Center for the Arts

Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts announces Toshi Reagon as 2021-2022 Artist in Residence

Middletown, Conn.—Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts announces world-renowned singer, composer, musician, curator, activist, producer, and storyteller Toshi Reagon as their 2021-2022 artist in residence, and will partner with the Free Center to host an inaugural live-streamed improvisational performance at the start of her year-long residency on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 8pm. Please see below for more information about Toshi Reagon, her artist residency, her work-in-progress the “Disco Project,” and her collaborators.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Toshi over an extended period of time on her developing ‘Disco Project’,” said Jennifer Calienes, Interim Director of the Center for the Arts. Reagon will be joined on November 17 at the Free Center in Middletown by two featured guests for an evening of music and conversation: vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress Nona Hendryx of Labelle; and artist manager, producer, remixer, music supervisor, performer, recording artist, writer, and DJ Bill Coleman. This collaboration will be streamed online for free from the Center for the Arts YouTube page.

During her 2021-2022 residency at Wesleyan, Reagon will focus on research and development for a new performance piece, the "Disco Project," which traces disco’s journey from subversive underground communities to international fame and violent repression. 1960s and '70s discotheques were vibrant, safe spaces for Black and Queer joy and expression, and became spaces for revolution, activism, and protest. Reagon interrogates the intense anti-Black and homophobic backlash towards disco, from the "disco sucks" campaign to the disco demolition night in Chicago in 1979. She also explores how disco was appropriated by the global music economy, and how its demise intersected with the AIDS crisis. In telling the story of disco, Reagon ultimately examines how Black and Queer joy, expression, and movement in the United States is consistently and violently suppressed by institutional powers.

“Toshi Reagon is an extraordinary artist, activator, and community-builder," said Fiona Coffey, Associate Director for Programming and Performing Arts, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University. "By shining a light on the complexities of the disco era through Reagon’s music and storytelling, we can better understand historical patterns of repression and violence towards Black and Queer bodies that have led to the conditions we find ourselves in today. This is a rare opportunity for our campus and Middletown communities to engage with one of the most significant storytellers of our time.”

Reagon’s 2021-2022 artist residency at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Throughout the year, Reagon will be in conversation with Wesleyan faculty, students, and community members through meetings, workshops, public work-in-progress showings and performances, and classroom settings, both around the "Disco Project" and her currently-touring work, an opera adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s "Parable of the Sower." In the spring of 2022, Reagon will engage with students in several classes, including “Dance as Activism” taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance and African American Studies Joya Powell; and “Queering the Dancing Body” taught by Professor and Chair of the Dance Department, and Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Hari Krishnan. Reagon will spend time during the summer of 2022 developing a work-in-progress showing of the "Disco Project" that will be one of the highlights of the 2022-23 Performing Arts Series at the Center for the Arts.

About Toshi Reagon

Born in Atlanta and raised in Washington, D.C., Toshi Reagon cites her musical abilities from her family. Both of her parents belonged to The Freedom Singers of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a folk group that sprung from the Civil Rights movement and toured the country to teach people about civil rights through song. Bernice Johnson Reagon is not only Toshi’s mother, but also the founder of the world-renowned a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock (she retired in 2004 after 30 years with the group). Toshi and her mother have collaborated on many projects together, including co-producing many of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s recordings. They also created two operas with director Robert Wilson: "The Temptation of St. Anthony," and "Zinnias — The Life of Clementine Hunter," with book by Jacqueline Woodson.

Based in Brooklyn, Toshi Reagon has a profound ear for sonic Americana, from folk, blues, jazz and gospel to funk, rock, soul, and R&B. “She masters each of these genres with vocal strategies that easily spiral and swoop from the expressively sinuous to the hard-charging, a combination of warmth and mischief,” said critic/blogger Eva Yaa Asantewaa of InfiniteBody. “Toshi knows the power of song to focus, unite and mobilize people. If you’ve been lucky enough to be in Toshi’s presence, you know you can’t walk away from her without feeling better about yourself as a human being. She aims for nothing less.”

In September 2015, music from Reagon's "The Blues Project" was featured in the Connecticut debut by Dorrance Dance in the CFA Theater. Other recent projects include Meshell Ndegeocello's "Can I Get a Witness? The Gospel of James Baldwin," which premiered in December 2016.

Reagon finds home on any musical stage. Her band, BIGLovely, has been performing since 1996. She has had the pleasure of working with Lenny Kravitz, Lizz Wright, Carl Hancock Rux, Pete Seeger, Chocolate Genius, Climbing PoeTree, Urban Bush Women, Jane Comfort Dance Company, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Allison Miller, and many other amazing artists.

She has been the recipient of many awards including being a 2015 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, a 2018 United States Artist Fellow, and a 2019 Andrew W. Mellon Creative Futures Fellow, Carolina Performing Arts, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2020, she became a Civic Practice Partnership Artist in Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And in 2021, she received both the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Music, as well as the Award of Merit for Achievement in Performing Arts from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.

For more information about Toshi Reagon, please visit toshireagon.com.

About DJ Bill Coleman

DJ Bill Coleman is renowned for his eclectic taste, acute ear, and diverse musical expertise. His multi-hyphenate company Peace Bisquit celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2020. He has enjoyed success as a revered music journalist (Singles Reviews and Dance Music Editor for Billboard), has written a music column for New York City style rag PAPER, sat on the initial editorial board for Out magazine, and freelanced as a commentator for numerous international media outlets such as the BBC and BET.

Coleman has lent his and his company's talents, A&R and consultancy services to such esteemed clients as Bette Midler, Sia, Tom Tom Club, Beyoncé, Madonna, Radiohead, Sinead O'Connor, Neneh Cherry, Swing Out Sister, Christina Aguilera, A&E Network, New Fest, The Kennedy Center, PETA, World of Wonder, and Afropunk Festival.

Coleman continues to assert himself as clubland’s most dedicated music provocateur. You can often find him DJ’ing or sound designing various events and venues throughout New York City. Until the 2020 reset, Peace Bisquit were co-producing events for Lincoln Center’s annual summer outdoor festival Midsummer Night Swing. Over the last couple of years Coleman and his team have had a successful time helping Lenny Kravitz secure his first #1 on Billboard’s Dance charts with the single “Low,” and co-producing Amanda Lepore’s acclaimed coffee table memoir "Doll Parts" (Regan Arts). Their 2021 projects include such artists as Billy Porter, Sam Sparro, Sofi Tukker, Erasure, Arthur Baker, and more.

Most recently, Coleman joined the revered Red Hot Organization as an Executive Producer / A&R to create global anthems and releases for various humanitarian charities. His inaugural project for the maverick brand with a message is called Red Hot + Free.

For more information about Bill Coleman, please visit www.peacebisquit.com.

About Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx’s legendary career spans six decades of sound and style evolution. Fans know her as a founding member of the girl group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles (with Sarah Dash, Cindy Birdsong, and Patti LaBelle), known as “the Sweethearts of the Apollo Theater” and inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame in 1999. In the ’70s, the group morphed into the rock and funk glam divas “Labelle” with the #1 record “Lady Marmalade.” Nona Hendryx emerged as the chief songwriter of the group’s socially conscious and illuminating message songs. If Labelle fans grieved the end of the group, Nona Hendryx fans welcomed a new one as the revolutionary art rock, new wave goddess embarked upon her own impressive solo career, which spanned eight studio albums and during which she engaged with an impressive lineup of collaborators (Prince, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Bono, and Cameo), resulting in top ten hits and a GRAMMY Award nomination (“Rock This House” with The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards on guitar).

Fast forward into the 21st century without losing a note, Hendryx remains the Queen of Transformation, writing music for “BLUE,” a play with music written and directed by Charles R. Wright for Arena Stage and the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. “Blue” was revived at The Apollo Theater in the spring and summer of 2021. An activist and vocal supporter for women’s rights, social, political, and criminal justice, Hendryx has helped to raise funds and awareness of HIV/AIDS from the outbreak of that epidemic. After dreaming of being an educator thanks to her English teacher and mentor Mrs. Lottie Dinkins, Hendryx has worked with educational organizations supporting women in prison; the Little Black Pearl school in Chicago founded by Monica Haslip; taught stagecraft at the Clive Davis Institute; and founded her own non-profit SisterSMATR.org in 2016 to bridge the gap in science, math, art, technology, and robotics for young women of color ages fourteen to eighteen.

For more information about Nona Hendryx, please visit www.nonahendryx.com.

About the Free Center

The Free Center, located at 52 North Main Street in Middletown, Connecticut, will serve as host for the event on November 17. Their mission is to provide access to space, information, and quality programs for those in the community. They stand at the intersection of art, culture, and organizing, and act as a vehicle for elevating the intentions and actions of residents. Through community-led and community-oriented gatherings, events, and workshops, they envision growth and a sense of deep belonging for their neighbors that grows out of meaningful engagement in their community. The Free Center imagines an ever-growing pride in the resilient and diverse cultures that define the cities they love.

For more information about The Free Center, please visit freecenter.us.

About the Center for the Arts

Opened in the fall of 1973, Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts exists to catalyze people’s creativity by engaging them in the dynamic work of diverse artists. Three inter-related activities enable the CFA to realize its purpose:

● Supporting the research, public productions, and in-studio teaching needs of the departments of Art and Art History, Dance, Music, and Theater.
● Leading inter-disciplinary collaborations and other initiatives that integrate artists into creative curricular and co-curricular initiatives.
● Organizing powerful encounters between visiting artists and diverse elements of the Wesleyan community, the greater Middletown community, statewide, and regional audiences.

The Center for the Arts gratefully acknowledges the support of its many generous funders and collaborators, including The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New England Foundation for the Arts, as well as media sponsors the Hartford Courant, WESU Middletown 88.1FM, and WNPR.

For more information about the Center for the Arts, please call (860) 685-3355, or visit www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.