December 2020: Janice Lowe '81

12/1/2020

New York City-based, multi-genre artist Janice Lowe ’81 is a writer, poet, singer, pianist, composer, and teacher. One strain that ties her multidisciplinary art together is the importance of diversity, raising the voices of artists of color, and sharing the stories of those of all backgrounds. She is inspired by the way African Americans have birthed all kinds of art in the most difficult of conditions, how that art communicates with the world, and how the historical interacts with now. Yet in the midst of a pandemic which has been incredibly challenging for creatives, Janice knows that, “Creativity, by its very definition, always finds a way.” Read on to learn more about her journey from the Dark Room Collective, an influential literary society that brought together emerging artists of color, to teaching at universities, to her current projects—the album Leaving CLE songs of nomadic dispersal and Olio, a live musical performance of the Pulitzer-prize winning book of poems of the same title by Tyehimba Jess, presenting the lives of African-American creatives from the Civil War to WWI.

What is the most valuable lesson you learned at Laurel and how did your experiences at Laurel influence you as a person and/or shape your life path?

I entered Laurel in seventh grade with four of my elementary school classmates from Cleveland. At that point, we were the largest contingent of African Americans in one class, I believe, in Laurel’s history. From our parents, our heroes, we learned that we were prepared for and belonged anywhere. I have fond memories, too, of the way they cooperated to carpool us to Lyman Circle until we were allowed to take the Rapid.

As a college professor, I teach project-based multimedia composition classes involving audio and video editing. When corresponding with students about their projects, I take the time to write detailed, constructive feedback letters, as if I have only a few students and loads of time.

At Laurel, I felt “seen” as I was exploring my writing and musical voice. Whenever I teach, I try to recreate the nurturing, yet challenging small workshop experience.

You studied at the Berklee College of Music and co-founded the Dark Room Collective in Cambridge, which for nearly a decade was an incredible literary society that amplified the voices of artists of color in the Boston area and beyond. With reading series and a writers’ workshop, the Dark Room Collective helped many up and coming authors hone their craft. What was the inspiration behind the Collective?

Being involved with The Dark Room (DRC) was as much of an education, as being in music school. DRC started as a grassroots organization made up mostly of undergraduates. We were inspired by a quest to bring Black writers together with diverse audiences. We wanted to showcase emerging and established writers of color, as well as musicians and visual artists.

Paul Beatty and Willie Perdomo read at The Dark Room early in their careers. Terry McMillan, Quincy Troupe, Ntozake Shange, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka and John Edgar Wideman are among the writers who warmed us by saying yes to our invitation to read. Alice Walker shocked us by calling and saying that she wanted to read. Eventually, DRC was invited to feature on other reading series around the country. Two former DRC members—poets Natasha Trethewey and Tracy K. Smith—went on to become U.S. Poet Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. Kevin Young, the new director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, was also in DRC. The Dark Room, however, had humble beginnings. During set breaks between readers, curious passersby would see young people of color, people who looked like them, milling about on the small front lawn of the rented house in Cambridge whose front parlor became our event space—and would come inside to see what was happening. The list of writers, their published books, awards and activism around developing spaces and access for writers of color is long. However, DRC did not create any of these fine writers, but offered, for a time, a supportive writing community.

How did being a part of the group impact your art? And how would you describe your artistic style?

The Dark Room Collective was one of many vital organizations started by artists of color in Boston and Cambridge. Being involved with both DRC and Black Folks Theater Company impacted me most as a producer. After moving to New York in 1990, I met up with playwright and director Charles E. Drew, Jr., a childhood acquaintance from Shaker, and other young theater artists. With Drew as artistic director, the group founded absolute theater co., which produced original work for theater including musicals and reimagined classics that showcased new voices.

With the Leaving CLE project, I have composed musical settings for and play piano as I am vocalizing, that is, singing or speaking poetry. The style of my musical theater work is informed by story and character. For Olio onstage, my collaboration with poet Tyehimba Jess, I am composing musical mashups of several eras of African American music. Groove sings. Strings drum. Harmony travels. Electronic loops percolate in the performance remix.

Can you speak about the importance of supporting artists of color? How can white alumnae help raise the voices of artists of color?

The performance world has been shaken up by COVID-19 and by the killing by police of George Floyd. Issues of racial inequity and problems with representation are reverberating in the arts.

Are theater and opera seasons becoming more inclusive in their producing visions? The conversations have certainly begun. Will orchestras make way for more composers and conductors of color? Dominique Morisseau is the new Executive Artistic Producer at Detroit Public Theater. Ruben Santiago-Hudson has been named Artistic Advisor to Manhattan Theatre Club. Tazewell Thompson is now Director of Opera Studies at Manhattan School of Music. Diversity of perspective, gender, cultural background, sexual orientation, age—whatever diversity is—has to be more than a word. White alumnae must help to change the reverence for the primacy of the white gaze by valuing that artists of color are also vital curators, artistic directors, producers, head writers, conductors, composers, and professors deserving of tenured positions. White alumnae serving on boards of directors and as heads of arts organizations have to back up that acknowledgement with hiring recommendations and mentorship programs and by linking with, supporting and celebrating the work of arts presenters headed by people of color. Two of the many are Harlem Stage and Karamu.

A composer of musical theater, your work has been presented at the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theater Conference and at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals. Your poetry collection Leaving CLE poems of nomadic dispersal was published by Miami University Press. You spent a year as the Fellow in Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and now you’re an adjunct professor of multimedia composition at Rutgers University. What do you wish more people knew about multidisciplinary art?

As a multi-genre artist, I’m happy to introduce students to the art fusions that are all around them, including community interactive sound-visual-dance installations of Nick Cave, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Julie Ezelle Patton’s multimedia book/objets d’art that transform the idea of the page and Ellen Reid’s Immersive Soundwalk in Central Park, accessed by an app with GPS mapping. Mostly, I want people to know that that multimedia installation and performance is accessible and ever new.

One of your passions is performing with your band, Namaroon. Congratulations on winning a Creative Capital award for Olio, a live musical performance (in development) of the Pulitzer-prize winning book of poems of the same title by Tyehimba Jess, presenting the lives of African-American creatives from the Civil War to WWI! What inspires your work?

I am as inspired by music concrete, remixing and collage, as I am by story and character. I am inspired by the way African Americans have birthed all kinds of art in the most difficult of conditions, how that art communicates with the world and how the historical interacts with now. It’s a thrill for me to collaborate with performance artists, poets, lyricists and an audience in musicalizing essential moments of the human condition. I am interested in improvisation and in experimental music and text that interacts in unexpected places.

What advice do you have for students and alums who are interested in a career as a writer or an artist?

Use the conservatory training to enhance your musical practice. Don’t let the training injure your body or your love for your craft. Attend performances, listen to readings and seek out the work of people who are not on your traveled path. Be curious and seek out unusual or unexpected performance happenings. Curate exuberantly!

How has COVID-19 affected the arts? What are your thoughts on live versus virtual performances?

The pandemic has been artistically and financially difficult for artists. For the performing arts, playing with live musicians/actors is our craft, our creative blood, is essential to our identity. However, creativity, by its definition, always finds a way. Before the pandemic, in addition to teaching, I organized various ensembles for theater projects and music directed youth theater. Recently, I was filmed playing (socially distanced) with a trio, for a performance that will be shown on a webinar. I certainly miss the communication between live audience and artists.

However, I have seen wonderful virtual performances—theater, music, dance, visual art—that I truly loved experiencing. I use an app called Jam Kazam to rehearse with musicians in our various locations. More art, new ways of collaborating, sharing presenting will come from a creative use of virtual platforms. The technology will catch up with the need for better sound, better synching and attention to latency. Live performance, of course, will come back and in a variety of safe and innovative formats and use of space.

This is a powerful moment in history both for our country and for Laurel School. As Laurel amplifies its diversity and equity work, recommitting to establishing and sustaining just systems, what makes you most proud of the School’s growth and where do you see the biggest opportunity for improvement?

As a Laurel student, I felt that I could discuss racial issues with a couple of teachers. I remember, in particular, the diplomacy and sensitivity of Mrs. Rule in helping to smooth a racially tense discussion that came up when our 8th grade class was reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Although I felt supported in that moment, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing my concerns in a bigger way that could have turned into a learning experience for more Laurel students. I’m hopeful that Laurel’s Anti-Racism Task Force, chaired by April Hawkins '83, is encouraging substantive discussion and action. I was encouraged to learn that they linked with Black@Homecoming. These conversations can expand the idea of community.

What’s next for you?

I am releasing an album very soon—Leaving CLE songs of nomadic dispersal—my musical settings and arrangements for a seven-piece band and vocalists—of the poems, now songs, from my last poetry collection.

The OLIO Live performance piece with Tyehimba Jess is in development. That means I will spend most of the spring composing music and looking at the show’s arc with Tyehimba Jess. We are working toward a workshop production of the show. I will be working with librettist Marjorie Duffield on expanding our musical theater piece, Sit-In at the Five & Dime, a work inspired by the civil rights activism of college students Diane Nash, John Lewis and Paul La Prad in Nashville, 1959.

Anything else you’d like to add?

In high school, I moved with my family to Alabama. It is amazing to me that I have kept in substantive touch with anyone from my Laurel years. I met DJ Savarese, the son of Emily Thornton ‘81, several years ago at a screening for his film Deej, which goes to a new level showing a person living with severely apraxic autism and communicating through alternate technology. DJ is a poet, filmmaker and disabled persons’ rights advocate. Reconnecting with Emily and getting to know DJ has been wonderful. Jennifer Coleman Fluker ‘81, with her busy schedule, made time to sensitively moderate the talkback after my band’s set at Bop Stop during Lit Cleveland. Cynthia Benjamin ‘81 surprised me and attended my performance at San Francisco State. Katherine Preston ‘81 wrote to me after reading Leaving CLE. Noreen Wilson ‘77 (my big sister!) attended my performance at Cleveland State. April Hawkins ‘83 and I have kept in touch since participating in a Sarah Lyman Day activity in NYC. And social media has facilitated interaction with many more classmates! All of this is so profoundly moving to me and meaningful—the accomplishment of these women, and their altruism.

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December 2020: Janice Lowe '81

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