the process series

Aya Shabu’s LandED tells the story of Aya a second-generation African American of Bajan descent marked by her grandmother’s colorism, gender norms, and prideful notions of Black mobility. Initially, just a touring dancer passing through, Aya becomes entangled in Durham’s dirty dealings of gentrification and sets up walking tours to help the community navigate a bitter and bigger history of displacement. A victim of the unaffordable rental market herself, Aya is forced to unpack her own baggage in her battle to stay in place and raise her family. Set in Durham, North Carolina the story spans 30 years.

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Aya Shabu is a professional dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist living in Durham, North Carolina. In 2017 Aya was awarded an artist residency at the Power Plant Gallery at American Tobacco Campus where she co-developed an embodied research performance entitled Hayti|Haiti|History. A 2012-2013 Emerging Artist Grant recipient, Aya has choreographed for some of the Triangle's best theatrical productions, most notably I Love My Hair, The Brothers Size, and The Parchman Hour - an original documentary theater