Acclaimed artist André M. Zachery of Renegade Performance Group at York’s Arts Gallery

The exhibition will run from October 22 to November 22nd, 2024

^{Nehemoyia Young, Candace Thompson-Zachery and André M Zachery (Renegade Performance Group) on location at the Weeksville Heritage Grounds in Brooklyn, NY for the “Untamed Space” series, 2016. Photo credit: Richard Louissaint.}

CUNY’s York College Arts Gallery is proud to present Echo Making, an innovative multimedia installation by acclaimed Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist André M. Zachery, artistic director of Renegade Performance Group (RPG). Zachery is a 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence at York College and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) through the CUNY Dance Initiative.  The exhibition at York will run from October 22 to November 22nd, 2024 (Monday through Friday 10am to 4pm). A workshop will be held on October 25, 2024, 1:50pm to 4:30pm (invitation required; sign up at link below by October 22nd, 11:59pm, for consideration).

Echo Making merges technology, movement, and visual art, reimagining African diaspora narratives and challenging traditional storytelling. Highlights include interactive projections, narrative installations, and digital canvases that immerse visitors in Zachery’s Afrofuturist vision through dance, media and public space.  The accompanying free workshop on October 25th invites participants to explore Zachery’s approach. Through the lens of personal experience, it will engage with public art at York College by artist Houston Conwill (Arc, 1986), a space of initiation into the Kongo cosmogram.

As Zachery states: What has been and remains most urgent for me now regarding Afrofuturism is that we recognize it as an embodied practice. Yes, Afrofuturism is a response to circumstances wrought by the violent development of a so-called "New World". But its source code is built from a time before. The power of the Black imagination has long existed as the carrier of history, lineage, and foresight. Afrofuturism belongs in homes, classrooms, dance floors, and design studios because it provides a container for the Black imagination to ignite, thrive, and be shared between people invested in more equitable, accountable, and sustainable futures.

To be considered for an invitation to the workshop, fill out this form by October 22, 11:59pm

RPG’s residency is part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) curated for York College by Emily Verla Bovino, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the York College Art History program and held in partnership with the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL). CDI receives major support from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation, with additional support provided by the SHS Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Charles E. Culpeper Arts & Culpeper program, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College.

André M. Zachery is an interdisciplinary artist of Haitian and African-American descent based in Brooklyn. As Artistic Director of the Renegade Performance Group (RPG), he creates interdisciplinary works blending elements of contemporary dance, media, and technology with Black cultural practices through multimedia performances, research, and community engagement. Zachery earned a BFA from Ailey/Fordham University and an MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College/CUNY. In choreography, he was a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow and a 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow.

Zachery's work with RPG has been presented domestically and internationally, receiving support through grants, residencies, awards, and commissions, including Brooklyn Arts Council, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, LMCC’s Arts Center on Governors Island, Performance Project Residency at University Settlement, ChoreoQuest Residency at Restoration Arts, Brooklyn, 3LD Art & Technology Center and HarvestWorks, among others. RPG has earned mentions and favorable reviews from publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Futuristically Ancient, Hyperallergic and the Brooklyn Rail. Zachery is currently a faculty member of the NYU Tisch Dance

Location: York College Arts Gallery, Academic Core, 1st Floor, York College / CUNY, 94 - 20 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, Jamaica, Queens (Visitor Parking is available for $10 at the Guy R. Brewer Boulevard Parking Lot next to the Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center)

admission price: Free