Francesca Harper
Ava DuVernay’s narrative change collective ARRAY has unveiled the seventh artist commission of its Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP), a propulsive fund founded in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder to catalyze creative expression around police violence and accountability. THE RECKONING, a dance film and choreographed piece by internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Francesca Harper, will debut in 2023 with a live performance in New York. Works & Process will present the work at the Guggenheim in conjunction with the Nick Cave: Forothermore exhibition on March 11, 2023.
Harper’s choreographed performance unmasks Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekly’s unjust murder of seven-year-old Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones as she was asleep on her grandmother’s couch during an ill-informed SWAT mission that was being filmed for A&E’s ‘The First 48′. More information on the case can be found here.
“Francesca Harper’s choreographed movements, through every gesture and elongation offered by the dancers, stirs up the sorrow and frenzy that was dispensed the night Officer Joseph Weekly’s bullet struck and killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones,” said ARRAY SVP of Public Programming Mercedes Cooper. “By imagining the future self of Aiyana, the artist condemns the erasure of her young life and demands we confront the systems that police our communities with a carelessness towards Black bodies.”
Harper’s striking dance film is set to an original sonic tapestry by rock star Nona Hendryx. In collaboration with six dancers, Harper examines this incident through kinetic energy and multiple character perspectives reflecting on the media’s frenetic role in the documentation of marginalized bodies being violated for entertainment.
The development of The Reckoning and the live performance premiere is supported by Works & Process and developed in Works & Process LaunchPAD residencies at Bethany Arts Community with the collaboration of Gabri Christa and The Movement Lab @ Barnard.
A behind-the-scenes video, additional information about the film, and information about the Works & Process performance at the Guggenheim Museum are available to view at leapaction.org.