Visiting Artists: James Allister Sprang "Rest Within the Wake"

Rest Within the Wake is a 50-minute orchestral jazz composition that anchors a session of somatic listening. This work invites you to turn away from the frantic pace of the modern world and slow down. Intimately tethered to the seminal text In the Wake by Africana Studies scholar Christina Sharpe, Rest Within the Wake celebrates the sensory experience of black life: welcoming visitors to bring something comfortable to lie on/with while tuning into your bodies, your ancestors, your traumas, pain, longings, visions, and dreams. Yoga mats will be provided.

“But Rest is more than just an impressive musical score rooted in cultural theory. It is a “sensory audiovisual poem for the spirit.” … It is something entirely, uniquely itself.”
–The Observer

Tickets: $10/$3 (students)

Based in Philadelphia, Sprang tells stories informed by black radical and experimental traditions. Over the past 15 years his studio has received critical acclaim; presenting work and completed residencies worldwide at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Aldrich Arts Museum, Storm King Arts Center, Baryshnikov Arts, Apollo Theater, the Public Theater, The Kitchen, The Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and the Tate Modern (UK) among many others. He is a Pew Foundation and Knight Foundation Art + Tech Fellow, due to his transdisciplinary social  practice.