Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I have nothing to hide. Within my work there is everything to see and hear. At the surface it’s sound art and it’s music, just below the surface it’s: literary, poetry, visual, dance, theatre, cosmology & spirituality, and it’s philosophy filtered through me and then shaped into a visceral assemblage of life. Free to be interpreted as you will.

While at Headlands

pulling fire through each eye
[an album, a multidisciplinary collaborative work, a ballet]

Pulling fire through each eye is the telling of the American tale beginning in 1619 when the first Black individuals were stolen and ushered into a psychic manipulation that has endured for four centuries and to the present day. My research and project will yield several new works including: a visual album, a neuroarts sound installation with projections, a collaboration with choreographers/dancers, lectures on decoloniality and freedom of self-expression, and essays. Other potential works may be discovered throughout the process. The initial score for Pulling fire will be the seventh in my series of works that are in principal, guided improvisations. I’ll be writing music for and ensemble including my trio (Davu Seru – drums, Nathan Hanson – saxophones, deVon Gray – piano, bassoon, electronics, & voice. I will be collaborating with several other musicians & artists as well.