“How do we reconcile with what has happened in order to chart a different course and move towards liberation?”
During her CPP artist residency, Alethea Pace collaborated alongside her community to reclaim the history of the Enslaved African Burial Ground in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Her work centers on deep listening, addresses the enduring impact of history, and urges the acknowledgment and redressal of historical harms for meaningful transformation.
Reflecting on between wave and water, Pace says, “The hard thing about dance is the way you touch it for a moment. It's the beautiful thing about dance too. And I think it teaches me that we can be fully immersed in this experience, in this work and be fully present for it and to know that tomorrow it won’t be, there is a beautiful and painful thing at the same time.”
Pace is a Bronx-based, interdisciplinary, movement-based artist committed to creating work in and with her community that is rooted in social justice. Her inquiry is grounded in an embodied practice that seeks answers within bodily knowledge, collective memory, and historical study.
The Met’s Civic Practice Partnership (CPP), launched in 2017, catalyzes and implements creative projects that advance healthy communities by bringing the skills and interests of neighborhood stakeholders together with those of The Met and artists who are socially minded in their practice. Invited CPP artists work in their own neighborhoods across New York City and at The Met to develop and implement ambitious projects and forge meaningful collaborations.
Learn more about Alethea Pace’s CPP residency.
The Civic Practice Project is made possible by The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.
