Mele Broomes to Perform U.S. Premiere of VOID at San Francisco International Arts Festival

San Francisco International will welcome Mele Broomes to make her North American debut with the U.S. premiere of Mele Broomes in Void. The piece is a reimagining of JG Ballard's cult novel Concrete Island seen through the lens of a black female protagonist, and staged as a meshing of experimental dance and abstract glitch video landscapes.

Drawing parallels from Stefano Harney and Fred Moten's The Undercommons, a study of fugitivity and blackness, VOID is a statement that is a questioning of critical consciousness and a radical intervention in the discourse of race and representation. In this re-telling, Concrete Island's protagonist Maitland - a white male architect, intent on breaking out of the real world - is depicted as Angela - a black female architect, desperately trying and failing to break in.

SFIAF director, Andrew Wood said of VOID, "Mele Broomes is an outspoken and relentless advocate for a world view that focuses on the viewpoints of Black women and People of Color. Mele's is a perfect example of the type of voices we want to highlight as part of a focus on New Majorities and different perspectives.

Mele Broomes is an award-winning choreographer and performer and is part of the Take Me Somewhere Artist Constellation team. Mele's work embodies stories from the collective voice, creating visceral and sensory collaborations through her ancestral inheritance: activating social questions, remembering and celebrating. Mele is the founder of V/DA, a multi-disciplinary collective where her roles cross between directing, performing, choreographing and assistant producing. Mele has choreographed and performed nationally and internationally.

VOID is produced by V/DA & MHz in association with Feral.

The US Premiere of VOID by Mele Broomes is made possible in part by support from Creative Scotland, and the Western Arts Federation's Tourwest Grant.

Information

Who: Mele Broomes
What: VOID
Where: San Francisco International Arts Festival, Fort Mason, Southside Theatre
When: Thursday May 21 8:00 PM, Friday May 22 9:30 PM, and Saturday May 23 2:00 PM

Tickets: $15 - $28, Box Office and Information: www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554