Daughter by Jasmine Mans, 2024
New Arts Justice Poet-in-Residence Jasmine Mans presents Daughter, a public poetry workshop series and performance that explores themes of daughterhood by investigating internal yet relative conversations women seek space to voice aloud. Featuring narratives from literary foremothers and her curiosities, Mans will explore themes of voice, memory, and reclamation through newly created poems and digital media production in the multi-media development of her written poetry. The dialogue will explore intergenerational conversation with self and external relationships, as well as visuals and context given to her home, Newark, New Jersey.
THE WORKSHOP: There will be a public poetry-writing workshop hosted in collaboration with The Free Black Women’s Library that references and builds on the poems Blues People, after Amiri Baraka, Palestine, Motherhood, Newark, and Femininity. Featured in Mans’ digital media series, Mans used her residency to produce digital media work with visual textures of Newark to support the narrative throughline in four pieces that encompass the current and future. Participants will work closely with Mans to explore past and present pieces that unpack the reclamation of voice that has inspired particular poems she is presenting and providing as a touchpoint for conversation. Activating a literary community between Brooklyn and Newark is an opportunity to collaborate with diverse community members in the tri-state area.
THE PERFORMANCE: The two-night live poetry performance by Mans with band accompaniment and a moderated conversation with Express Newark and New Arts Director Salamishah Tillet will provide a dialogue into the process and inner workings of Mans’ work in this new iteration of production. After exploring identity. Each activation is free and open to the public. Attendees can share the space with live readings with featured accompaniment and join New Arts in conversation with Dr. Tillet to expand on the exciting work that provided a platform for Mans’ experimental process through resources in her residency. Hosted at Express Newark is a celebration of the work Mans has developed, a moment of honoring the musical and jazz references in Baraka’s work, and a dialogue unpacking the process of creation and inspiration behind Man’s published and in-process work.
THE RESIDENCY: Jasmine Mans is the inaugural Poet-in-Residence for New Arts Justice. Through this yearlong residency, Mans will engage the spaces and engagements with Express Newark’s annual theme Blues People, an exhibition on view from February 20- July 19, 2024, and in collaboration with The Free Black Women’s Library. The end production of this residency is to provide a platform for engagement and experimentation in poetry and performance to develop Man’s work in ways she otherwise would not be able to do without facilitation.
Featured public engagement is activating the community through workshops led by Jasmine Mans and two curated performances featuring a talkback highlighting the work done in the year-long residency. Reaching Newark and beyond through public art is part of the mission to expose new voices to sustained programming and community engagements in spaces that are accessible and timely. Key themes featured in Blues People are activism, blues music, poetry, home, community, and, in the tradition of Baraka, resistance and resilience through expression.
The New Arts Justice Poet-in-Residence program is supported by Executive Director Salamishah Tillet. New Arts Program Coordinator Brooke Finister provides additional support for the residency, in addition to Senior Program Coordinator and Associate Curator and curator of Blues People, Alliyah Allen, and Tech Multimedia Coordinator for Express Newark, Babas Denis. Further development of digital production is thanks to Nneka Julia Odum, Director of digital visuals and production. Our collaborative workshops are thanks to the shared community with The Free Black Women’s Library and the Newark Public Library, as well as the support of Rutgers University-Newark for supporting the arts community in venturing into public art in the greater Newark area.
