What Compels Us to Be Resilient?
POLARITY Curator, Bri Stokes, reflects on the inspiration and drive behind the biggest Level Ground group show to date. Learn more about the show, and the participating artists here.
Is it some divine drive that lives within all of us, carrying us through in times of crisis? Is it born of the strength we derive from our communities? Or is it fought for, earned and alchemized from unforeseen circumstances?
“We sought to create a space where we could collectively acknowledge our pain, while simultaneously honoring it, alchemizing it.”
The events of the Covid-19 pandemic (and the various global, political and environmental changes that have followed it) have called upon all of us to be alchemists. Each and every single one of us has had to face down the sting of loss, be it personal, existential or both. We’ve had to sit with it, examine it, and make something new of what was found in the wreckage.
POLARITY: The Tension of an Emerging World was born on the other side of that process.
In working with a brilliant team of producers and collaborators (Rebekah Mei, Liliana Epps and Langston Alimayu), we decided fairly early on that the show should evoke a sense of optimism, even through the pain that cried out to us in the work. The goal was to give life to the concept of “polarity” itself, displaying how contradictory forces can merge to create something new.
We wanted it to be immersive, bright, colorful. We decided it should feel reminiscent of a house party, where our “guests” could celebrate the very progression and strength of life itself. We sought to create a space where we could collectively acknowledge our pain, while simultaneously honoring it, alchemizing it. To create the kind of world we can now envision in the light of salvation won in grief.
Our incredible artists and performers aided us immensely in achieving that vision. Their work echoes with threads of anguish, glory and ever-present strength, and the constant love, energy and enthusiasm they poured into this show is staggering.
I know how difficult the last few years have been for us all, and my hope is that this experience offered both an acknowledgement of and a reprieve from that, inviting you to exhale.
To everyone at Robinson S.P.A.C.E., thank you for letting us build our home there.
To our contributing artists—Langston, Katayoun Bahrami, Kennedy Francis, Chiho Harazaki, Chloe A. Joseph, Coffee Kang, Dvorah Marie, Rebekah, Bianca Nozaki-Nasser, Kevin Patrick, Eva Montealegre, Suzanna Missenberger, Jupiter Mitchell, Kiki La Pomme, Rye Reuel, Katie Shanks, Ruoyi Shi, Foroozan Shirghani, Cedric Tai and Ricardo Tomasz—thank you. You are so loved and appreciated, and I am deeply proud of each and every one of you.
To our musical guests—Lily, Goose Pimple, Rhys Langston and DJ Sevyn—thank you for being brilliant and lending us your magic.
To the producers/co-creators—Lily, Rebekah and Langston—thank you for all of the work, care, attention and love that you put into this experience, and for elevating it every day.
To Maya, Ben, Mom, Carl, Dr. France and to all things Divine—thank you for everything, everything.
In all that you accomplish, I’d like to impress upon you to move with absolute love. In doing so, you can fully embrace the road ahead in all its complexities and variations. Move with love, and in the face of grief, you can transform.
Bri Stokes
Curator
2022
