Git Black | CENTRE OUTSIDE THE CENTRE | BROWN UNIVERSITY

Conceptualised and performed by multidisciplinary artist JaMario Stills, Git Black uses the archival ethnographic material and literature of Zora Neale Hurston as a way of grappling with cross-diasporic dialectics.
Having long engaged with Hurston’s work, Stills now explores it using The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s creative methodology as an impulse towards alternative anthropological, archival research. Viewing the Pepper’s Ghost as an anthropological tool itself, Stills, joined by Vusi Mdoyi, steps into Hurston’s footage, engages with her text, and embodies the research.
As Stills finishes reading, he claps out a rhythm and spreads dust throughout the space. Mdoyi moves to the front of the mechanism and kicks up dust, too, while in the chorus, Anathi Conjwa leads a rendition of the song from Hurston’s footage.
Altogether, it is a means of embodying and activating her work, her research, and the people represented in it. It is a way of giving collaborative, physical, material form to the archive.
CONCEPTUALISER | JaMario Stills
PERFORMERS | JaMario Stills & Vusi Mdoyi
FILM CREDIT | Fieldwork (1928) by Zora Neale Hurston
TEXT | Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
FOUNDER OF THE CENTRE | William Kentridge
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR | Bronwyn Lace
MOMENTEUR-THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis
HOLDER & ASSOC. PRODUCER | Dimakatso Motholo
DIRECTOR CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITOR | Noah Cohen
EDITOR & COMPOSITOR | Octavia Sonyane
SOUND DESIGNER & ENGINEER | Zain Vally
ASSISTANT SOUND ENGINEER | Jack Garrett
WRITER & COMMUNICATIONS | David Mann
PROP & COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Malaka
COSTUME DESIGNER ASSISTANT | Iris Courchaine
PRODUCTION MANAGER | Brendon Boyd
STAGE MANAGER | Meghan Williams
LIGHTING TECHNICIANS | Audrey Visscher,
Fred Young, Gabriel Goldman, Chris Griffin &
Alexander Foley
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE | Bukhosibakhe Khoza
PRODUCED BY | THE OFFICE performing arts + film
Rachel Chanoff, Laurie Cearley, Bruna d’Avila, Elly Obeney
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Brown Arts Institute at Brown University
Website: lessgoodidea.com/
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