Photo by: Maria Baranova.
Sage Ni’Ja Whitson, Dark Matter Cypher, 2019. Studio improvisation with neonflex.
Photo by: Scott Shaw.
Sage Ni’Ja Whitson,A Meditation on Tongues, 2017. Performance still.
Photo by: Jennifer Harge.
Sage Ni’Ja Whitson, Illumination Catalogue, 2024. Public art ritual (Albuquerque, NM).
18th Street Arts Center
Fund: $45,000
18th Street Arts Center will present Revival_ _Revival, a processional performance by Sage Ni’Ja Whitson (they/them) that bridges memories held in the body, land, water, and voice. The artist will process in prayer and movement marked by sites in Santa Monica that hold specific resonances in the histories of Black displacement, spiritual and religious community, and the powers of Black presence in joy, beginning at Santa Monica’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church by the Sea, Phillips Chapel, and culminating at Crescent Bay Park. The performance, propelled by a live DJ set, will blend gospel, house music, hip hop, and voice in a collective act of sacred and sonic praise.
Awardees
