Everyday is Earth Day
Experience an impactful evening of environmental activism through art!
In recognition of Earth Day 2024’s theme “Planet vs. Plastics,” Laura Shapiro debuts "The Cost" a new dance solo highlighting the human rights, environmental and climate harms linked to the petrochemical industry.
Davalois Fearon performs "Excerpts of Consider Water" – inspired by domestic and global water issues, such as water scarcity, water contamination, water quality, and water-related natural disasters.
Paloma McGregor presents a short film exploring the relationship between Black bodies, culture and land.
2016 White House Champion of Change Kayhan Irani delivers a powerful interactive address.
The evening will conclude with a panel discussion between all featured artists.
About Laura Shapiro
LAURA SHAPIRO’s independent artistic journey has taken her from New York to the Northwest, Asia, and Europe—and back to NYC. She has created over 50 solo, group, site-specific and site-adaptable works, often in collaboration with adventurous sound and video artists. Her multi-piece project "Globalization and Its Discontents" is fiscally sponsored by NYFA, and in June 2023 it received a grant from the Puffin Foundation. www.quicksilverdance.wordpress.com
About Davalois Fearon
Davalois Fearon is a trailblazing choreographer, dancer, and educator whose work has garnered acclaim for being “unapologetic” and “electrifying” in nature. Hailing from Jamaica and raised in the Bronx, New York, Fearon's artistic journey has been marked by accolades and recognition. Notably, she received a Bessie Award for her outstanding performance in "the skeleton architecture, or the future of our worlds," in 2017. She was highlighted as one of "7 Up-and-Coming Black Dance Artists Who Should Be On Your Radar" by Dance Magazine in 2018.
About Paloma McGregor
Paloma McGregor is a Caribbean-born, New York-based choreographer who makes Black work with Black folks for Black space. A former newspaper reporter, she combines a choreographer’s craft, a journalist’s urgency, and an anti-racist organizer’s framework to activate creative communities and shepherd collaborative visioning. McGregor is currently developing A’we deh ya, a multi-year, interdisciplinary performance project that activates a choreographic call-and-response between the US mainland and her homeland, St. Croix, a current US colony at the frontlines of climate emergency.
About Kayhan Irani
Kayhan Irani is an Emmy-award winning writer, a performer, and a Theater of the Oppressed trainer. She creates art to build community, offer spaces for healing, and to engage audiences in social justice issues. Kayhan was one of ten U.S. artists named by President Obama's White House as a 2016 White House Champion of Change for her storytelling work.
Featured photos: (1) Davalois Fearon; courtesy of Between Classes; (2) Laura Shapiro by Thuy Q Pham
