Artists & Projects Directory
Cross Performance/Ralph Lemon
Since 2002, Lemon has spent a
considerable amount of time in and around the Mississippi Delta towns of
Bentonia and Yazoo
City. After initially
traveling to the area on research trips for Come home Charley Patton,
his relationship to the place and people has evolved organically in several
directions over time: sharing his methodology for creative research with groups
of young people in Memory Project workshops; engaging Walter Carter
and members of his family in the development of mixed-media exhibitions ((the efflorescence of) Walter); and involving residents in the development of a new
performance work (How
Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?)
Cross Performance hopes to build on its relationship to people in the Bentonia
and Yazoo City communities, and to deepen the experience of shared creative
process through a virtual Institute-a cultural/creative "studio" that
brings intergenerational members of the community together with performing and
visual artists for exploration, collaboration and creation. Pedagogically, the
Institute will draw from Lemon's methodology of artistic research and practice,
lessons learned from the Memory Project workshops, and the themes being
explored in his work with Walter: history, memory, landscape, and transcendence.