Eventos

About the Performance

ABSCONDED is a work that honors the life and legacy of Ona Maria Judge Staines through the creation of a living monument that moves through the streets of New York City. Ona Judge was born into slavery before the American Revolution. She was a seamstress and Martha Washington's body servant and "pet." During Washington’s second term, on May 21, 1796 at age 22, Judge quietly absconded from Philadelphia on a ship to New Hampshire as the Washington’s ate dinner. With the help of Free Black and abolitionist communities, she evaded capture for the rest of her life.

In the work, DRAGONFLY (Robin LaVerne Wilson / Miss Justice Jester) embodies Judge in moving-monumental form as she walks the streets, offering a meditation on the perpetual state of fugitivity as freedom and a voice from the past to unbuild the mythologies surrounding the United States’ celebrated tyrants.

ABSCONDED #EjectionDay2020 is DRAGONFLY’s second iteration of Ona Judge as a living monument. The project continues in New York City, and is also slated to be invoked at George and Martha Washington monuments and other historical landmarks worldwide. The artist’s goal is to uplift the memory of a forgotten American Founding Mother, amplify the paradox of Black freedom as fugitivity, highlight the complexities of American chattel slavery, and contribute to the ongoing conversations about who is memorialized as we push towards decolonization.

Performance Route

Meeting Instructions: Route begins at Seneca Village in Central Park. Enter at 85th St. and Central Park West. Meet SW of Spector Playground.

The performance is organized and sponsored by the artist and the Hemispheric Institute at New York University, and co-sponsored by Grace Exhibition Space, with Dr. Joy Brooke Fairfield (Producer), Sabura Rashid (Director), and Ak Jansen (Costume Design).