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Year of Graduation
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Major
Dance
Directing Professor
Rebekah Chappell
Abstract
Inspired by the lyrics of Mary J. Blidge, Paris Cian Williams is inviting audiences to "look at my life and see what I see," through her new work, Uprooted: reROOT. Maternal lineage, efforts towards restoration, and spiritual reflection on upbringing have heavily influenced this current work-in-process.
This work is an auto-ethnographic investigation of black girl emergence that works to heal through performance and text. Through a variety of mediums, feminist/womanist research is referenced to address the influence of black familial traumas and joys, black motherhood, and the manifestation of self.
Uprooted: reROOT currently manifests in two parts: an exhibition, 7522 Becoming Ave. and a solo performance, magnol(i)a. 7522 Becoming Ave. invites viewers into a (growing) imaginary home. Igniting the conversations of generational healing, this becoming is: active, black girl emergence, and the embodiment of restoration and manifestation. Paris’ solo, magnol(i)a, explicitly shares the vulnerability of recalling, lineage, and love within the self (home). Concluding her journey around the birth of this work, the audience witnesses her, “back to life, back to reality,” as she grooves into her next chapter of this manifestation.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Paris Cian, "Uprooted: reROOT, the becoming" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses, Hollins University. 13.
https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/ughonors/13