Najee-Zaid Searcy
Stick around after Najee-Zaid Searcy's closing performance on June 29 to catch some vibes from DJ Kamarimou as we celebrate the end of Links Hall's season. Cruise into the summer with us as we get ready for what's next in our journey.
Najee-Zaid Searcy’s Emersion
Part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
Emersion releases that which must be shed. Allowing that which must become through movement, space, scent, sound, and form. Emersion seeks to allow for personal and collective transformation by offering meditations and wellness services when possible. We are conduits reactivating the bodymind, and participating with the energies present.
Emersion Night 2 on June 29th is a visual and sonic activation rooted in transfiguration with a High Sensory* feel led by Masisi Najee-Zaid. Performers are encouraged to traverse the crafting of space-time in realtime using movement, music, vocalizations, rhythm, and olfactory methods. This performance will pay homage to queer ancestors and the matrilineal, Afro-Diasporic tradition, and embodiments of home.
Following a 2-year journey of “Immersion” , an original work of Najee-Zaid’s which was highly participatory and exclusively performed at Elastic Arts, “Emersion” reveals findings of self and environment through a structured analysis embodied by performance. In that way, Emersion is a linear advancement of the processes Najee-Zaid employed to devise their previous work. However, Emersion remains a new and unique body of work to be witnessed.
It is paramount that we expose our respect and reverence for all efforts by and for those who exist outside of the heterosexual and heteronormative. June 28th and June 29th of 2024 is the 55th anniversary of the infamous Stonewall Resistance brought forth by so many LGBTQ+ ancestors and their allies, with great admiration for the late Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera.
Links Hall remains an ideal venue to divulge this practice as it has been a pillar for LGBTQ+ artists and creatives in its internal leadership and external offerings. May our institutions of queer solidarity remain steadfast amidst the strife of the world and into our collective liberation!
This performance will feature at least one refreshment.
*High Sensory features of this performance include full sound levels, olfactory activations (scent), flashing/strobing lights, bright lights, and potential audience involvement.
Check out Emersion Night 1 on June 28th for a Low Sensory option.
Collaborators: Alejandro Salazar (Musician), Paige Brown (Musician), and Viktor Le-Givens (Movement and Installation)
Music/Sound: Composed by Najee-Zaid
Special Thanks: Given to my ancestors, family, friends, those who have supported me, and the Links Hall team.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
Artist Bios
Najee-Zaid is a Chicago born interdisciplinary artist with a focus on performance and identity. Najee-Zaid uses their background in music, facilitation, and informal arts learning to explore the intersection of space and identity within the context of healing modalities. Najee-Zaid’s latest works combine elemental and plant ancestries with the human experience while hybridizing his performance acoustically, electronically, and spatially with a range of accessible sensory activations.
Najee-Zaid will debut his new performance art piece “Emersion” as part of their 2023-2024 Co-Mission Fellowship at Links Hall in Chicago, IL. Learn more at najeezaidsearcy.com.
Headshot by Chris “ThoughtPoet” Veney
Collaborators
Alejandro Salazar emphasizes love, peace, and unity to audiences through unique performances, education, and the cultural study of Afro-Cuban and Black-American Music. Chicago’s own rising star, Alejandro Salazar, is deeply rooted in the tradition, yet he likes to explore new ways to help people groove and dance more to his infectious swing feel. Alejandro has had the pleasure of playing at clubs, venues, and festivals all over Chicago and the world like The Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Jazz a la Villette (Paris), Primavera Sound Barcelona, Munch Museum (Oslo), Bourse de Commerce (Paris), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, The Jazz Showcase, Andy’s Jazz Club, DuSable Museum, The Green Mill, Constellation, and Dorian's to name a few.
A vocalist, pianist and composer, Paige Brown still sometimes lovingly refers to herself as "arts-adjacent" while establishing herself as an artist in her own right. As a Performing Arts Residency Coordinator and as a fan/friend of many in the robust Chicago arts ecosystem, she constantly finds herself in awe of the talent and adventurousness of the creatives she is privileged to witness and support. While she more frequently positions herself contently in the audiences of performances and exhibitions, she is currently navigating a journey of strengthening the inner mechanisms and communal connections to deepen and externalize her own practice more fully. She currently finds joy/peace by communing with plants and other beings, and catalyzing/witnessing the growth of artists and others. She currently finds challenge in her quest to improve at the art of taking things slow, and in reacquainting herself with the simple, playful practices that attracted her to Music, her first love.
Viktor Le-Givens is a found object installation performance artist whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to activate spaces for site specific public rituals. By connecting the material culture of his ancestors with pre and post modern spiritual theologies, le. Givens hopes to extend and reimagine the folk customs of his family . His material archive is comprised of the forgotten and discarded household items found during excavations of East Texas, Louisiana, Havana Cuba and Mexico City. Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts , le. Givens. seeks to create spaces that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual memory.
This event is part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works, two groundbreaking weekends of new performance and public events. Representing some of the most talented makers in Chicago from dance, performance art, installation, and performance as social practice, six artists present works developed while in-residence at Links during the 2023-2024 season. Featured artists include: Links Hall Residents AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi, and Fellows Najee-Zaid Searcy and Lani T. Montreal.
Additional Events in the 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
June 21 | Fall Residents: AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi
June 22 | Spring Fellow: Lani T. Montreal
All Co-MISSION Festival of New Works attendees are invited to return to Links Hall after Lani T. Montreal’s June 22nd performance for a karaoke party! There will be food provided and drinks available at the bar.
June 23 | Spring Fellow: Lani T. Montreal
June 28 | Spring Fellow: Najee-Zaid Searcy
June 30 | Fall Residents: AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi
Links Hall's Co-MISSION residencies and fellowships are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.