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on the underside of flesh: Spirit work and Black feminist thought in the body

Oct 8, 2022

08:00 PM

North Hall, Space Place Theater

20 Davenport Street, Iowa City, IA 52245

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a Black woman in a white swimsuit, wearing a bejeweled white headdress, laying on her back at the edge of a body of water

This public lecture traces the creative praxis of Detroit performance artist Jennifer Harge. Presented through a constellation of movement research, film, and texts, this lecture will offer a close reading of Harge's multi-year project, FLY | DROWN, a series of movement-based fables honoring the interiority and self-sovereignty of Black women. The lecture will specifically look at the movement methodology embedded in FLY | DROWN and its relationship to fascia, conjuring, and Toni Morrison's Beloved. 


Harge Bio:

Jennifer Harge is an interdisciplinary choreographer, performance artist, and educator based in Detroit. Her work centers Black and queer vernacular movement practices, codes, and rituals that manifest at the intersections of performance, installation, and community gathering. Harge’s processes and artistic products grow out of Black subjectivity; Black feminist thought; nurturance of intimate reciprocal partnerships; and iteration-based research that allows the work to evolve nomadically across time and varied contexts. She founded Harge Dance Stories in 2014 as a container for choreographic research. 

Harge is a 2021 Wexner Center for Arts Artist Residency awardee, 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, and 2019 Eva Yaa Asantewaa Queer|Art awardee. Her work has also been recognized by various organizations in the form of grant support, performance, and residency invitations, including Sidewalk Detroit, Daring Dances, EXPLODE! Queer Dance Festival, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Yaddo, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The Philadelphia Thing, Contemporary&, AUNTS, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Knight Foundation, Kresge Arts in Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and others.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact in advance at