Shavon Norris
THE CRONING (solo.duet 48:25)
Ticketed Performance
Laurel Hill West, Conservatory
Performances on May 29th and June 1st
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THE CRONING (solo.duet 48:25) is a movement and theater piece from creator and performer Shavon Norris. The piece considers the particularities, pleasures, and frustrations surrounding the experience of aging while Black. It considers Shavon’s bodily change of chemistry while moving through medical and cultural systems that do not prioritize the wellness and wholeness of Black women bodies. THE CRONING (solo.duet 48:25) invites performer and witnesses to consider what we have learned about aging, dying, and death. And it invites us to tap into existing and new references and rituals so we can expand our imaginations of what it can feel like/sound like/look like/be like, to age as a Black woman body.
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“I turn 48 this year and I am acutely aware of how my body is shifting. I can feel how my body is changing physically, physiologically, emotionally, and mentally and how that is affecting all aspects of my living. And while this is happening for me, I am also witnessing my elders “elder” in new ways. All of this has inspired me to consider the references, rituals, and understanding I have access to about aging and aging while Black. For example, it is often commented on how my grandmother or I do not “look our ages” and folks reference the saying “Black don’t crack”. However, I am in the depths of perimenopause and my grandmother is in the depths of Alzheimer's. The Black is definitely cracking and I want to expand the references, rituals, and understanding we have access to about aging in Black women bodies.”
“In Western culture, aging women are encouraged to be invisible, quiet, something to be avoided, feared. Looking young and resisting aging are woven into the fabric of our daily lives. We’re not encouraged to embrace the passing of time or our aging. THE CRONING puts the process of aging front and center, and, moreover, puts aging Black women front and center.”
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Shavon Norris is an Artist. Educator. Facilitator. She grew up in a Black Sci-Fi Christian home in the Bronx that sparked her curiosity about the magic, medicine, and meaning living within us. Shavon uses movement along with text, sound, and imagery to reveal the stories living in our bodies. Her work explores our relationship to our identities, our experiences, and to each other. An examination and celebration of what we feel, think, and believe. As an artist her work has been presented at venues in NYC and Philadelphia. As a performer, she has performed for Silvana Cardell, Leah Stein, Merian Soto, makini poe, and toured with Pig Iron Theatre Company. As a facilitator, she works with artistic, educational, and corporate institutions, offering learning on Creativity, Movement, Inclusivity, and Healing Centered/Trauma Informed Practices. Shavon’s artistic and educational philosophies are rooted in the desire to offer herself, learners, performers, and audiences, opportunities to deepen the understanding of self and the collective. She loves the living and working she gets to do in the world.