Floor Folx: Invisible bridges across class and consciousness

FOOR Folx is an interactive visual arts exhibition featuring people, photography, film, and the written word to explore the experiences of FOrmerly poOR Folx in the Twin Cities. What does it look like to live in between the lower, middle, and upper classes? What knowledge do FOOR Folx hold and where do they choose to apply it? How does being FOOR affect current and future ambitions? 

FOOR Folx inspires conversation around the often-taboo topics of class and class mobility, like the acquisition of wealth and privilege and its unseen effects on people’s personal lives, professional possibilities, and even entire communities over time.

As a part of this exhibition, the film Historically Robbed: Minneapolis will explore the historical aspect of colonialism and capitalism, as it connects to socioeconomic status. The goal is to leave audiences with an understanding of the maelstrom of identities and emotions that contribute to being FOOR, and how it has uniquely shaped the consciousness of the marginalized middle class.

Flash is illumination, enlightenment, stealthiness, and transcendence. Flash is the impermanence of life and the urgent need for transformation. Introducing a dance theater duet written, choreographed, and performed by dance gurus Rennie Harris and Michael Sakamoto combining their dual approaches to manifesting a body in crisis.

The work is conceived as a “conversation” between the artists’ respective aesthetics (butoh and hip-hop), cultural backgrounds (Japanese-American and African-American), and personalities. Hip-hop and butoh were born from marginalized, postwar urban subcultures, and each embodies a philosophical approach to the creation of cultural identity through dance.

Flash is an interdisciplinary performance project combining butoh and hip-hop dance, multimedia, and other theatrical elements to address the intersection of urban and environmental crisis, social resistance, and corporeal identity.

Adja Gildersleve (they/them pronouns) is a Black, queer artist and agitator based in the Twin Cities. Adja is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and is continuing liberation work through community education and media production.

Anna Min is a photographer, entrepreneur, and economist revealing vivid and vital social narratives. Living in and between the binaries of class, citizenship, race, religion, and gender, Anna Min simultaneously troubles and augments authorship, widely distributing public-oriented documentary photos to bolster community-based actions while producing for many of Minnesota’s most established organizations.

Tina Cho is a queer Korean-American who rides bikes in Minneapolis. In all seriousness (Irreverent pithiness aside,) Tina‘s work focuses on building community around alternative transportation and infrastructural justice, culminating as Access Manager at Nice Ride MN. She also enjoys stringing words together in new, fresh, enjoyable, and sensible ways. She is also a crusading advocate of the Oxford Comma, which aids her contribution to this collaboration.

Lorenzo (Rennie) Harris is Founder and Artistic Director of Rennie Harris Puremovement, a hip-hop dance company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, lectures, residencies, mentor programs, and performances. Harris’s work tours the globe and encompasses diverse African-American traditions while simultaneously presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance. Harris is committed to providing audiences with a sincere view of the spirit of hip-hop rather than the commercially exploited stereotypes portrayed by the media. Harris is most known for his evening length work, Rome & Jewels, choreographed and directed in collaboration with dramaturge Ozzie Jones and composer/sound designer Darin Ross. Rome & Jewels uses Shakespeare’s text and original material by the cast to tell its own story based on West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet. Rome & Jewels is the longest touring hip-hop dance theater work in American history. Harris also created the full-length shows, Legends of Hip Hop, Students of the Asphalt Jungle, and Facing Mekka. Rome & Jewels was awarded three Bessie Awards, two Alvin Ailey Black Choreographers Award, an Ethnic Dance Award, Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Choreography and nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award (UK). He has received the “Philadelphia Rocky” award, Governors Artist of the Year Award, USA artist award for choreography, and honorary doctorates from Bates College and Columbia College-Chicago and was a USA cultural ambassador in President Obama’s cultural exchange program, Dance Motion, traveling to Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel.

Michael Sakamoto is a transdisciplinary artist active in dance, theater, media, and photography. He is best known as an innovator in contemporary butoh, which serves as the philosophical base of all of his works. Michael’s ensemble and solo performances have been presented in over a dozen countries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, including the Vancouver International Dance Festival (Canada), GAS Festival (Sweden), TACT/Fest (Japan), and REDCAT (Los Angeles). He has won awards and grants from major funders, including Japan Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Arts International, Meet the Composer, DanceUSA, and many others. Michael began his performance career perfoming and touring with legendary performance artist, Rachel Rosenthal, and was founding co- director of the avant-garde theater ensemble, Empire of Teeth, cited by LA Weekly as Best of LA theater companies. Additionally, Michael is a scholar and educator who has taught and lectured internationally; faculty and former Co-Director of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College; and currently Assistant Professor in Dance at University of Iowa.

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As Minnesota’s premier multidisciplinary, multicultural arts organization, Intermedia Arts builds understanding among people by catalyzing and inspiring artists to make changes in their lives and communities. We provide creative people of all ages with the opportunities, tools, and support to come together across disciplines, sectors, and boundaries to connect, create, share, collaborate, innovate, think big, and act as catalysts for positive community-driven and community-defined change. We are a nationally recognized leader in empowering artists and community leaders to used arts-based approaches to solve community issues. By stimulating deeper community engagement and providing a platform for the stories and experiences of underrepresented communities locally, nationally, and internationally, we contribute to a stronger, healthier society.