Performances will take place at New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street.
Co-Presented with New York Live Arts.
Memory Fleet: Beloved, Let’s Cross encompasses a series of performances, a shared embodied practice, an evolving installation of archival materials, an expanding digital archive, and a body of original sound, text, and recipes — all celebrating the stories, dances, and gestures passed on through intergenerational lineages. Hearn’s Memory Fleet project began in 2014 with the creation of the interdisciplinary dance theater piece, Memory Keep(H)er with their grandmother. This performance was later made into a short film series — both iterations act as an alternative archive that listens and preserves the grandmother’s story of growing up in rural Texas in the 1940’s. Over a decade, the duet has expanded into the interdisciplinary project, which premiered in Houston, TX April 2024 with a site-specific installation and ensemble production – Memory Fleet: A Return to Matr was co-presented by DiverseWorks and Houston MET Dance.
Choreography, Performance, and Design: Jasmine Hearn. Additional choreographic collaboration from Byronné J, Hearn, Melanie George, Harrison Guy, Acquenette LeBlanc, Bebe Miller, Kendra Portier, and jhon r. stronks. Featuring an original sound score by Hearn and Ashley Teamer. The ensemble presentation will feature performances from Hearn, Nora Alami, Maria Bauman, Dominica Greene, Melanie George, Jenna Hearn, Jennifer Newsom, Pamela Pietro, Angie Pittman, Kendra Portier, jhon r. stronks, Wayne Smith, Charmaine Warren, and Tara Aisha Willis, with additional sonic collaboration by Jo Stewart and Ashley Teamer and archival video design by Myssi Robinson.
Memory Fleet is supported with a New England Foundation of the Arts National Dance Production Grant (2023), National Production Network Creation Grant (2022), and Creative Capital Award (2022). Memory Fleet is also made possible with creative support and development in the following residencies, PearlDiving at PearlArts Movement and Sound (2025), research residency at African American History Research Center (Houston Public Library) & Rice University (2025), and SummerStages at Institute for Contemporary Arts Boston (2024).
