Opening: September 21, 7pm
Performance: September 22, 8pm + September 23, 2pm

Another time, this time, one time features a series of new works made under the umbrella of Steffani Jemison and Justin Hicks’ Mikrokosmos—an ongoing collaborative project that considers listening, language, and pedagogy through contemporary Black American music. Using the solfége system of musical learning (do re mi…) as a model, Jemison and Hicks’ work dissects Gil Scott-Heron’s 1977 song “We Almost Lost Detroit” into 61 melismatic gestures. Here, Black musical study is the subject and form of the work, as these individual gestures are sequenced and performed as both melody and as code.

This iteration of Mikrokosmos is produced by Western Front with additional support from Nottingham Contemporary for a related exhibition and performance in 2018.

Exhibition Brochure & Catalogue Essay

Justin Hicks is a composer and performer who explores various themes such as identity, economics, marriage, labor, and religion in compositions and performances that range from singer/songwriter-style presentations, recordings, and sound installations, to collaborative works involving movement and set design. His work has been featured at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, PS122, The Japan Society, The Knitting Factory, Jack, Bowery Arts and Science, MoMA, Dixon Place, and La Mama. He was a member of Kara Walkerʼs 6-8 Months Space and was a performer and sound designer for Kaneza Schaalʼs Go Forth, as well as the Obie Award-winning (Abigail Deville, design) production of Prophetika: An Oratorio by Charlotte Brathwaite. His vocal tribute The Odetta Project: Waterboy and the Mighty World was featured during Jackʼs Freedom Songs Festival: Which Side Are You On, Friend? (Jack 1015). Most recently Justin was a contributing songwriter and performer in Meshell Ndegeocello’s Can I Get a Witness?” (Harlem Stage 2016).

Steffani Jemison was born in Berkeley, California, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009) and a BA in Comparative Literature from Columbia University (2003). She has served as a visiting artist at many institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hampshire College, the Evergreen State College, and Georgia State University. She has taught fine art at Columbia University, Parsons The New School for Design, Wellesley College, Trinity College, Rice University, the Cooper Union, and other institutions. She is the 2016-2017 Arthur J. Levitt ’52 Artist-in-Residence at Williams College.

Jemison uses time-based, photographic, and discursive platforms to examine “progress” and its alternatives. Jemison’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Drawing Center, LAXART, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Bridget Donahue, Laurel Gitlen,Team Gallery, and others. Her work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Kadist Foundation.