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The VORTEX and Fusebox Festival proudly present the commissioned world premiere of The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, a new choreopoem by award-winning playwright and Black cultural studies scholar Lisa B. Thompson. The show premieres 25 years after the debut of her classic comedy Single Black Female and is dedicated to Thompson’s mentor and friend, the legendary theater director Shirley Jo Finney.
Conceived during Thompson’s 2021 MacDowell artist residency and developed during her 2023-24 Texas Performing Arts and Fusebox artist residency, The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body meditates on Black women’s experiences from the perspectives of mind, body, and spirit. What makes the piece unique is its focus on middle-aged and older Black women, an often invisible and neglected group, especially by the medical establishment. Thompson also celebrates Black feminist pioneers and icons whose contributions to the arts, culture, politics, and academia transformed the world. The piece culminates in an audience dance party and an invitation for Black women to share their own contributions to Black feminist wisdom.