Rena Anakwe, ms. z tye & Ogemdi Ude

For this iteration of Dance and Process, The Kitchen welcomes two artists and DAP alums, mayfield brooks (DAP 2019) and Niall Jones (DAP 2016), to lead the program newly. The 2024 cohort of artists Rena Anakwe, ms. z tye, and Ogemdi Ude will be in residence at The Kitchen at Westbeth beginning in July, where they will engage in a group process, facilitated by brooks and Jones, of sharing work in progress and receiving feedback. The program culminates in public performances of new works by each artist on September 20-22, 2024 at The Kitchen at Westbeth.

Dance and Process 2024: Rena Anakwe, ms. z tye, and Ogemdi Ude is organized by mayfield brooks and Niall Jones, with Matthew Lyons, Curator, and Angelique Rosales Salgado, Curatorial Assistant.

BIOS

Rena Anakwe is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance , she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology. Currently, she is part of the 2023-2024 Lincoln Center Social Sculpture Cohort with her durational, public art project “Lifting the Ground Up [iter.02]”, she was awarded a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship, a 2021-2022 MacDowell Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Arts, a 2022 Jack Nusbaum Artist Residency at BAM and the 2021 Canadian Women Artists’ Award from NYFA & the CWC of New York. Rena has collaborated, produced, and shown work at (select list): Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Serpentine, ‘Arts & Ideas’ (UK), The Guggenheim Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, Creative Time/Governors Island Arts, New Forms Festival x Lobe Studio (CAN), Counterpublic, The Momentary, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Basilica Hudson, TFNA (Theatre for a New Audience), Park Avenue Armory/NY Live Arts, En Garde Arts/Brookfield Place, Weeksville Heritage Center and the Dia Foundation. Under the moniker ‘A Space for Sound,’ Anakwe released her album “Sometimes underwater (feels like home)” through RVNG Intl’s Commend THERE Label in Fall 2021. She is based in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Nigeria and Canada.

ms. z tye is a Brooklyn-based artist who is interested in physical investigations, including but not limited to movement, voice, and theater. z explores concepts through ancestral praise. She is intrigued with somatic relations and how they associate with emotional connectivity. These works are intended to serve as queer offerings to LGBTQIA-POC communities. She has been included in exhibitions with Bronx Museum of Arts, Volta/Armory Art Fair, Swivel Gallery, Untitled Art Fair, Cierra Britton Gallery, The Living Gallery, Long Gallery Harlem, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Postmasters Gallery, Fridman Gallery, Art in Buildings, and Participant INC. Choreographic work has been commissioned by The Shed, BMW, Danspace, Lotto Royale, MQBMBQ, BOFFO, Jack, Gibney, Movement Research, and Dance Canvas ATL.

Ogemdi Ude is a Black queer femme dance and interdisciplinary artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Gibney, Harlem Stage, Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Center for Performance Research, and for BAM's DanceAfrica festival. As an educator, she serves as Head of Movement for Theater at Professional Performing Arts School and has taught at The New School, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, MIT, and University of the Arts. She is a 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and a 2024/2025 BAX Artist-in-Residence. She has been a 2021 danceWEB Scholar, 2021 Laundromat Project Create Change Artist-in-Residence, and a 2019-2020 Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Resident Fellow. In January 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue. Most recently, she has published a book Watch Me in a collection edited by Thomas DeFrantz and Annie-B Parson entitled Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study published by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press.

ACCESS NOTES

Warning: Please be advised some performances contain high-pitched sound. Earplugs are available at the door. The loft space will also be pre-scented with incense upon arrival. Entry: Late entry is permitted at any time dependent on capacity. There are stairs or ramp access to an open door marked with The Kitchen's name, behind which there is an elevator accessible to the public. The elevator enters directly into the loft. Seating: There is intermittent seating available throughout the loft space via couches, floor cushions, and fold-out chairs with backs. We are happy to accommodate and adjust for individuals who require wheelchair access upon request. Duration: Performances span a duration of three hours total. Visitors are encouraged to arrive at 6pm for the full program, and are welcome to move throughout the space freely during the evening. Exits: The space can be exited via elevator or stairs that take you to Bank street. Restroom: Our restrooms and dressing rooms are gender neutral. An ADA bathroom is available for our guest use in the courtyard, just one door down at Greenwich House Center for Older Adults. This bathroom will be available from 5:45-6pm. Please visit the facilities before entering the elevator to the loft.

If you have any questions specific to access needs please contact boxoffice@thekitchen.org if you require additional support.

How To Get To 163 Bank Street: It is a ~10 minute journey on foot and a ~5 minute car ride from both the 14th Street A/C/E subway station (the station has elevator access) as well as the 14th Street 1 train subway station to Westbeth. It is a ~5 minute journey on foot from the M20 bus stop of 8 Av/Bleecker Street and a ~10 minute walk from the Christopher Street Path Train Station.

TK Members wanting to redeem complimentary tickets can do so by emailing development@thekitchen.org