This event takes place in person at Charis and on crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. Click here to register to attend virtually. Please read the in-person event guidelines at the bottom of this page to be sure you can participate in the event.
Join ZAMI NOBLA and Charis on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at 7:30 pm for a special event featuring esteemed writer Sharon Bridgforth in conversation with ZAMI NOBLA creative director Angela Denise Davis, as we celebrate bull-jean & dem/dey back.
Bull-jean & dem/dey back is a collection that unites two performance/novels centered on the southern-Black-butch-heroine, bull-jean. The Lambda Literary Award-winning bull-jean stories was first published by RedBone Press in 1998 and follows the journey of love rekindling throughout the lifetimes of bull-dog-jean. After a twenty-two-year hiatus, bull-dog-jean triumphantly returns in bull-jean/we wake. As the Narrator grieves the loss of their elders and seeks healing, they summon bull-jean for guidance. Be sure not to miss this inspiring event!
A 2022 Winner of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, Sharon Bridgforth is 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, a 2022-2023 McKnight National Fellow and a New Dramatists alumnae. She has received support from The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network. Her work is featured in Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Mouths of Rain an Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought and Feminist Studies Vol 48 Number 1, honoring 40 years of This Bridge Called by Back and But Some of Us Are Brave! Sharon has had the privilege of benefiting from support from the ZAMI NOBLA and Charis Books communities since 1998, when she toured with the RedBone Press edition of the bull-jean stories. In her new book, bull-jean & dem/dey back (53rd State Press) bull-jean returns in two performance/novels - both will be produced as main stage productions at Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in 2023. More at: https://www.sharonbridgforth.com.
Angela Denise Davis is the creative director for ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging). In 2018, she founded THE ZAMI NOBLA podcast, a soundsource for Black Lesbian Herstory, and currently serves as host, editor, and producer. In 2019, she started ZAMI NOBLA’s community ukulele program, UKE-IN. Her role as the creative director also includes producing graphic design work for the organization and digital content creation. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she earned a B.A. in Art. She also holds a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from Georgia State University.
ZAMI NOBLA: DEEPLY ROOTED in Atlanta, Georgia with a national reach, ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging) is a membership-based organization committed to building a base of power for Black lesbians over the age of 40 living anywhere in the country. We center Service, Advocacy and Community Action Research.
This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
In-person event guidelines:
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All attendees must wear a face mask at all times inside the building
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We will begin seating people at 7:00 PM ET.
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This event will be live-streamed via crowdcast. Click here to register to attend virtually.
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As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event.
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If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request specific accessibility accommodations, please contact info@charisbooksandmore.com or call the store at 404-524-0304
If you would like to watch the virtual event with computer-generated captions, please watch in Google Chrome and enable captions. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we continue to connect across distances.
By attending our event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.
bull-jean & dem/dey back collects two performance/novels centering Sharon Bridgforth's southern-Black-butch-sheroe, bull-jean.
In June 2022, Sharon Bridgforth and Daniel Alexander Jones held an intimate and searching conversation about the pragmatics of making art and engaging the communities--living and ancestral--from which their work emerges.
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Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Drama. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES is performance literature/a novel that is constructed for breath. The piece is not meant to be theater/a concert/an opera or a staged reading but is.
In Austin, Texas, in 2002, a group of artists, activists, and academics led by performance studies scholar Omi Osun Joni L.