“Ms. Brown explores black female identity by transporting her dancers and audience to the playground. On a multilevel stage of platforms and mirrors, she uses the games of childhood as a source of empowerment.” – The New York Times

Four-time Princess Grace Award recipient, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award-winner Camille Brown shares her unique perspective in her work BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, revealing the complexity of carving out a self-defined identity as a black female in urban American culture. Combined with original music compositions performed live on stage by pianist Scott Patterson and electric bassist Tracy Wormsworth, Brown uses the rhythmic play of African-American dance vernacular – including social dancing, double dutch, steppin’, tap, Juba, ring shout, and gesture – as the black woman’s domain to evoke childhood memories of self-discovery.

In a society where black women are often only portrayed in terms of their strength, resiliency, or trauma, this work seeks to interrogate these narratives by representing a nuanced spectrum of black womanhood in a racially and politically charged world.

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