Voices: A Walking Tour
Digital Program
Please note that audience members are required to wear masks due to the close proximity of the large group. Performers will not be masked but will be distancing for the safety of everyone in our community.
This is a silent tour to promote reflection. Please respect the other audience members by remaining silent throughout the walk and silence your cell phones.
The tour guide will lead the way. We encourage you use the flashlight on your phone to illuminate your path and look closely at the spaces we visit.
Heather Tatreau curated this performance and created the site-specific performance structure and concept for Voices. She is a UNC dance professor, choreographer, and producer of the Process Series. This is the second iteration of the tour and there are plans to continue developing it as new community partnerships emerge.
The Voices tour guide is Meredith Haggerty, a local artist who uses collage, storytelling, and performance to explore mind-body practices. She has extensive experience leading contemplative walks, encouraging participants to connect to their surroundings in meaningful ways.
The land acknowledgement is offered by students from the Carolina Indian Circle: AJ Hunt-Briggs on Friday and Zianne Richardson on Saturday.
Click or scroll below to see each of the performance locations
Site #1: The Student Body by Julia Balk
This performance was created through a collaborative process between Heather Tatreau and her Intermediate Modern Dance students. They chose to respond to the use of stereotypes in the sculptures and offer an alternative narrative through dance. What if we were all celebrated for our own unique voices rather than strive to fulfill other’s expectations?
Performers: Hailey Clodfelter, Sara Compeggie, Izzy D’Alo, Rebecca Rice
More information on this site:
https://blackandblue.web.unc.edu/stops-on-the-tour/student-body-controversy/
Site #2: The Gift by Senora Lynch of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe
Carolina students formed the Carolina Indian Circle in 1974 to build a support network for Native students and to share their culture with the rest of the campus. The Gift is a site of belonging and acknowledgement for this group of students who identify as both Indigenous and Tarheels.
Friday Performers: AJ Hunt-Briggs, Class of 2022; Jake Gerardi, Class of 2023, Juanita Paz-Chalacha, Class of 2023; Vivian Clarke, Class of 2024; Makayla Richardson, Class of 2025; Lydia-Ruth Mansfield Class of 2025, Halona Lewis, Class of 2025; Laurel Emanuel, Class of 2025; Susie Hunt, Class of 1991 and 1994.
Saturday Performers: Zianne Richardson, Class of 2023; Juanita Paz-Chalacha, Class of 2023, Vivian Clarke, Class of 2024, Makayla Richardson Class of 2025; Lydia-Ruth Mansfield Class of 2025; Evynn Richardson Class of 2025, Laurel Emanuel, Class of 2025
More information on this site:
Site #3: The Unsung Founders memorial by Do-Ho Suh
C.J. Suitt is a performance poet, arts educator, and community organizer from Chapel Hill, NC, whose work is rooted in storytelling and social justice. C.J. was recently appointed as the first Poet Laureate of Chapel Hill. He will present an original poem for this tour.
More information on this site:
https://blackandblue.web.unc.edu/stops-on-the-tour/unsung-founders/
Site #4: Silent Sam empty field
Killian Manning has been creating award-winning dance-theater, site-specific, and video works for over 30 years. Here she offers a performative response to the politically charged empty space where Silent Sam stood. The primary focus of her research is intertextual performance, with a special interest in the distinct vocabulary created by the interaction between text and movement.
Performers: Alyah Baker, George Barrett, Kevin Higgins, Becca Johansen, Madeleine Popkin
Performance Text: Start Close in by David Whyte
https://artoflivingretreatcenter.org/blog/start-close-in/
More information on this site:
Site #5: Peace and Justice Plaza
George Barrett, in collaboration with a community of creatives and housing activists, adapted this excerpt of the original musical Affordable Housing: The Musical for the Peace and Justice Plaza. Affordable Housing: The Musical premiered at the CURRENT ArtSpace of Carolina Performing Arts in November 2019. George is the Executive Director of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, a local non-profit whose mission is to honor, renew, and build community in the historically Black neighborhoods of Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin-Top. He has also been a company member of Killian Manning/No Forwarding Address since 2016.
Performers: Artis Swann, Chinita Howard, Christian Foushee-Green, Christine Abernathy, David Lyles, Dorothy Faulkner, Eric Breit, Erika Walker, George Barrett, Heather Nash, Jackie Jenks, Jaden Johnson, Jonathan Youngpenn, Joyce Yao, Kaelan Forbes, Kristina Smith, Leonora Breit, Liz Evans, Maggie West, Mwaba Barcelos, Priya Sreenivasan, Rachel Thomas-Levy, Ronald Carnes, Synthia Bethea, Leah Whitehead
More information on this site:
Acknowledgements and Questionnaire Link
This performance is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
We would also like to thank Humanities for the Public Good for their generous support of this performance. The program was established with support from the Institute for the Arts & Humanities and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The initiative offers grants and programmatic opportunities for faculty in partnership with cultural institutions within and beyond the academy.
As this is a work in process, the artists would love to know how this performance resonates with you. Please take a few minutes to respond to the feedback questionnaire here: