CWF LEAD ARTISTS: LINDA TILLERY
GRANT AMOUNT: $35,000
       
 

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INVISIBLE WINGS


Shakiri in "Invisible Wings," performed at Fort Point, San Francisco, based on a collaboration among Linda Tillery, Diane Ferlatte, Joanna Haigood, and Zaccho Dance Theatre." photograph by Liz Zivic

Project Title: Invisible Wings
Recipient Organization: Zaccho Dance Theatre
Lead Artist: Linda Tillery
Genre and Date Awarded: Performing Arts, April 1997
Premiered: July 16-19, 1998, Fort Point, the Presidio, San Francisco, California

Linda Tillery and members of the Cultural Heritage Choir collaborated with Joanna Haigood, members of Zaccho Dance Theatre, storyteller Diane Ferlatte, and others to create Invisible Wings, an interdisciplinary performance piece about the Underground Railroad. The performances presented traditional cultural practices woven with contemporary musical composition, theatrical interpretation, and site-specific choreography. New York Times reviewer Jennifer Dunning noted, “It is a remarkable distillation of material. It is also an unpreachy, vivid history lesson, complete with live horse and bumping buggy.”

Tillery wrote, “Joanna and I share a vision for this work: we want to shatter the myths and obliterate the degrading stereotypes of oppressed black people, and bring to light a richer version of the survival story, complete with its music and dance, that will inspire us all in our battles for justice.”

Due to the site-specific nature of the work, its presentation varied from site to site. The artists presented the first edition of Invisible Wings at Fort Point—the site of Civil War-era buildings—in San Francisco’s Presidio in July 1998, and the second version at Jacob’s Pillow in Lee, Massachusetts the following month.

This project featured as lead artist ethnomusicologist and musician Linda Tillery, whose Cultural Heritage Choir is a vocal ensemble of African American women specializing in authentic performance of African American “survival music.” Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theater is a leading practitioner of aerial dance, known for its large-scale, site-specific works. Storyteller Diane Ferlatte is known for her performances of traditional African American tales: For this piece she developed pieces that combined elements of slave narratives with folk tales. Other artists collaborating in creating the performances included: Benjamin Young, master rigging and scene designer; Jack Carpenter, lighting designer; Lauren Weinger, sound designer; and Kim Euell, dramaturg. In addition to members of Zaccho, guest dancers for the piece included Jules Beckman, and Robert Henry Johnson.

Invisible Wings was inspired during a 1993 visit by Haigood to the country’s oldest dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, located in western Massachusetts. Haigood learned that buildings in the Pillow’s complex once served as safe houses for fleeing slaves. Beginning in early 1995, Haigood pursued comprehensive research on slave culture, dance, and the abolition movement through fact finding trips to the Southeastern and Northeastern United States, archival research, interviews with historians, and by gathering an oral history of the Carter Family, former owners of the Pillow and leaders in the Massachusetts abolition movement.

In 1996, Haigood invited Tillery and Ferlatte to collaborate with her. They traveled to traditional African American communities in Georgia and North Carolina, conducting field research on music, dance, and stories in Gullah and other traditional African American communities. They also made extensive use of resources in the Library of Congress.

Together they sought to demonstrate how song, dance, and story served to strengthen faith and cooperation, influencing social change. Tillery wrote, “The oral tradition itself carries with it certain signs, “signifiers” and ciphers that have relayed the secrets, strengths, and truths of black history and culture that, since slavery times, have been either outlawed or significantly suppressed by the dominant culture. The songs tell powerful stories of survival and resistance that have inspired and strengthened every freedom movement in our society.”

After their research phase, the artists developed the performance through focused time spent together both at Jacob’s Pillow and in San Francisco. The Presidio was chosen as an appropriate second site for the work because of the fort’s Civil War origins and many original buildings, and the National Parks Conservation Association’s plan to commemorate the Underground Railroad’s history.

Dramaturg Kim Euell worked with the lead artists both on Invisible Wings itself and on transforming the research materials into a curriculum for use in public school classrooms. Over an eight-month period, 150 students from three schools in Bayview/Hunters Point created their own piece about the Underground Railroad, “All Hid,” performed at Theater Artaud in 1998. Zaccho also sponsored an eight-week family quilt making project, focused on the Underground Railroad, led by textile artist Karen Hampton, and a variety of outreach activities.

LEAD ARTIST

Linda Tillery

Since the late 1960s, Linda Tillery has been regarded as one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most versatile singers, her powerful and flexible alto showcased in such groups as the Loading Zone, the Zazu Pitts Memorial Orchestra, and Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra. In the 1990s, Tillery took command of an even broader repertoire, tapping the diverse resources of African American music, from the slave songs, work songs, field hollers, and spirituals performed by her Cultural Heritage Choir to the modern jazz of her own quintet. With a voice that critics have compared to those of Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin, Tillery weaves myriad musical threads and cultural traditions into a stunning single fabric.

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Linda Tillery launched her professional career in 1967 when, still a teenager, she became lead singer for The Loading Zone, a psychedelic-era rock group. A few weeks later she found herself at the Fillmore Auditorium, opening for Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. By the mid-70s she was working with Coke Escavedo, brother of Pete Escavedo, and uncle of Sheila E. In the early 1980s, she became a leading participant in the “women’s music movement” as a staff producer at Olivia Records, and performed on dozens of records that were produced and distributed by Redwood, Pleiades, and Olivia. In the mid-1980s, while creating her own group, Linda Tillery and Her Band, she continued to sing backup for such artists as Kenny Loggins, Boz Scaggs, and Linda Ronstadt; made recordings with Santana, and collaborated with Joan Baez.

Tillery’s affiliations and collaborations are numerous—as a member of the Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra and Bobby McFerrin’s fabled Voicestra—and she has appeared on more than 50 recordings. She founded the renowned Cultural Heritage Choir in 1993. Each member of the Choir has worked in many contexts with leading local groups and companies, including Glide Memorial Baptist Church, the Oakland Youth Chorus, Oakland Ensemble Theater, Dimensions Dance Theater, Shambahla, Amandla Poets, and Redwood Records.

OTHER COLLABORATING ARTISTS

Joanna Haigood, Choreographer

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Professional Experience

  • ZACCHO Dance Theatre: Artistic Director, Principal Dancer and Choreographer (1980-present)
  • Member of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company (1983)
  • Guest artist with Lines Contemporary Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, MacFarland/Whistler DanceArt (1988-98)

Commissions

  • Ghost Architecture, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2004)
  • TheDeparture, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, San Francisco, California (2003)
  • Inverted States, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, California (2002)
  • Picture Red Hook, Dancing in the Streets, New York, New York (2002)
  • IO and Her and the Trouble with Him, Pauline Oliveros Foundation, Kingston, New York (2001)
  • Picture Powderhorn, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2000)
  • Descending Cord, Axis Dance Company, Oakland, California (2000)
  • Bella, Tryon Center for the Visual Arts, Charlotte, North Carolina (1999)
  • Invisible Wings, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachusetts (1997-98)
  • Psalm, Festival D’Avignon, Avignon, France (1997)
  • NOON, San Francisco Art Commission Art in Transit, San Francisco, California (1995)
  • Cho-Mu (Butterfly Dreams), Walker Art Center, Dancing in the Streets, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Minneapolis, New York City, and Beckett, Massachusetts (1993)
  • Open Systems, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, California (1992)
  • Time Ship, Boston Dance Umbrella, Boston, Massachusetts (1992)
  • Sudden Heir: Black Choreographers Moving, II Dance Festival, Theater Artaud, San Francisco, California (1991)
  • Somewhere to Go, Offshoots/City Celebration, San Francisco, California (1989)
  • Depot; Dance for Y’al: Lines Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco, California (1989, 1987)
  • Journey to Elysian Fields; Deciduous Garden, Festival D’Arles, Arles, France (1989, 1988)
  • Quartet Isabella, National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta, Georgia (1988)
  • An Invitation to Frank’s Lunch, American Institute of Architects, San Francisco, California (1985)
  • Choreography in the repertory of the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago, Illinois
Teaching Experience
  • Zaccho Dance Theatre, “Aerial Technique/ Composition and performance workshops,” San Francisco, California, (1990-present)
  • Stanford University/Institute for Diversity in the Arts, “Cartography of Race and Space in California,” Palo Alto, CA (2003)
  • Mouvement et Regards, “The Poetics of Vertigo,” Pontempyrat, France (1999)
  • Centre National de Danse Contemporaine, “Aerial Technique,” Angers, France (1998)
  • Centre National des Arts du Cirque, “Contemporary Dance Technique, Partnering Apparatus,” Chalons, France
  • Autre Pas/IPMA, “Dance and Place Seminar,” Paris, France (1995)
  • Laban Centre, “Modern Technique, Repertory,” London England (1994, 1991, 1990)
  • San Francisco Institute of Choreography, “Composition,” San Francisco, California (1990)
  • Festival d’Arles, “Aerial Technique, Composition,” Arles, France (1989)
  • Headlands Center for the Arts, Children’s Summer Program, “Modern, Aerial Technique,” Sausalito, California (1989, 1988)
  • Recontres Internationales de Danse Contemporaine, “Aerial Technique,” Fontvieille, France (1986)
  • Spelman College, “Aerial Technique, Composition, Atlanta, Georgia (1986)

Residencies

  • Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida (2003)
  • Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2000)
  • Theatre Artaud, San Francisco, California (1994)
  • Capp Street Project, San Francisco, California (1993)
  • Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California (1991)
  • Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California (1987)

Awards

  • Irvine Foundation Fellowship in Dance (2000)
  • Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts (1998)
  • Guggenheim Fellowship (1997)
  • Charles Flint Kellogg Arts & Letters award (Bard College) (1996)
  • National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship (1995, 1989)
  • California Arts Council Choreography Fellowship (1995)
  • Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Visual Design (1994)
  • Meet the Composer - Choreography/Music Award (1993)
  • The Gerbode Foundation Dance Choreography Award (1990)
  • The Gerbode Foundation Interdisciplinary Arts Production Award (1989)
  • San Francisco Bay Guardian Original Local Discovery (GOLDie) Award (1989)
  • Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Performance (1988)

Panelist/Consultant

The San Francisco Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts Dance Program, Georgia Arts Council, the MacDowell Colony, California Arts Council Dance Program, National Dance Residency Program and have served on the Board of Directors for the Headlands Center for the Arts and Theater Artaud in San Francisco.

Diane Ferlatte, Storyteller

Discography

  • Aesop, Alive & Well, Black Eyed Pig Studio (2001)
  • Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders, Black Eyed Pig Studio (2000)
  • Knick-Knack Paddy Whack, Black Eyed Pig Studio, (1997)
  • Sapelo: Time is Winding Up, Olde West Studios (1992)
  • Favorite Stories , Olde West Studios (1991)

Featured on:

  • Living on Earth, National Public Radio (December, 2002)
  • Timeless Wisdom Tales, Vol II, by Dr. Kumuda Reddy, Samhita Productions, (1999)
  • "Why the Sky is So High" on Rainbow Tales, (audiocassette & CD), Rounder Records (1997)
  • "Brer Tiger and the Big Wind" on Sierra Storytelling Festival Best of 1987, Bennett House
  • "The Knee High Man" on StorySpinners, Course Crafters Inc. (1997)

Anthologies

  • Ready to Tell Tales, Holt & Mooney, August House (1994)
  • African Americans: Voices of Triumph-Creative Fire, Time-Life Books (1994)
  • The Language of Literature, McDougal Littell, (1997)
  • The Storyteller´s Guide, Holt & Mooney, August House (1996)

Videos

  • “African Story Journey: Across Time and Place,” Filmic Archives (1997)
  • “African Story Journey: The American South,” Filmic Archives (1997)
  • “African Story Magic,” Family Home Entertainment (1992)
  • The Twentieth Anniversary of the National Storytelling Festival, (interview) Hometown Entertainment (1994)
  • Tell Me a Story, Vol. 2, Hometown Entertainment (1995)
  • A Storytelling Treasury, Vol. 3, National Storytelling Press (1993)

Awards and Honors

  • National Youth Storytelling  Pegasus Award for Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders (2003)
  • National Storytelling Network Oracle Circle of Excellence Award (2002)
  • Storytelling World Honor Award for Aesop Alive & Well (2002)
  • California Arts Council Touring Artist Roster Selection (2002-04)
  • National Parenting Publications Gold Award for Aesop Alive & Well (2001)
  • Parents' Choice Silver Award for Aesop Alive & Well (2001)
  • Storytelling World Winner Award for Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders (2001)
  • American Library Association Booklist Editors' Choice 2000 Selection for Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders (2000)
  • National Parenting Publications Gold Award for Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders (2000)
  • Parents' Choice Silver Award for Yes M'am, Respect for the Elders (2000)
  • California Arts Council Touring Artist Roster (1999-2000)
  • National Parenting Publications Gold Award for Knick-Knack Paddy Whack (1998)
  • Parents' Choice Gold Award for Knick-Knack Paddy Whack (1998)
  • California Arts Council Touring Artist Roster (1996-98)
  • National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1994)
  • American Library Association Notable Recording Award for Favorite Stories (1993)
  • American Library Assoc. Notable Recording Award for Sapelo: Time is Winding Up (1993)
  • Parents' Choice Gold Award for Favorite Stories (1992)
  • Festival 2000 Grant (NEA) (1989)

Selected Performances

  • Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
  • Exploratorium, San Francisco, California
  • Open House at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California
  • Sierra Storytelling Festival, Nevada City, California
  • Hoosier Storytelling Festival, Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Connecticut Storytelling Festival, New London, Connecticut
  • Imperial Valley College, Imperial, California
  • Pleasanton Performing Arts Series, Pleasanton, California
  • The Music Hall, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
  • Dartmouth University, Hanover, New Hampshire
  • Cypress College, Cypress, California
  • Annual National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough, Tennessee
  • Hawaii State Library System, Hawaii
  • Music Center on Tour, Los Angeles, California
  • Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
  • San Juan Capistrano Storytelling Festival, San Juan Capistrano, California
  • Jacob´s Pillow, Beckett, Massachusetts
  • Highland College, Freeport, Illinois
  • National Storytelling Conference, San Diego, California
  • Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
  • No. Appalachian Storytelling Festival, Mansfield, Pennsylvania
  • Timpanogas Storytelling Festival, Orem, Utah
  • Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
  • Showcase 2000, Costa Mesa, California

International Performances

  • Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand
  • Dunya Festival, Holland
  • Graz Erzahlt Graz, Austria
  • The Berkeley Educational Society, Bermuda
  • Australian School Library Association, Australia
  • Ljungby Berattarfestival, Sweden