Brown will create a powerful dance and music composition with the working title Black Girl. The piece will depict the complexities of carving out a positive identity for African American females in urban American culture. The multimedia creation will use literary works, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, as inspiration. Brown and her dancers will interview communities of African American women, both young and old, in Cleveland and other parts of the country. Their struggles and triumphs will be incorporated as spoken text during the performance. Combining history and musicology with the fantastical approach of imagery in Alice in Wonderland, this work will shed light on feminism, patriarchy, stereotypes and beauty.
Brown is one of four African American Joyce Award recipients that include composer Jessie Montgomery with the Sphinx Organization in Detroit; and in Minneapolis, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage with the Guthrie Theater and playwright Tracey Scott Wilson with the Pillsbury House Theatre. An anonymous national panel of cultural organization and business leaders selects winners based on artistic merit, quality of work and community engagement in artistic process.