Archived Platform Journals & Catalogues Now Available as FREE PDFs
May 10, 2021
“Our goal is to shed light on the ideas of the choreographers, artists, writers, curators, and scholars with whom we engage every day at Danspace Project”
–Judy Hussie-Taylor, “Welcome“, 2016
In 2015, the Danspace Project Online Journal was launched as a free digital publication to compliment Danspace’s signature Platform series and accompanying print catalogues. The Journal soon became another key element to the Platform series. Journal issues, now edited by Seta Morton, are dedicated to either curatorial themes, Danspace Project seasons, or Platforms. Like the print Catalogues, the online Journal became another vessel in which to provide more context, more dialogue, and more writing about the work of artists at Danspace Project. We are thrilled to announce that six of our catalogues are now available as free PDF’s, to celebrate our current Platform 2021: The Dream of the Audience. And we invite you to explore the past Platform Journal issues as well.
In 2010, the Platform series was launched by Judy Hussie-Taylor as a new way to present dance in New York City and a way to bring the ideas of choreographers to the fore. Originally, each Platform included a guest artist curator, 4-5 weeks of commissioned public performances, and a print catalogue which expounded on the lines of inquiry and the curatorial contexts of each Platform.
The artists of PLATFORM 2021: The Dream of the Audience (Ishmael Houston-Jones, Eiko Otake, Okwui Okpowaslili, and Reggie Wilson) have all taken the helm of Platform guest artist-curator in years past, each with unique lines of inquiry, considerations, and sensibilities. Compiled below, are links to each artists’ past Platform Journal issues, print catalogues and free PDF’s.
No Online Journal Issue
Catalogue: Parallels (Out of Print)
Curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones, Platform 2012 was the second iteration of Houston-Jones’ seminal Parallels: “It’s been thirty years since Blondell Cummings, Fred Holland, Rrata Christine Jones, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, the late Harry Sheppard, Gus Solomons jr. and I performed on the first Parallels series at Danspace Project…Is there such a thing as Black Dance in America? Is there ‘mainstream’ Black Dance? And if it does exist, who is pushing the boundaries of that mainstream now? Platform 2012: Parallels was my attempt to answer these questions.”– Ishmael Houston-Jones (2012)
PLATFORM 2016: A Body in Places
Online Journal Issue: Issue 2 | A Body in Places
Catalogue: A Body in Places
Co-curated by Judy Hussie-Taylor, Lydia Bell, and Eiko Otake, A Body in Places (Winter/Spring 2016) was Danspace Project’s tenth Platform, a month-long multi-disciplinary program that illuminated and expanded Eiko’s solo project of the same title.
Online Journal Issue: Issue 4 | Lost & Found: Dance, New York, HIV/ AIDS, Then and Now
Catalogue: Lost & Found: Dance, New York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now
Co-curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Will Rawls, Lost & Found (Fall 2016) was Danspace’s eleventh Platform and second Platform collaboration with Houston-Jones (who also curated Platform 2012: Parallels). Dedicated to all who died of AIDS, and to all those living with HIV, this Platform found grace in connecting current and future generations of artists to their artist ancestors through collective mourning, memorial, performance, and practice.
PLATFORM 2018: Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance
Online Journal Issue: Issue 7 | Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches,
Catalogue: Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance (Out of Print)
Curated by Reggie Wilson, Dancing Platforms Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and Downtown Dance (Winter/Spring, 2018) was Danspace’s twelfth Platform. Reggie’s lines of inquiry that guided all who engaged with the Platform included, “What is the relationship between postmodern dance, religious architecture, and race in New York City and at other US sites? What are the implications of religiously affiliated spaces as homes for dance in New York? How did Civil Rights grassroots activism and organization in churches and community centers make way for new models for performance, dance, arts organizing, and presentation?”
PLATFORM 2020: Utterances From The Chorus
Online Journal Issue: Issue 10 | PLATFORM 2020: Utterances From The Chorus
Catalogue: Utterances From The Chorus Volume I, Volume II
(available as Flipbooks and PDF’s, linked above)
Co-curated by Judy Hussie-Taylor and Okwui Okpokwasili, Utterances From The Chorus (Winter/Spring, 2020) was the thirteenth of the Platform series. Utterances From The Chorus emerged from Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor’s interest in creating containers for sharing artistic practice. Two initial lines of inquiry posed by the curators, “how do we weave a collective song? How do we hum, utter, and gesture together?”