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COS x Serpentine Galleries Park Nights 2019
Blackbird In Mississippi

Written and Directed: Shawanda Corbett

Performed: Shawanda Corbett

Choreography: Albert Corbett

Violist: Andrea Fortier

Vocal Arrangment & Choral Direction: Harrison Atlee

Choir: Anton Denny, Cartell Green Brown, Leon Jacques, Leanna Leid, Zaza Lewis-Wright, Monique Meade, Siziwe Sayiya, Aeo Smith, and Antoinette Thelwell

Bringing Mississippi to the Serpentine Galleries Park Nights, the live performance is about the perspective of a black woman with a physical disability. The performance draws a parallel comparison between a slave and their journey on the underground railroad, and my experience in Mississippi and journey to the underground railroad’s destination for rehabilitation, Rochester, New York. 

 

For the performance, a science fiction character is used as an inner dialogue. The character, haar wese, time travels (flashback) to the past in Mississippi to reflect. This flashback is a cinematic scene where music gives haar wese a voice. It is about finding placement in displacement.

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