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MTC SPOTLIGHT
Rha Goddess
Rha Goddess
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Performance artist/poet/social activist Rha Goddess developed her trademark
"flowetry," a blend of hip-hop spoken word and song, at NYC's Nuyorican
Poets Café, establishing herself as a legendary voice in the hip-hop community and
going on to work with Mos Def, KRS-ONE and A Tribe Called Quest, to name a few.
Her autobiographical
Meditations with the Goddess, a collaborative project with composer/performer
Baba Israel, choreographer Rennie Harris and sound designer Darin Ross,
premieres at Umass' New World Theater on February 3rd.
(the work received support from MTC's Commmissioning Music/USA 2004)
Rennie Harris
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She describes "Meditations:"
A modern trilogy that traverses the rocky and often
treacherous terrain of the human psyche. In this Epic work, three Goddesses
emerge from the underworld to aid in an autobiographical search for universal
and personal truth. Lowquesha, Medina, and Devina represent the new holy trinity,
building upon the ancient trinity of Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Within each story,
each goddess is charged with the task of posing a question and clearing the path for
an authentic exploration of that question. As part of her guiding nature,
the Goddess(es) will point to the universal aspect of this exploration, and it is
my task to extrapolate her universal observations and experiences into my own
personal and biographical observations and experience.
The "meditations" represent my
dialogue with the underworld, and my personal mission in this work is to learn how to
listen, to learn how to give voice to things that don't often get said out loud;
things that words cannot readily convey; things that get lodged in pride, fear,
and normal reasoning. Meditations with the Goddess will seek to find a way to
move that which is deeply personal and private to the realm of that which is
human and therefore deeply personal.
Links:
·Umass ticket info
·Rennie Harris
·Commissioning Music/USA 2004 Awards
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Listen (excerpt):