Against Gravity
This Fall 2024, 651ARTS (Brooklyn, NY) is launching a series of public engagements entitled "Against Gravity - Community Fly-Zone Workshops" in collaboration with André M. Zachery (Current NYU Tisch Dance Assistant Arts Professor), Artistic Director of Renegade Performance Group & Ayinde Jean-Baptiste, Lead Architect of DuSable City. These workshops happening across Brooklyn will provide safe intergenerational spaces that celebrate Black masculinity, Black artistry, Black historical narratives, and the voices of Black women authors. Our collaborative series aims to encourage introspection, uplift key historical figures, and honor the abundance of ways Black masculinity exists today through movement, film, and poetry. This dynamic season culminates in the World Premiere of their latest piece, Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends in January, 2025, marking the first performance in 651’s new home, 10 Lafayette.
651 ARTS is proud to present André M. Zachery (Creator, Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans + Other Urban Legends & Artistic Director, Renegade Performance Group) and Ayinde Jean-Baptiste (Producing Director & Co-Writer, Against Gravity) as leaders and facilitators of this movement-based workshop investigating themes of Black masculinity and all the multiplicities it exists in Brooklyn, Chicago, and America.