Co-MISSION Works-In-Progress Series | Silvita Diaz Brown, Meida Teresa McNeal

Co-MISSION WIP performances offer split bill showings by artists awarded Summer Intensives, Residencies and Fellowship by Links Hall's Programing committee. February's WIP showing features our 2019 Fellowship Artists Silvita Diaz Brown, and Meida Teresa McNeal who have been awarded 6 months of dollar, space, and development support by Links Hall. Join us to see sneak peak of works new works that will premier at Links Hall in June!

Co-MISSION Fellows are selected annually. These commissions are granted to individual artists who are Chicago based and have received significant awards, residencies and/or accolades for their creative work over the course of their careers.

Through our Co-MISSION program Links Hall offers Intensives, Residencies, and Fellowships that support 14-16 artistic projects annually. These programs incorporate a flexible range of resources, designed to meet the needs of artistic experimentation at different points in an artist's career, and different points in a project's development. This works-in-progress series features artists from all three programs on shared bills.

Silvita explains, "The research for my Links Hall Fellowship is to delve into my heritage through Mexican mythology and its teachings to create a new dance work: Leyendas y Realidades. Leyendas y Realidades will celebrate my Mexican heritage, my adopted country and awaken insights about gender equality, female strength and social justice through myths translated into movement, sound, and costume. The work will develop as dance vignettes capturing the essence of the myths to manifest current matters in our system but with a touch of mysticism and Mexican folklore."

Silvita Diaz Brown is a Mexican/American choreographer, dancer, actor, acrobat, yogi and yoga instructor established in Chicago since 2008. She is the founder of Sildance/AcroDanza Company. Her work interlaces dance imagery, partner acrobatics, ritual gesture and spoken word. Her work investigates the self by exploring her own roots, desires and fears and how they relate to our existing world and our communities and social issues. Silvita is passionate about creating dances that are based on life's journey experiences. Her work attempts to reach all as evolving beings. Silvita has been privileged to work with diverse communities of artists internationally. Her choreography has been presented at various venues and festivals in Delhi, Toronto, Chicago, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and various locations in Mexico; including Puebla and Mexico City. This summer 2018 Sildance/AcroDanza has been invited to perform in Spain. Silvita is very excited and grateful to be part of Links Hall through the Links Hall artists Co-Mission Fellowship 2018-2019.

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Meida Teresa McNeal | "Fifth City revisited/Imaginal Politics embodied"

In homage to her parents and Chicago’s Westside, McNeal charts new ground for a solo-facilitated work, "Fifth City revisited/Imaginal Politics embodied." An ambitious community redevelopment process for Chicago's Westside, the Fifth City Human Development Project incorporated educational curriculum, economic development, skill training, creativity, and community investment. Fifth City presented a powerful model for local citizens reimagining their own community and working together to manifest a new vision to bring a higher quality of life for all. What can we draw from the historic example of Fifth City’s ambitious plan to rebuild a Westside community using the available archive as both a blueprint and evidence of a failed experiment in community transformation? What moments of ingenious community design can we draw from Fifth City to imagine community revitalization and mobilization for our 21st century reality? Drawing on annual reports, business directories, curriculum, as well as oral histories, this project invites people to consider Fifth City’s plans, symbols, and rituals for community transformation as part of an active creative community process that results in a performance with an accompanying installation.

Meida Teresa McNeal is an Independent Artist, Educator, Administrator, and Scholar whose work lay at the intersection of performance studies, dance and critical ethnography. She received her PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History from Ohio State University. Meida is the Director of Honey Pot Performance, an Afro-feminist collective dedicated to critical performance & public humanities. Over the past two decades, Meida has produced numerous creative projects as both a solo artist and with Honey Pot Performance, with works performed in Illinois, Rhode Island, Ohio, California, and Trinidad. She has taught courses in dance, critical performance ethnography, and black diasporic cultural production at Northwestern University, Brown University, Governors State, and Columbia College Chicago. Meida also works with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives across the city’s parks and cultural centers.

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