(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) presents The Box: Reinvention on Friday, February 19, 2021. Named The Box after the black box theater in JCTC’s Merseles Studios location, this year’s event will be an online Zoom production. Artists Ariel Guidry and Jersey City Poet Laureate Rescue Poetix are co-curating Reinvention. Zoom information sent via ticket confirmation at www.jctcenter.org
“During the pandemic we have faced extraordinary challenges. Yet, this moment in time seems to be reminding us to pause, reflect, and maybe reinvent ourselves,” said Olga Levina, Artistic Director at Jersey City Theater Center. “It is a time of shift and renewal. Doing more isn’t always better. To heal and grow we must slow down. Let’s honor that process together as one community through the arts,” said Levina.
Reinvention questions present times. What has changed? Who are you today? What habits were a part of your life that are no longer sustainable? What are your new habits? How have your views on social justice, climate change, politics changed during these times? What is your idea of reinvention? What rebirth have you experienced?
The co-curators were eager to explore the idea of reinvention with their fellow artists. RescuePoetix suggested, “the forced time of self appraisal and self reflection stripped away the things we thought we knew about ourselves which gives us the opportunity to accept our true selves. Now... what do we do with that knowledge?”
And as artists re-evaluate their approach to creativity during the pandemic Guidry observed, “some of us have even been shocked into a state of quiet just to observe and absorb, and that creates a whole new narrative with ourselves and our surroundings. Our call to creativity claimed us in previous times to express ourselves and reflect the ongoings of society. Now, all of that has been amplified.”
In keeping with JCTC’s mission to present work relevant to the community yet universal in scope, the Box was conceived as an event to serve Jersey City’s extraordinary and diverse community of artists and audiences. The artists represent nearly every facet of creative expression such as theater, music, dance, poetry, spoken word, visual arts, film, and other multidisciplinary mediums. Every Box production is an intersection of a thought provoking theme and social justice. Themes in the past included Outsiders, Privilege, and Origins.
The Box: Reinvention Lineup
Poetry/ Spoken Word: Gabby Creery, Crystal Davis (one with Ariel), Esther Pagan, Megha Sood, Tameka Bordeaux, Andrea Barriffe, and Ibn Sharif Shakoor
Visual Art: Crystal Davis, Esther Pagan, Cecilia Martinez, Janhavi Fire, K Brown, Lorenzo the Artist, Kati Vilim, and Ekaterina Abramova
Music: Ibn Sharif Shakoor & Lorenzo the Artist, Gary Van Miert, and Jack Halpin
Other Perf: Dance /Performance Art/ Animation - Charly Santagado, Heather Williams, Nancy Mendez-Booth, Samantha Benvissuto, Alon Nechushtan & Wendy Osserman, and Frank Ippolito
Jersey City Theater Center is located at 339 Newark Avenue, 2nd Floor, in Jersey City, New Jersey. JCTC is a 501(c)3 arts organization. Its mission is to spark conversations about important topics of our times through the arts - relevant to our community and universal in scope.
