Disabled dancer/creative Jerron Herman wants to collaborate on vignettes of the untold narratives of black disabled men in the US and Diaspora. This project hopes for all bodies to, in some way, feel the complex joy of a black, disabled body and celebrate it.. The first artist to be commissioned is Jerome Ellis, a dynamic instrumentalist and storyteller known for his work with the interdisciplinary duo James & Jerome. Ellis will compose a piece abstracting the intersectional qualities of his disfluency and race for Herman to choreograph, perform, and set on various bodies through 2020. Herman was invited by Mark Morris Dance Group to set a work on their student company in May and Ellis is set to perform live. As both artists contend with disability, race, and maleness, this collaboration will strengthen their individual scholarship and create new images in the canon of choreographer/composer relationships. Regular social media postings and public performances will rigorously expose people to the project and advance institutions' growing interest in disability art.

What our grantee is saying: "This honor means a great deal to us artists as we work to imbue our stories into the canon and encourage the next generation's appreciation of disability art! The grant makes it possible to realize this first step."