Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and DC creative collective Makers Lab reunite for The JookJOYnt, a free, five-part video experience exploring themes of vulnerability, intimacy, and connection. The full episode will be available for streaming on Woolly Mammoth’s website November 17 to 22, 2020.
About The JookJOYnt:
In the year 2020, creatives, artists, and activists have established their own galaxy, far far away from Planet Earth and The Rona, a virus attacking the land. Travel with Woolly Mammoth and Black in Space — powered by Makers Lab — through the skies to a galaxy known as JookJOYnt. Revel and resist with us on a journey to a more respectable planetary system while singing the blues, testifying, and jukin’ in space. This collaboration is a continuation of Makers Lab’s Black in Space series, a celebration of the diversity and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ communities through media, storytelling, and technology.
Our voyage includes offerings from creatives across our home planet—poetry, dance, music and other forms of artistic expression combine to create this multi-sensory experience. This work, this life, this existence can be hard, but we invite you to lay your burdens down as we journey to a starscape filled with visual vibes, musical menageries, and out of this world audio. Won’t you join us on The Muvahship?
Said Maria Manuela Goyanes, artistic director of Woolly Mammoth:
“One of Woolly’s first experiments at the start of the pandemic shutdown this past spring was a collaboration with the LGBTQ+ creative collective Makers Lab on an experiential digital newsletter celebrating Black joy and excellence. Their visionary multi-disciplinary storytelling approach is exactly what this moment calls for to expand the definition of what theater can be. I am indebted to our Connectivity Director Kristen Jackson for nurturing this electric collaboration, and to Lee and Patience for continuing to leap into the digital creative space with Woolly. Let these incredibly talented DC artists take you beyond the limits of your imagination!”
Said Lee Levingston Perine, founder of Makers Lab:
“Folks deserve joyous, healing spaces, but now they are more necessary than ever. Makers Lab is excited to collaborate again with Woolly Mammoth this time for The JookJOYnt. We want to revisit a time where Blues reigned supreme, but where we are safe to experience all of its power. Space is that place, and we can’t wait for you to journey with us to a system far away. Come testify and celebrate what is and what can be on Planet JookJOYnt.”
The JookJOYnt will be available for streaming on Woolly Mammoth’s website November 17 to 22, 2020. Tickets are free and can be reserved online at woollymammoth.net, by phone at (202) 393-3939 or via email at [email protected]. In person purchases are not available.
ABOUT WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY
Woolly Mammoth is “the hottest theater company in town” (Washington Post); priding itself on developing, producing, and making theatre that disrupts conventional processes and stimulates transformative experiences. For almost four decades, Woolly has held a unique position at the leading edge of the American theater, earning a reputation for staying “uniquely plugged in to the mad temper of the times” (New York Times). The co-leadership of María Manuela Goyanes (Artistic Director) and Emika Abe (Managing Director) is supported by a core company of artists that holds itself to a high standard of artistic excellence. Woolly is relentless in its desire to take risks, experiment, innovate, interrogate, and create a radically inclusive community. Located in Washington, DC, Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples.
Part of Woolly on Demand, a digital season complementing Woolly’s in-person offerings, the themes explored in The JookJOYnt are inspired by and in conversation with the upcoming productions of Black Is Beautiful But It Ain’t Always Pretty and Hi, Are You Single?
ABOUT MAKERS LAB
Makers Lab is a collective of creatives, artists, catalysts, storytellers, and curators, connected by Washington, DC, creating spaces of joy and celebration. Born out of DC Black Pride and the steamy depths of a dance party called Freak Out, Makers Lab has been curating joyous and innovative events for the DC LGBTQIA+ community since 2014.
Makers Lab is coming off of a two and half year hiatus in order to continue our mission of building and supporting LGBTQIA+ communities. We have shifted to zero proof programming, which allows us to ensure our friends in recovery can safely access community spaces and to give greater options for socializing. We have expanded our creative reach into space, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to engage more people and curate larger online offerings, such as Black in Space: A Virtual Black Pride Experience and blknspace.tv: Futuristic TV for Black Qweirdos. We are also partnering with community initiatives to give back to the city that we have grown from and has nurtured us as creatives.
To keep up with the Lab, sign up for emails here and follow us at @makerslabdc on all social media platforms.
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