Antoine Hunter in "Sailing Away" by Zaccho Dance Theatre
Antoine Hunter / Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1918)
Zaccho Dance Theatre
"Sailing Away" (world premiere)
(a live site-specific performance installation)
Thursday October 7th through Sunday October 10th
Runs continuously between 1PM-5PM
Market Street (between First & Powell Streets)
Antoine Hunter in "Sailing Away" by Zaccho Dance Theatre
Zaccho Dance Theatre
"Sailing Away" (world premiere)
(a live site-specific performance installation)
Thursday October 7th through Sunday October 10th
Runs continuously between 1PM-5PM
Market Street (between First & Powell Streets)
(PLEASE NOTE WE WILL BE MOVING UP AND DOWN THE STREET COME FIND US- WE ARE EASY EASY TO SPOT- YOU WILL KNOW IT IS US AND KNOW WHO I AM WHEN YOU SEE ME)
We start from Market and Powell street then dance all the way down to 1st and Market street and back again for (!!!4hours!!!)
San Francisco, CA
Free event -- Open to the public
Concept/Direction/Choreography:
Joanna Haigood
Costumes:
Callie Floor
Performers / Characters:
Shakiri / newsie
Raissa Simpson / Sarah Lester
Tristan Cunningham / modern day
Byb Chanel / George Washington Dennis
Matthew Wickett / Archy Lee (1840- 1873)
Travis Rowland / Peter Lester (1814-1891?)
Antoine Hunter / Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1918)
Amara Tabor Smith / Mary Ellen Pleasant (1812-1904)
Robert Henry Johnson / Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918)
Artwork Description:
This work is drawn from the history of this specific site and echoes the distinct forces that still have resonance in the present. This performance installation piece for Market Street, "Sailing Away", will highlight the history of African Americans early contributions to the development of San Francisco. It will be embedded into the everyday activities of the Market Street scene, formatted in a continuous loop with fourty-minute cycles, and will be formated to the downtown urban environment of San Francisco.
The piece will feature eight African American historical characters from San Francisco; characters who lived and worked near Market Street during the mid nineteenth century. These characters will traverse the north side of the Market Street blocks between Powell and First Streets, stopping at points along the sidewalk. Historical narratives will be translated into a series of gestures and activities shaped in relation to each specific environment. Several monuments will be engaged as backdrops and metaphors. Each character will follow a score that will include brief interactions with other characters, occasionally making use of small props, at designated locations where they will create a series of tableaux. Interactions will illustrate the business relationships that characterize the commercial life of 19th century Market Street.
The sites that have been selected for performance activity are all public property. Sidewalks around the proposed performance spaces are wide, allowing spectators to stop and watch without disturbing pedestrian traffic or causing congestion.
At the top of each fourty-minute cycle all the characters will appear at the NE corner of Market and Battery Streets near the brass plaque that marks the early San Francisco shoreline. They will create a short series of gestures that are meant to acknowledge the exodus of African Americans in 1858. This is also a moment to reflect the invisibility and loss of African American history while commenting on current out-migration of African Americans.
Performance Background:
In 1854, San Francisco was the site of a myriad black-owned enterprises, including two joint stock companies, four boot and shoe stores, four clothing stores, two furniture stores, sixteen barbershops, two bathhouses, newspapers, and literary societies. Over the course of the following decade, many African Americans would choose to flee San Francisco and abandon their homes and businesses due to growing discriminatory pressure.
In 2008 the African American Historical and Cultural Society along several other city agencies commemorated the extraordinary exodus of African Americans to Canada in 1858. 2008 marked the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the sailing of The Commodore; a ship that carried African Americans from San Francisco to the British colony of Victoria on Vancouver Island. During the exodus, half of San Francisco’s African American population departed, including some of the city’s most prominent black figures. People, like Mifflin Gibbs, all took sail to leave behind the pains of racial discrimination and the resulting economic pressure. They left California for the same reason they originally came – in search of equitable treatment.
This event was precipitated by California’s admission into the Union as part of the Compromise of 1850. In exchange for passing The Fugitive Slave Act, antislavery advocates gained the admission of California as a free state, as well as prohibition of slavetrading in the District of Columbia. Ironically in 1851, in an attempt to discourage black migration to the state, extensive discriminatory legislation was passed in California, including the testimony restriction, which outlawed testimony by African Americans (also included Chinese and Native Americans) against whites in court. Cases where blacks would be robbed, beaten, raped or even killed had no recourse to justice if whites would not testify on their behalf. This new legislation mirrored slave state practices.
This story reflects the first of several African American out-migration events in San Francisco history; others include the redevelopment debacle of the 1960’s in the Fillmore district and the migration currently underway. About twenty three percent of the black population has left San Francisco in the past ten years.
African Americans and their histories are disappearing from San Francisco. The average San Franciscan would not recognize the names of Mifflin Gibbs or James Whitfield and yet they were national figures, working on behalf of all African Americans. This piece hopes to illuminate obscured histories and initiate meaningful dialogue around their subsequent legacies.
Antoine Hunter in "Sailing Away" by Zaccho Dance Theatre
