Performance Protest Workshop – We Can’t Breathe Shamirrah Hardin workshop leader with Chazz Giovanni, Will Ferdinand, & Jamel Mims in collaboration with Stop Mass Incarceration Network
In early December of 2014, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network hosted a meeting to plan the “Week of Outrage” in response to the numerous incidents of police brutality and police murder of Black and Brown people in this country. As a part of this meeting, several artists came together to plan artist-led actions that would occur during the week. The group planned a big flash mob event that took place in Grand Central Station and an open mic that took place at Revolution Books. Since then, Shamirrah Hardin, one of the primary organizers of these actions, has been using the performing arts in various settings as a form of protest.
In the interactive workshop taking place at Smack Mellon, audience members will see a live performance that includes song, dance, spoken word (poetry) and a re-enactment of flash mob event that took place at Grand Central. Following the performance, workshop leader, Shamirrah Hardin, will talk about using the performing arts to increase the impact of protests and to advance the Black Lives Matter movement. Shamirrah, accompanied by other artists, including artists from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, will then teach the basic flash mob protest movements to the audience members. This will equip audience members to be able to go out and stage their own flash mob protests in public places. After learning the choreography, audience members will perform the flash mob routine with the artists. This workshop will conclude with a “talk back” discussion in which audience members will have the chance to ask the featured artists questions about their work, their inspiration and their involvement in the movement..
About the Workshop Leader
Shamirrah Hardin holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from Howard University and an MA in Educational Theatre from New York University. Shamirrah is a certified K-12 theatre teacher who has studied theatre and dance through various training programs in California, Arizona, DC, New York, Puerto Rico and Ghana. In addition to being a full time high school theatre and dance teacher, Shamirrah is a seasoned stage play director and an accomplished performer. She has performed in countless concerts, stage plays, showcases and special events around the country as a dancer, actress, mime and poet. She is also the owner and founder of True Stages Theatre Company, a Christian theatre company based in New York City. Shamirrah believes strongly in the power of the performing arts to inspire individuals, build self-confidence, transform communities, and change lives. Shamirrah has frequently been seen protesting in Grand Central station and is very actively involved in the movement to put an end to the unjust practice of allowing police officers to murder unarmed Black civilians without facing any punishment or consequence. She is an advocate of peaceful non-violent protests and has recently been seen on the news using the performing arts to honor Eric Garner and to encourage others to take a stand against injustice. Shamirrah is currently in the process of assembling an organized group of performing artists (dancers, singers, musicians, actors, etc.) who will create protest performance pieces to be performed regularly in various locations throughout NYC. To become a part of this group, you may contact Shamirrah on twitter @1Shamirrah or look for the “Artists for Justice NYC” group on facebook (Click Here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/1430409440582576/ ). Shamirrah looks forward to future collaborations with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, the Grand Central #ShutItDown group, and any other organizations that may want to include the performing arts as a part of the work they are doing to advance the movement.
About the Featured Artists
Jamel “Jam No Peanut” Mims is a multimedia artist, rapper, and revolutionary on the front lines of resistance against mass incarceration. A Washington DC native and seasoned activist whose whose faced jail time with the likes of Cornel West, Jam No Peanut is out to change the world with art and action.
In his music, Jam No Peanut takes the sinister undertones of trap genre and injects it with rapid-fire revolutionary lyrics, painting a picture of a apocalyptic society with no future for its youth- where “these days Harlem looks a whole lot more like Warsaw.” Mims, a Fulbright Scholar who is fluent in Mandarin, switches between English and Chinese in politically charged verses over hard-hitting beats.
“I strive unite with the raw despair in trap music – and use it to bring out the source of this madness – this system- and to inspire and challenge others to fight against it, and transform themselves in the process.”
About the Stop Mass Incarceration Network
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network is building a movement to stop the injustice of mass incarceration and police brutality; and the racially biased policies and practices of the police, the courts and the U.S. legal system; and to support the rights of prisoners and the formerly incarcerated.
We are initiating an effort to accelerate the movement to stop the injustice of mass incarceration and police brutality; and the racially biased policies and practices of the police, the courts and the U.S. legal system; and to support prisoners’ human rights, and of the formerly incarcerated. We call on all to join us.
For more information about the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, visit www.stopmassincarceration.net
