Urban Jazz Dance Company founder Antoine Hunter Purple Fire Crow, a Bay Area African American, Indigenous, Two-Spirit choreographer, director, producer and advocate, who is deaf, is on a mission to help his fellow artists.
“I want to uplift other artists and pay them for their work. If I can help them, I grow also. Art and dance saved my life. It’s part of my social journey as I educate other people about using art to heal themselves and serve the community,” says Hunter, who is in the middle of an 11-week residency at 836M, a San Francisco arts nonprofit dedicated to opening minds through dialogue, debate and provocative events.
Called “#DeafWoke: Communication in Conversation,” the residency offers workshops, visual art exhibitions and an online talk show with interviews with hearing and deaf artists, including Urban Jazz assistant director Zahna Simon. It culminates in evening-length multidisciplinary performances at 836M’s Jackson Square-area gallery on May 15-17.
“We gave a work-in-progress … and people thought the work was finished. But we will have a lot more to show. We have multiple deaf identities and will not try to divide those in the performance space. You’ll see things that mean the conversations will not be finished in one day. After the shows here, this work will never be done. I hope to go to other galleries in Oakland, the UK, and other locations,” says Hunter.
The goal of the residency, which touches on music, painting, sculpture and martial arts as well as dance, is to establish and strengthen connections between deaf, other-abled and hearing audiences and artists.
With decades of highlighting inclusion and accessibility in the arts for deaf people and individuals with significant hearing impairment, Hunter, producer of the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival, among many achievements, is heralded for his artistry, public speaking, leadership and advocacy.
He says a priority of the project is expanding people’s capacity for better listening: “We use dance, paintings, and conversations to connect. It requires patience. Sometimes people talking to me can be quick to say, ‘never mind,’ when there’s a lack of patience and no confidence in connection. That will destroy the relationship. And people need to know that reading lips requires a lot of guessing: bs and fs have the same lip shape. It creates a lot of errors. If I use an interpreter, they need to not take it personally. Just because they can hear, doesn’t mean they know how to listen.”
In addition to Urban Jazz Dance Company performers, #DeafWoke residency participants include Malik Seneferu, an acclaimed African-American painter, draughtsman, muralist, sculptor, illustrator and instructor (whose studio is at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard) working with Hunter for the first time.
“When 836M asked who I wanted to work with, I thought of him immediately. We have a lot in common though art, living in the Bay Area, finding different ways to communicate. There was joy and laughter and things that happened with us previously that we carry through our bodies and spirits and come out through our previous and new works,” says Hunter.
Another residency participant is Oakland-born Cherie Espy, a deaf Black artist and activist from San Bernardino working in paint, fashion design and sculpture, who will lead the second of two workshops on April 12. A graduate of California School for the Deaf in Fremont with a cosmetology degree from Laney College, Espy has prevailed, having suffered domestic violence and related depression.
Hunter says, “Her work is amazing. Violence had shut her down, where she was unsure if she could ever make art again. I encouraged her to continue, to identify her voice and spirit. Now, she listens to herself and becomes stronger as she makes her work.”
Mentioning that the #DeafWoke residency represents Espy’s first big exhibit, he adds, “She wants people to look for the hidden treasures in her work. … At a workshop she did, it was the first time many hearing people learned how to paint from a deaf person.”
On May 10, martial artist Antony Johnson, who also creates comic books, leads a workshop teaching people how to use their bodies to be safe and to listen to other bodies.
Urban Jazz Dance Company’s “DeafWoke: Communication in Conversation” continues with workshops at 10 a.m. April 12 and May 10, and the premiere of “#DeafWoke” at 6:30 p.m. May 15-17 at 836M, 836 Montgomery St., San Francisco. Admission is free, with reservations. Visit 836M.org.
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