“This Ain’t A Eulogy: A Ritual for Re-Membering” (2017) is a short film by Taja Lindley based on her solo healing performance ritual that debuted at La Mama's SQUIRTS in 2015. Moved by the non-indictments of the police officers responsible for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, “This Ain’t A Eulogy” is drawing parallels between discarded materials and the violent treatment of Black people in the United States. People in the African Diaspora have a long history of repurposing, remixing, and transforming oppressive systems into valuable cultural practices. In this post-Ferguson moment, Lindley is calling on this legacy to re-imagine how we can recycle the energy of protest, rage, and grief into creating a world where, indeed, Black lives matter.
"This Ain't A Eulogy" is Lindley's origin story of The Bag Lady, and serves as a preamble to her one woman show "The Bag Lady Manifesta" which will debut at Dixon Place Fall 2017.
Created, Performed & Produced by Taja Lindley Directed by Taja Lindley & Ellen Maynard Cinematography by Ellen Maynard & Jim Tripp Creative Direction by Daví Lighting Design by Jim Tripp Editing by Ellen Maynard Musical Score by Loren Halman Costume & Set Design by Taja Lindley
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Taja Lindley is a writer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the founder and Managing Member of Colored Girls Hustle, and a member of Echoing Ida and Harriet's Apothecary. Lindley considers herself a healer and an activist, creating socially engaged work that reflects and transforms audiences, shifts culture and moves people to action. She uses movement, text, installation, props, ritual, burlesque, and multi-media to create performances that are concerned with freedom, healing and pleasure. She is currently developing a body of work recycling and repurposing discarded materials. Her artwork has been featured at the Movement Research at Judson Church series, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), the Gallatin Arts Festival at New York University, WOW Café Theater, La Mama Theater, in living rooms, classrooms, conferences and public spaces. In 2014 she was a Create Change Fellow with the Laundromat Project and a participant in EMERGENYC, an artist activist program of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University. In 2015 she was a Fall space grantee at BAX. This summer (May-August 2017) she is an Artist in Residence at Dixon Place. Her writing has appeared in Rewire, EBONY, Feministe, Yes! Magazine and Salon.
