Women of Substance showcase strengths

Interdisciplinary performance artists bring show to Oberlin

Kimberli Boyd, Kwelismith and Michelle Parkerson form a dynamic trio of performance artists who connect Diaspora threads, personal herstories, myths, humor style, and the untold stories of black women in their Emerald City production entitled Women of Substance. The program, brought to campus by the Theater and Dance department, will also illuminate on the larger themes of power, spirituality, resistance and bonding.

Serving for the Fall Semester as Artist-in-Residence in the theater and dance department, Boyd has already exhibited her multi-faceted prescence as dancer, perfomance artist and educator to the Oberlin community.

More recently, Boyd facilitated a Winter Term dance project involving Oberlin students. Boyd is a graduate of Florida State University, and has performed with Lee Harper and Dancers, Celeste Miller and Company, and is the founding artistic director of "Dancing Between the Lines," a solo performance company and arts education organization.

The prefixes "multi" and "inter" are just as resounding in the professional lives of the other two members of Women.

Poet, musician, interdisciplinary performance artist, activist and educator, Kwelismith is a graduate from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology. Kwelismiths' creations - which seem never devoid of a political message - include "Blues Print," a performance based on the 1985 Philadelphia MOVE bombing, and "A Tree is Green," based on censorship and the dismantling of the NEA. Her most recent lecture/performance, "Blue," was performed at the Kitchen in New York City. She has performed with the Nyorican Poets Cafe Live, the Front and Center Poets at the Kennedy Center and is visiting artist in Performance Art Studies at The University of Maryland.

Parkerson is a writer, performance artist, independent filmmaker and recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Film/video Fellowship. Her public television specials include "Gotta make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock," and "But Then, She's Betty Carter." As a member of the American Film Institute's Direction Workshop for Women, Parkerson both directed and wrote the Black Amazon sci-fi video, "Odds and Ends." She has collaborated with other artists to create such performances as "Divas!" and "The Dangerous Bordergame." Her poetry and short fiction have been anthologized in "In Search of Color Everywhere" and "Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing."

Women of Substance will be presented in Warner Center Main Space on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Solid: Women of Substance will be performed this weekend in Warner Center. (photo courtesy Theater and Dance)