more equitable and just future. Moderated by Adaptations Resident Jeffery Darensbourg, the conversation will be followed by a Q&A with panelists and exhibiting artist, Laura Anderson Barbata. Wednesday, April 21 at 6pm.
REGISTER HERE
Image: Laura Anderson Barbata, “Intervention: Indigo”

Support A Studio in the Woods on GiveNOLA Day!
2021-05-04 | LA
This GiveNOLA Day, we are celebrating a very special milestone – 20 years of supporting artists. Over the past two decades, we have been building a network of artists working to imagine unique and better solutions to combat the effects of the climate crisis in our community. These are the voices and ideas that carry us forward and keep our hope alive through extraordinary change. A 20th anniversary gift to A Studio in the Woods this GiveNOLA will help support the next 20 years of innovative thinkers – those who can envision a world beyond our current limitations and expand the frame of what is possible. To mark this momentous occasion, we will select one lucky donor over the $50 level to receive a care package from our collection of artists’ products from the last two decades, details below. Schedule your gift HERE or mark your calendar for May 4th and join in on this annual day of community support in real time.
Included in our care package:

Byron Asher’s Skrontch Music, composed during his 2017 Flint & Steel Residency.
Andy Horowitz’s Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, which he worked on during his 2015 Tulane Scholarly Retreat.
Benjamin Morris’ Ecotone, featuring poems written for specific sites on the land during his 2011 Ebb & Flow Residency.
Aurora Levins Morales’ SILT, which she worked on during her 2018 Adaptations Residency.
Sarah Quintana’s Miss River and The Delta Demitasse, featuring songs composed during her 2012 Ebb & Flow Residency.
Monique Verdin’s Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations, a compilation of her photographs and essays featuring conversations with fellow ASITW alumni Raymond “Moose” Jackson, Kathy Randels, and Nick Slie.
Dr. Michael White’s Dancing in the Sky, composed during his 2003 Open Call Residency.
Our own Overstory: A Field Guide to A Studio in the Woods, which chronicles the history of A Studio in the Woods and the flora and fauna of the bottomland hardwood forest.

DONATE NOW

Deadline for Relief Residency Applications
2021-05-05 | LA
Relief Residencies provide one-to-two week funded residencies for local, BIPOC artists and culture bearers who have not participated in an artist residency before. The mission of A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, is to foster creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in our protected forest on the Mississippi River. There have been no more acute challenges in recent memory than those presented by Covid-19. In line with our mission, we have crafted Relief Residencies to support those in our community most greatly impacted by the pandemic and the existing racial disparities it has highlighted. In 2020 we piloted this program through a nomination process and are now adding an open call to reach wider audiences. Applications due May 5, 2021.
DETAILS AND APPLICATION HERE

Artists of the Big River Continuum: Bloom Like a Wildflower in a Hurricane and Flow Like a River
2021-06-03 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Weisman Art Museum
Join our partners at Weisman Art Museum for a special online event with Big River Continuum artists Monique Verdin and Karen Goulet on Thursday, June 3, at 7:00 p.m. Monique and Karen will be joined by Curator Rebecca Dallinger to discuss The Big River Continuum, an artist exchange residency hosted by us and our colleagues at the University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Station. This collaborative project cultivates creative exchanges, connecting communities of the Mississippi River from the headwaters to the delta.
MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE

Sense of Place & Loss: Artists, Land Loss & Climate Change
2021-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Louisiana Folklife Program
Managing Director Ama Rogan will join upcoming Special Collaborations Resident Brandon Ballengée and Sam Oliver, Director of Acadiana Center for the Arts, for a conversation about artists, land loss, and climate change moderated by Adaptations Resident Jeffery Darensbourg on June 22 at 3pm. Hosted by the Louisiana Folklife Program, the group will discuss the role of artists and arts organizations in addressing our state’s pressing environmental challenges.
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE

An (imaginary) inventory of (palimpsest) plants, gardens and other related objects in French colonial New Orleans
2021-06-24 - 2021-06-26 | Algiers Point
An (imaginary) inventory of (palimpsest) plants, gardens and other related objects in French colonial New Orleans is a participatory performance that takes the form of a small, printed inventory. The public is invited to use the inventory as a guide for creating personal responses to everyday, unnoticed remnants of French colonial history.
Participants begin by collecting the inventory in Algiers Point along the levee, and then use it as a guide for crossing the Mississippi River on the Algiers ferry and visiting several sites in the French Quarter. Each participant designs their own “performance” path by deciding which sites to visit, instructions to follow or observations to document.
Developed by Scholarly Retreat Resident Ross Louis, professor in Art and Performance Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, the project is built around archival documents and research at historical sites and markers. It is part of an ongoing performance series that disrupts the archival record of the French trans-Atlantic slave trade through references to colonial gardens and plant voyages.
An earlier performance, Erratum, was staged in Brest, France in 2019 and was supported by a Fulbright fellowship at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. It took the form of a bookmark placed in libraries throughout Brest and printed with performance instructions for a visit to the Jardin des explorateurs.
The Inventory project is supported by a writing residence at A Studio in the Woods and funded by Xavier University of Louisiana and the Performance Studies Laboratory. The inventory was designed and risograph printed by Erik Kieswetter of constance, with the assistance of Katya Vaz.
The performance is limited to fifty participants and begins at the Algiers Point levee at the intersection of Bouny and Delaronde Streets. Times are available in the morning (June 24-26) and evening (June 24-25). To reserve a time to participate, contact Ross Louis (rosslouis@gmail.com).

Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man
2021-10-21 - 2021-10-24 | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
A Clear Creek Creative eco-cultural theater experience in 5 acts presented in partnership with Mondo Bizarro Productions and A Studio in the Woods to benefit Hurricane Ida Relief through RISE St. James and The United Houma Nation’s Yakani Ekelanna Garden.
Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man is an environmental, cultural and spiritual parable derived from living in the foothills of Appalachia, one man among many seeking to make sense of the time, place and condition in which we live. In the story, Ezell’s choices, traumas, ancestors and more intersect with themes of domination and resilience as he seeks to take advantage of an anticipated fracking boom and the opportunity to reconnect with the people and land of his raising.
The performance of Ezell is an immersive experience in 5 acts including The Welcome, Journey, Story, Reflection & Celebration. The full Ezell experience is designed to engage our collective desire for connection and belonging, to honor nature and bind us intimately within its embrace, to invoke the resilience, love and lessons of our ancestors and generations yet to come.
Given the unprecedented impacts of Hurricane Ida on so many communities in Southeast Louisiana, we are using the moment of Ezell’s presentation at A Studio in the Woods to raise awareness and money for organizations doing important relief work on the ground. 100% of proceeds will be donated to hurricane relief. Sponsorships by Alternate ROOTS and several generous individuals as well as the support of our Ezell funding partners are allowing us to offer the Ezell experience in New Orleans on a donation-basis.
TICKETS
Purchase tickets below by showing. All performances will take place at A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans, LA 70131.
Thursday, October 21, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Friday, October 22, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Saturday, October 23, 10am – 1:30pm
SOLD OUT – Saturday, October 23, 3:30pm – 7pm
SOLD OUT – Sunday, October 24, 3:30pm – 7pm
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge the privilege and complexity of living, working and producing the Ezell experience in Bulbancha. We strive to be good stewards of the lands and to resolve the legacies of oppression and domination that have come before and persist today. We offer the experience of Ezell with a humble, healing spirit and in recognition of all those who have come before and are yet to come in this place and in all the places we visit.
THE EXPERIENCE
Here’s what to expect when you arrive on site.*
Act 1: The Welcome. Orient to the experience and site, connect with your journey guide and enjoy a tasty treat & drink if you’d like.
Act 2. The Journey. Make a contemplative trek with guide & group to the performance site amidst woodland art & music.
Act 3. The Story. Witness Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man performed in a natural and accessible setting.
Act 4. The Reflection. Engage with your guide, the surrounding environment and one another to embody the themes of Ezell as you return from the performance site for the final act.
Act 5. The Celebration. Enjoy live music and a locally-sourced meal inspired by New Orleans cultural traditions intertwined with the story & place of Ezell.
*See notes regarding accessibility below.
BE PREPARED
We recommend:

comfortable closed-toed shoes & socks
long pants & sleeves
bug deterrent
water bottle if you’d like to carry water with you to the performance site
cash if you’d like to contribute for special refreshments
a light (we will finish by dark, though it’s a good idea to have a light available in case you linger after the meal)

You will move through this experience together in a small group. If you are attending with others with whom you’d like to be grouped, please be sure to let us know when you register.
ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to make this outdoor immersive experience available to everyone who would like to join us. Below is some information regarding accessibility.

The Journey portion of the experience will be offered in at least two formats:

An option that may involve walking up and down for a total of .5 miles with mild inclines.
A more physically accessible option that involves moving less than .25 miles along level ground between parking, performance, and return to parking with surfaces that include blacktop, well-packed gravel and about 25 feet of grass to traverse. If you intend to choose this option, please indicate if wheelchair or other vehicle-assisted access may be necessary.

Bathrooms will be accessible within 50 yards of the parking area and welcome / celebration site. Distance to the bathrooms during the performance will be 25 yards.
The Celebration portion of the experience will include a meal with vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options for most menu items. We will do our best to address other allergen information on site as needed.

If you have additional questions or needs, please indicate those as you are registering for your tickets (or contact info@astudiointhewoods.org prior to purchasing your ticket).
COVID-19
In line with Tulane University’s Covid-19 policies, all attendees are required to provide proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours at the entrance to the event. Masks will be required when not eating or drinking. The event will take place outdoors.
BACK STORY
Sharing Ezell in New Orleans is a continuation of the cross-regional dialogue on fossil fuel extraction and climate change which began when Clear Creek Creative presented ArtSpot Productions & Mondo Bizarro’s Loup Garou (2010) and Cry You One (2014) in Kentucky. We have continued to work together each year since, training and skill-sharing and deepening our relationships within each others’ communities. As we engage in this work, we continue to learn from one another and be inspired by the resistance and resilience efforts in each of our communities.
Mondo Bizarro’s Co-Artistic Director, Nick Slie, has been inspired by A Studio in the Woods for over fifteen years and recently completed an Adaptations Residency there in support of a new project called Invisible Rivers. While in residency, Nick was moved by the potential of partnering with Studio to present Ezell and approached the staff who agreed to join Mondo and Clear Creek in presenting this experience. A Studio in the Woods, Clear Creek Creative and Mondo Bizarro have been utilizing the arts as a tool for catalyzing emotional engagement in the essential social and environmental issues of our regions for over twenty years.
Communities in Southeast Louisiana and the Appalachian foothills are both facing existential climate threats which—while they look very different on the surface—share something fundamental. The oil and gas industries have deeply impacted both places for too long, and while they have succeeded in providing some economic stability, they have profoundly influenced our current climate crisis and made land where families have lived for generations no longer liveable. Both of our communities have a lot of learning and strategizing to do based on our discovery that we are facing the same fundamental problem: how to transition from the extractive industry that is destroying our land and sickening our communities but is often the only economic game in town, and what to build in its place.
THE TEAM
The Ezell experience has been created and is manifested in ensemble by:

Written and Performed by Bob Martin
Produced & Guided by Carrie Brunk
Directed by Nick Slie
Designed by Jeff Becker
Music Direction & Sound Design by Cory Shenk
Guide Direction & Performance + Musical & Production Support by Nicole Garneau
Guide & Musical Performance + Culinary Support by Faye Adams-Eaton
Music Performance & Technical Support by Jacob Mudd
Guide & Musical Performance + Design Support by Clarity Hagan
Production Coordination & Musical Support by Hannah Burt

We have the honor to be hosted in Bulbancha by the incredible team at A Studio in the Woods alongside our longstanding artistic family at Mondo Bizarro and Catapult Studios. Heartfelt love and appreciation to all of these amazing people and so many others by extension who have made Ezell possible:

Production Management by Ama Rogan, Cammie Hill-Prewitt, Grace Rennie, Daniel Pruksarnukul & Nick Slie
Production Support by David Baker, Joe Carmichael & Gary Watson for A Studio in the Woods and Bruce France, Joanna Russo & Jeff Becker for Mondo Bizarro
Indigenous Culture Bearer, Music & Guide Performance by Jeffery Darensbourg
Guide Performance by Lisa Shattuck, Kendra Unique & Synamin Vixen
Music Support by Lyle Werner
Culinary Coordination by Nick Slie with culinary artists Rod Eddington | Joie de Vie, Madeleine Kelly, Joan Murray, Nick Slie, Billy Zeller, Brad Zeller and fresh local greens from Covey Rise Farms
Production Assistance by Aaron Richmond-Havel
Design & Documentation Assistance + Photography by Melisa Cardona
Videography by Bruce France
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) Collaboration by Dr. Kate Kokontis & Daniel Pruksarnukul
Printing Donated by Antenna’s Paper Machine
Housing Donated by A Studio in the Woods, Jeff Becker & Lisa Shattuck, Robin & Scott Borne, Madeleine Kelly & Nick Slie, Lisa Mount & MK Wegmann

GRATITUDE
All of the work we do through Clear Creek Creative is made possible by the generosity and collaborative spirit of our communities near and far. Deep appreciation to our funding partners for recognizing the value of this work and investing it. Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man

is made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Carpetbag Theater in partnership with Mondo Bizarro and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). NPN has also provided support through its Storytelling & Documentation Fund made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
is made possible, in part, through a Continuation grant for our partnership with Mondo Bizarro from the Network of Ensemble Theaters’ Travel & Exchange Network (NET/TEN), supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
is funded in part in New Orleans by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana State Arts Agency.
is touring to New Orleans and other communities on the frontlines of the fossil fuel economy with support from the Chorus Foundation in alignment with their commitment to work together with frontline communities for a just transition to a fair and sustainable economy.
has also been supported through an Al Smith Fellowship Award granted to Bob Martin for artistic excellence from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
was seeded and evolved over many years with the support of Alternate ROOTS through the Partners in Action program, an Artistic Assistance grant, fiscal sponsorship and the ongoing learning & support of an amazing network of artists. Special thanks to ROOTS for extending Solidarity Funds to help make this production a benefit for Hurricane Idea relief efforts.
is sponsored in New Orleans by Antenna’s Paper Machine with donated printing of this program.
is supported in Bulbancha with donated advertising by WWNO 89.9, New Orleans Public Radio.
is able to donate the proceeds of all ticket sales in New Orleans to RISE St. James and the United Houma Nation’s Yákani’ Ékelanna’ Garden due to the inspiration and generosity of Linda Martin as well as donations of all sizes and types from many other members of our families and communities.

We are humbled & thrilled by the support we’ve received to bring Ezell to full fruition. We give thanks for living and working in such an abundant place and having countless opportunities to do meaningful & magical work with incredible people.

Artist Salon with Sidiki Conde and MILAGROS
2021-10-27 18:00 - 20:30 UTC | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Registration is required, please RSVP here.
Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 6pm – 8:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Sidiki Conde and MILAGROS. The event will be open-studio style; arrive at any time. A light dinner and refreshments will be provided.
At A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans 70131. Directions here.
Sidiki Conde’s music derives from the traditional rhythms of Guinea. In keeping with the West African griot traditions of his homeland, his lyrics are his own compositions within which he chronicles his life’s journey. He has performed with West Africa’s premier music and dance ensembles, including the prestigious Les Merveilles de Guinea and the Ballet African. His music brought him to America in 1998 and in 2007 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship, Lifetime Honors from the National Endowment for the Arts. Sidiki will use his residency to immerse himself in the culture, nature and music of the region and compose a series of songs about the rising crisis of climate change. Within the New Orleans community, he will host a series of traditional African music and dance workshops with both children and adults.
MILAGROS, consisting of Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre, is a mural and installation collective based in New Orleans, LA. Asteinza and Fillastre met studying Fine Art at Florida State University in 2006. Their public art works pepper the southeastern United States. Community and collaboration is the heart of the MILAGROS ethos. Inspired by their Latinx upbringing, MILAGROS aspires to create enjoyable spaces for intergenerational gathering, where individuals can feel connected through the joint construction of a positive experience. During their residency, MILAGROS will design and build an installation using reclaimed objects found in the Mississippi River presented using the interpretive language of National Parks. Audiences will be guided to view the installation as a local ecosystem made of petroleum products. The project will function both as an aesthetic endeavor and as an appeal to clean and protect one of our country’s most diverse and significant waterways.
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 required for those 12 and up. Masks required when not eating or drinking. Dining will take place primarily outdoors.
Registration is required, please RSVP here.

FORESTival: A Celebration of Art and Nature
2021-11-13 11:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Get your tickets here
FORESTival is back! Join us at A Studio in the Woods on Saturday, November 13, 2021, 11am – 5pm for our 11th annual celebration of art and nature.
We are thrilled to welcome our community back to the Woods after a year and a half apart. Time in nature, time together, and time spent engaging with art and music are what our souls need right now. We are excited to provide that in a spacious, safe and beautiful outdoor setting.

Music!

kei slaughter at 11:30am
The Soul Rebels at 1pm

African Diaspora Music Panel at 3pm – Monique Moss will moderate a not-to-be-missed panel and artistic demonstration with internationally renowned musicians Dr. Michael White of New Orleans; Sidiki Conde of Guinea, Africa; and Titos Sompa of the Republic of Congo, Africa. Audiences will learn about and experience the powerful rhythms and connections of these three unique regions of the world. Bill Summers and Seguenon Kone will join the group for a drum circle at 4:15pm

Art & Activities!

Listen to the Land with ChE at 11am- Led by former Adaptations Resident ChE, an opening circle will create space to Listen to the Land. We will connect to the complex histories of oppression, resistance, and adaptation this land has witnessed. This Afro-Indigenous land acknowledgement and affirmation invites participatory presence through an offering of libation, song, and breath.

Book Reading by Andy Horowitz at 12:30pm – Former Scholarly Retreat Resident Andy Horowitz will read on the levee from his book, Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, which explores how engineers and oil executives, politicians and musicians, and neighbors Black and white built New Orleans, then watched it sink under the weight of their competing ambitions.
Gulf Fish Drawing with Brandon Ballengée 11am – 2pm – Current Special Collaboration Resident Brandon Ballengée will lead a fish drawing workshop. Participants will learn about how environmental disasters have affected gulf fish species while creating art about these fish. Brandon Ballengée is a visual artist, biologist and environmental educator based in Arnaudville.
Indigenous Poetry with Jeffery Darensbourg 12pm – 4pm – Former Adaptations Resident Jeffery U. Darensbourg will lead a found-poetry workshop in Ishakkoy. Jeffery U. Darensbourg is an enrolled member and tribal councilperson of the Atakapa-Ishak Nation of mixed Native and Louisiana Creole ancestry. His work explores the intersections of cultural studies, mixed ethnicity, and Indigeneity.
Crud Buddies with MILAGROS 2pm – 4pm – Recent Rising Residents MILAGROS will bring Crud Buddies made from plastics fished out of the river for folks to find, decorate and adopt as their own. MILAGROS co-founders Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre, along with their ever-changing cast of collaborators, create site-specific works that explore the history of place through striking arrangements of color and mark.
Stream Table Printmaking with Ripple Effect 2pm – 5pm – Ripple Effect, a nonprofit environmental education organization that fosters water literacy, will use stream tables to simulate river modeling and lead participants in making monoprints inspired by Howard Fisk’s 1944 maps of the Mississippi River.
Build a Clay Forest all day – The FORESTival favorite is back! Former Restoration Resident Jane Hill will lead participants in creating a collaborative forest out of clay, sticks, and imagination.
Walks in the Woods at 11:30am, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm.– Learn more about the land – from the trees to the bugs to the fungi to the environmental threats it faces – on Walks in the Woods with Environmental Curator David Baker, Tulane Ecologist Elizabeth MacDougal, and Tulane Entomologists Sam Jameson and Jane de Verges.

More!

Silent auction of one-of-a-kind art objects and experiences. Auction closes at 4pm.
Food by 12 Seasons Catering, Big O’s Original Pops, Chicken’s Kitchen, Dirty Dishes, and Faubourg Farms.
Beer provided by Faubourg Brewing and Zony Mash Beer Project.

Suggested donation is $15 per adult, kids free. Ticket packages with perks and sponsorship opportunities available. All proceeds support the programming of A Studio in the Woods. Located on the west bank in Lower Algiers at 13401 Patterson Road, New Orleans LA, 70131 – about a 25 minute drive from downtown New Orleans. Parking is limited, carpooling is encouraged.
Want to volunteer at FORESTival? Email us at info@astudiointhewoods.org.
No outside food or beverages. Dogs are not able to attend FORESTival unless they are a registered service animal.
Get your tickets here
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours will be required for those 12 and up to enter. Masks encouraged.
FORESTival is supported by Arbors Estates of Orleans, Susan & Ralph Brennan, Tom & Ellen Prewitt, Hancock Whitney Bank, Bayou Tree Service Inc, Carter & Company CPA, Delisha Boyd LLC, Harbor Towing and Fleeting, Rouses Markets, Crescent Crown Distributing, Power System Specialists, Zony Mash Beer Project, and Elite Water. FORESTival is presented in partnership with the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund. This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Artist Salon with Yudith Nieto
2021-11-30 18:30 - 20:00 UTC | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Registration is required, please RSVP here.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021, at 6:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident Yudith Nieto. Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods invite artists to examine the severity of the climate crisis and be agents of change to guide our collective understanding, response, and vision as we shape our shared future. Yudith will give a short presentation and a light dinner and refreshments will be provided.
Yudith Azareth Nieto is a two spirited (queer) Mexican-American environmental justice organizer, language justice worker, and multidisciplinary artist based in the Gulf South. She is a cofounder of BanchaLenguas Language Justice Collective in Bvlbancha (New Orleans,LA) and part of the core leadership within the Another Gulf is Possible Collaborative. She’s worked in solidarity with frontline communities to create, develop and amplify community-led media and initiatives around just recovery stories, language justice, and artbuilds in solidarity with intersectional movements for a decolonized direct action approach.
Yudith plans to create a series of opportunities for communities to come together to have conversations about the ways we are collaborating to build strong longterm networks of solidarity when natural and industrial disasters happen in already overburdened and impacted communities of color. They will endeavor to create tools for emergency preparedness, just recovery, and relief communication. The short term goal is to get folks together to envision what continued long term solidarity looks like amongst us and create a visual installation or short video/narration where we drive the direction of our story and vision.
With this residency Yudith seeks to create a narration of how these ever changing landscapes remind us of the connections we have to ourselves, language, culture, and each other. Through the sharing of stories she seeks to create collages of sound and visual representations of the interconnectedness of our shared experiences due to the changing climate, landscapes, and political difficulties that forced our migrations. She will also produce a zine to go along with this media project to explain a short summary and possibly connect to an ongoing on the ground effort. The center point of this effort will be the survival stories that emerge from our traumas of having to leave our native regions which now fuel the courage to thrive in a new place and create platforms of engagement for our collective liberation.

New Orleans Town Gardeners Walk in the Woods with David Baker
2022-01-15 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
REGISTER HERE
Join us for a fun and informative Walk in the Woods with Studio Botanist David Baker to learn about his work and the land first-hand. The event is free but registration is required. Saturday, January 15 at 10am at A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans, LA 70131. This program is sponsored by the New Orleans Town Gardeners.
Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours required for those 12 and up.

Rising Residency Info Session
2022-02-01 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
VIEW EVENT RECORDING HERE
Join us for an online information session about Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies. Staff will give an overview of the application process and residency experience then field questions from attendees.
Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods invite artists to face the severity of the climate crisis and be agents of change to guide our collective understanding, response, and vision as we shape our shared future. New Orleans and the inhabitants of our region are frequently invoked as some of the most vulnerable to the effects of environmental degradation. While sea levels, temperatures and emotions are rising, our highly manipulated landscape can be seen as a microcosm of the global environment, manifesting both the reckoning and hope which are required in the ways humans interact with shifting urban and natural ecosystems. As the climate crisis permeates the collective understanding of the future, the challenges faced by Southern Louisiana resonate exponentially. We look to artists to ignite our imaginations, illuminate our challenges, and offer new ways to examine the world.
Rising Residencies will provide artists with time, space, scholarship and staff support to foster critical thinking and creation of new works. The call is open to artists of all disciplines who have demonstrated an established dialogue with environmental and culturally related issues and a commitment to seeking and plumbing new depths. Details and application here.
Fill out my LGL Form!

AfroFutures Panel with Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree Evans
2022-02-02 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
REGISTER HERE
New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and A Studio in the Woods are pleased to present AfroFutures; an award-winning panel conceived by Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree S. Evans and composed of African-descended writers living in the Gulf South who are producing exciting work in the AfroFuturist literary genre and other Black speculative arts.
How do we imagine Black Futures? Does AfroFuture represent a time and space where we have transcended, lived with, adapted to, cautioned against this anthropogenic age? The AfroFutures panel, curated by Gulf South Writer in the Woods Desiree Evans, will address the concept of AfroFuturism in literary, socio-political, biological, and environmental contexts and how they all relate to the gulf south region and gulf south African-descended writers. Panelists include Dr. Ladee Hubbard, Maurice Ruffin, Alex Jennings, and Desiree S. Evans, along with moderation from Tulane professor Dr. Z’etoile Imma.
AfroFutures will explore AfroFuturism as more than an artistic movement; but a way of life that sparks the imagination and fires our creative synapses to dream of a more ethical and humane tomorrow.
This event is part of the Gulf South Writer in the Woods (GSWW) series. Gulf South Writer in the Woods, a program of A Studio in the Woods and the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, supports the creative work, scholarship and community engagement of writers examining the Gulf South region.
For more information, please contact Regina Cairns at rcairns@tulane.edu.
REGISTER HERE

Art & Ecology with Rising Resident Andrina Turenne + Nicolas Floc'h
2022-02-07 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Alliance Francaise of New Orleans, 1519 Jackson Ave, New Orleans, LA, 70130
The Villa Albertine and French Consulate in Louisiana are hosting an evening of film, dialogue and music in partnership with the Alliance Française of New Orleans, A Studio in the Woods, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the Tulane University Bywater Institute. Monday, February 7 at 5:30pm at 1519 Jackson Ave. The program includes:

Dialogue on art and environmental resiliency between A Studio in the Woods resident Andrina Turenne and Nicolas Floc’h
Screening of French artist and Villa Albertine resident Nicolas Floc’h’s short film
A performance of a selection of songs by Andrina Turenne

More information and registration here.
Andrina Turenne is a bilingual singer, songwriter, and musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She grew up along the banks of the Red River in the historic Francophone-Métis settlement of Saint-Boniface, and is a proud member of the Métis Nation. She has worked in music for over two decades, from collaborating in groups such as JUNO Award-winning Chic Gamine to a new solo career she has been carving out since 2018. She has contributed vocals to over 30 professionally-released albums and has recorded seven full-length albums. She has played festivals of all sizes and has toured extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa. She draws inspiration from her own life experiences and her travels, as well as the rich history and raw beauty of the land she grew from.
Instagram: @drunita / Twitter: @andrinaturenne / Facebook: @andrinaturennemusic
Nicolas Floc’h is a multidisciplinary artist working with installation, photography, sculpture, and performance to question our changing times. He seeks to create socially engaged work that can create awareness around social, environmental, and economic issues. His work is inspired by what he learned from nature, travels, encounters, and scientific research. His work is often collaborative and open to community participation. Nicolas Floc’h has exhibited internationally and his solo/collective shows include FRAC Bretagne, FRAC PACA, SMAK (Ghent, Belgium), Centre Pompidou (Paris), MAC/VAL (Vitry-sur-Seine, France), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Contemporary Art Factory (Tokyo), and Winzavod (Moscow).
Instagram: @nicolas.floch

Artist Salon with Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris
2022-02-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Thursday, February 10, 2022, 6:30pm join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris. Both artists will give a short presentation followed by a light dinner and refreshments outdoors. At A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd. New Orleans 70131. Registration required below. Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test within 72 hours required for those 5 and up. Directions here.Fill out my LGL Form!

While in residence, Virginia Hanusik will work on The Place We Keep, a series exploring the inequality of disaster relief and preservation in communities along the Gulf Coast experiencing the impacts of climate change through a compilation of photographs, oral histories, and public programming on the perpetuation of environmental injustice in the region.
Lisa E. Harris’ residency will support the regional development of an international research project, ONSHORE TRILLING: What to Do When the Earth Sings the Bruise, by affording opportunities for mutual creative exchange between Harris and the Women of Cancer Alley and Rise St. James. This multi-year project will become a performance cycle based on the life cycle of an oil and gas field, and will be informed by the environmental practices of onshore women-led communities, near productive drilling communities around the world.
Register here for Artist Salon with Virginia Hanusik and Lisa E. Harris
Virginia Hanusik is an artist whose work explores the relationship between landscape, culture, and the built environment. Her projects on climate change and environmental justice have been exhibited internationally, featured in The New Yorker, Domus, Places Journal, The Atlantic, MAS Context, and Oxford American among others, and supported by the Pulitzer Center, Graham Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. She has lectured at institutions including Columbia University, Bard College, New York University, and Rutgers University about landscape representation and the visual narrative of climate change, and is on the board of directors of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans where she coordinates multi-disciplinary projects on the climate crisis.
Lisa E. Harris is an independent and interdisciplinary artist, creative soprano, performer, composer, improvisor, filmmaker, writer, singer/songwriter, researcher and educator from Houston, Texas. Recognized by Huffington Post as “one of fourteen artists transforming Opera,” Harris’ work resists genre classification as she focuses on the energetic relationships between body, land, spirit and place. Using voice, theremin, electronics, movement, improvisation, meditation and new media to explore spatial awareness, relationality, panoptic surveillance and sonic profiling, she maintains a focused concentration on healing in performance and living.
Self-portrait by Virginia Hanusik. Photo of Lisa E. Harris by John “Juice” Harris.

Rising Residency Office Hour
2022-02-23 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
Drop in and ask any questions you have about Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies. Staff will be present to answer questions on the application process, living experience, residency theme, public engagement component, documentation, and beyond. Drop in any time between 10am – 11am CST on Wednesday, February 23, 2022. Register below to receive Zoom link. Can’t make it? Questions can be directed at any time to info@astudiointhewoods.org.
Rising Residency Office Hour

Replenish Residency Info Session
2022-03-08 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom – register to receive link
Join us for an online information session about Replenish Residencies. Staff will give an overview of the application process and residency experience then field questions from attendees.
Replenish Residencies (formerly Relief Residencies) provide 1-2 week restorative visioning retreats to local BIPOC artists and culture bearers; the heart of New Orleans culture. In light of the many racial disparities still present in our society at large and the arts economy specifically, we offer these residencies to provide time to rest and restore, vision and create. Originally conceptualized at the start of the pandemic, these residencies have evolved from Relief Residencies into Replenish Residencies, shifting from crisis response to ongoing community care. The call is open to BIPOC artists and culture bearers from the Greater New Orleans area who have not attended a residency before. Details and application here.
Rising Residency Office Hour

Artist Salon with Claire Alexandre and Andrina Turenne
2022-03-09 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | A Studio in the Woods, 13401 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA, 70131, United States
Join us to meet and learn more about current Rising: Climate in Crisis Residents Claire Alexandre and Andrina Turenne. Both artists will give a short presentation followed by a light dinner and refreshments outdoors. Registration and proof of vaccination required for those 5 and up.
While in residence, Claire Alexandre will create a series of mixed-media painted portraits of folks of color at the community forefront of New Orleans’ climate change adaptation actions. The six portraits will be symbolic of modern academic research paper paragraphs (introduction, hypothesis, methods, results, discussion and conclusion) as a way to criticize the rigid exclusivity of institutional research methodology and empower people whose existence within these frameworks has been reduced to data.
Andrina Turenne will use her residency to explore Indigenous and local perspectives on water, language and land through music, past and present, as it relates to climate and landscape. In doing research, exploring geographic and cultural throughlines, and speaking with people on the land, her goal is to produce recordings and performances of music and stories related to these themes, both collaboratively and independently.

Claire Alexandre is an intersectional artist and storyteller who weaves autobiographical reflections with ancestral knowledge while exploring larger themes of environmental, gender and racial justice. She seeks to deepen our collective understanding of Black community prosperity and its close ties with ecologies of all scales. Through mixed-media painting, street art and botanical knowledge, she uses her skills to create modern day mythologies and heroes honoring the resilience, power and complexities of Black Diasporic identity, particularly that of womxn.
Andrina Turenne is a bilingual singer, songwriter, and musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She grew up along the banks of the Red River in the historic Francophone-Métis settlement of Saint-Boniface, and is a proud member of the Métis Nation. She has worked in music for over two decades, from collaborating in groups such as JUNO Award-winning Chic Gamine to a new solo career she has been carving out since 2018. She has contributed vocals to over 30 professionally-released albums and has recorded seven full-length albums. She has played festivals of all sizes and has toured extensively throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa. She draws inspiration from her own life experiences and her travels, as well as the rich history and raw beauty of the land she grew from.
