Project Description:
"You Caught Me on Your Shoulders (YCMYS) is a new collaboration with the disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light. Anchored in concepts of access, care, and interdependence and remembering those who came before us, YCMYS is a meditation on liberation inspired by Philadelphia's history of social justice and civil disobedience. Informed by critical movements for liberation (abolition, suffragette, disability, queer), all of which have converged in Philadelphia around the Liberty Bell, YCMYS explores interrelation, freedom of speech, and the weight of silence. Using movement, light, projection, sound, and vibration, YCMYS will offer a series of vignettes that reference significant moments in disability advocacy and culture and highlight the necessity of human connection. At this critical moment in our history, YCMYS asks what does liberation look like, feel like, and sound like? What might happen if the audience, however briefly, could sustain one another through shared emotional and sensory connections in a common physical environment? Can an offering of liberation extend from the stage to the hearts, minds and diversity of bodies gathered?
The primary components of You Caught Me on Your Shoulders (YCMYS) are research, access development, community engagement and performance. YCMYS is anchored in historical research around national movements for justice that have converged in Philadelphia. Kinetic Light Founder/Artistic Director Alice Sheppard will research local responses to the abolitionist, disability civil rights, suffragette and queer freedom movements, all of which have come into literal and figurative contact with the Liberty Bell. Alice will investigate primary sources to surface aspects of these histories that will inform the trajectory of this performance.
Multi-layered access is the beating heart of Kinetic Light's work. KL has moved from converting its music scores into vibration to creating spatialized, vibration-first content that can express spatial relationships, movement quality, and emotional intensities of movement and light/projection on stage. With YCMYS, audience members will be able to immerse themselves in a sensory experience on custom-designed haptic interfaces. Our wide array of access offerings will include a comprehensive Access Guide, multi-track audio description, tactile lobby exhibit, ASL interpretation and relaxed spaces available to anyone but designed with neurodiverse audience members in mind.
YCMYS represents the Institute's third collaboration with presenting and marketing partner FringeArts, and our first on the Festival's mainstage. As one of the most celebrated and visible cultural events each year, the FringeArts Festival is an ideal showcase for Kinetic Light's Philadelphia debut, and for imaginative thinking about access delivery and audience engagement.
Core Function(s):
Developing & Disseminating Information, Continuing Education/Community Training, Other Direct/Model Services
Target Audience:
Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Adults with Disabilities, General Public
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Specific Groups
