Alva Rogers Explained

Alva Rogers
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation:Writer
Performer
Actress
Notable Works:Daughters of the Dust
School Daze
''The Doll Plays''
Band of Susans

Alva Rogers (born 1959) is an American playwright, composer, actor, vocalist, and arts educator.[1] She is known for the use of dolls and puppetry in interdisciplinary work. Rogers performed in the role of Eula Peazant in Julie Dash's 1991 film Daughters of the Dust.[2] and was a vocalist in the New York City alternative rock band Band of Susans.[3]

Early life

Rogers was born and raised in New York City, where she graduated with a concentration in vocal music from The High School of Music & Art. She has a bachelor's degree in American history from Marietta College. In 1995, she received a Master of Fine Arts in musical theater writing from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.[4] In 1998, she received a Master of Fine Arts in literary arts from Brown University, and in 2013, she received a Master of Arts in teaching with a focus on history from Bard College.[5]

Personal life

Rogers lives and works in Manhattan.

Career

Art

Rodeo Caldonia

Rogers has been a part of numerous notable artist collaborations. From 1985 to 1989, she was a founding member of Rodeo Caldonia, a black women's art collective formed in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene that included fellow artists Lorna Simpson, Chakaia Booker and Sandye Wilson among others.[6] [7] [8] [9] With Lisa Jones, also a member of Rodeo Caldonia, she wrote a series of radio plays--Aunt Aida's Hand (1989), Stained (1991), and Ethnic Cleansing (1993)--for New American Radio on National Public Radio. In 2015 Greg Tate facilitated a panel discussion with Rogers and Lisa Jones about Rodeo Caldonia in the 2011 film Brooklyn Boheme.[10]

Alva Rogers and her work with Rodeo Caldonia was included in the 2017 Brooklyn Museum exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–1985 curated by Rujeko Hockley and Catherine Morris.[11] [12] [13] [14]

During Robert Colescott's 1989 exhibition at the New Museum Rogers was featured in Black to the Future: Alva Rogers in Performance, a public program that unpacked the issues in Colescott's work. The program was curated by Kellie Jones.[15]

Puppetry

With puppeteer Heather Henson and the composer Bruce Monroe, she created three musicals: nightbathing, mermaid, and Sunday (performed Off-Off-Broadway as part of the New Works Now! series at the Public Theater.[16] [17] Rogers also created audio recordings for Whitfield Lovell's work Whispers from the Walls.[18]

Other work

In the late 1980s, Rogers was a vocalist with the New York City based alternative rock group Band of Susans. She performed on their debut EP Blessing and Curse (1987), and their first full-length album Hope Against Hope (1988).

Rogers appeared on the cover of Essence Magazine beauty issue in January 1993.[19] She has been photographed by photographer Lyle Ashton Harris and Dawoud Bey.[20] [21]

She was a writer in residence at Hedgebrook Women Playwright retreat on Whidbey Island, Washington in 2011 that culminated in a reading of her work at ACT Theater.[22]

Acting

School Daze

In 1988 Rogers played Doris Witherspoon in Spike Lee's film, School Daze about intra-racial prejudice in HBCU academia. It was an early film for most of the actors and most of the stars and crew were African American. The film co-starred Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Ossie Davis and Kadeem Hardison amongst others.[23]

Daughters of the Dust

In 1991 Rogers appeared in Julie Dash's film Daughters of the Dust. The film took place in 1902 about a matriarchal family during the Great Migration. Eula, Rogers' character, is raped by a white man and the fear of lynching gives her family no recourse to investigate her pregnancy.[24] The film has been noted to have influenced Beyonce's 2016 album Lemonade.[25] [26] [27] The cinematographer for Daughters of the Dust was Arthur Jafa.[28]

Other films

Rogers appeared as herself in the film Brooklyn Boheme (2011), which documented the New Black Arts Movement in Fort Greene in the 1980s and 1990s. She is featured in Kerry James Marshall's film The Doppler Incident (1997)[29] and was a frequent subject in the photographs of Lorna Simpson.

Filmography

Publications

Rogers's works as a playwright include The Bride Who Became Frightened When She Saw Life Open, The Doll Plays,[30] and Scooping the Darkness Empty.

Awards

Rogers has won grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting in 2004, and the Rockefeller Foundation.[31] [32]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alva Rogers. www.sequentialartforkids.org. 2018-04-22.
  2. Web site: Daughters of the Dust. IMDB. July 1, 2017.
  3. Web site: Band of Susans pictures ("now look at the little hand puppet and SMILE!"). robertposs.com. 2017-07-08.
  4. Book: Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris.. The bride who became frightened when she saw life open : a dream narrative in seven voices / by Alva Rogers [brochure].]. 1998. Whitney Museum of American Art. Frances Mulhall Achilles Library Whitney Museum of American Art. en.
  5. Web site: Alva Rogers - Curriculum Vitae. Alva Rogers' World.
  6. News: 'We Wanted A Revolution' at the Brooklyn Museum . Terence . Trouillot. 2017-04-28. artnet News. 2017-07-08. en-US.
  7. Web site: Members of '80s Theater Collective Reunite for the First Time. DNAinfo New York. 2017-07-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20171110153457/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150220/fort-greene/members-of-80s-theater-collective-reunite-for-first-time. 2017-11-10. dead.
  8. Book: Jones, Lisa. Bulletproof Diva. 2010-12-22. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 9780307773814. en.
  9. Web site: Montalvo Arts Center Alva Rogers. montalvoarts.org. 2018-04-22.
  10. News: Black Artstory - Remembering Rodeo Caldonia Lisa Jones + Alva Rogers in conversation with Culture Critic Greg Tate - Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership. Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership. 2017-07-08. en-US.
  11. News: These Radical Black Women Changed the Art World. Aperture Foundation NY. Jessica . Lynne. 2017-05-11. 2017-07-08. en-US.
  12. Web site: Brooklyn Museum. www.brooklynmuseum.org. 2017-07-04.
  13. News: These radical black artists stood against white feminism. Dazed. 2017-05-07. Dazed. 2017-07-08. en.
  14. Book: We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 / A Sourcebook. Choi. Connie H.. Hermo. Carmen. Hockley. Rujeko. Morris. Catherine. Weissberg. Stephanie. 2017. Brooklyn Museum. 978-0-872-73183-7. Morris. Catherine. Brooklyn, NY. Exhibition catalog. 964698467. Hockley. Rujeko.
  15. Web site: New Museum - Digital Archive. archive.newmuseum.org. 2017-07-08.
  16. Web site: Public's New Work Now! Series, April 10–30, Features Parks, Stuart, Corthron . Playbill. en. 2000-04-10. 2017-07-03.
  17. News: Misha . Berson. Free readings by Hedgebrook playwrights. The Seattle Times. 2011-05-12. 2017-07-03.
  18. Book: The Art of Whitfield Lovell: Whispers from the Walls. registration. 38. Whitfield Lovell alva rogers.. Lovell. Whitfield. Lippard. Lucy R.. 2003. Pomegranate. 9780764924477. en.
  19. News: Beauty Issue: Hair. January 1993. Essence Magazine.
  20. Web site: Accra Shepp and Alva Rogers by DawoudBey. www.artnet.com. 2017-07-08.
  21. Web site: Afrolistas and the City™: Defining Fabulous: Actress and Model Alva Rogers. Divalocity. 2011-12-03. Afrolistas and the City™. 2017-07-08.
  22. News: Whidbey Island retreat provides solitude for women writers. Banwell. Katherine. KNKX. 2011-05-15. 2017-07-08. en.
  23. Murphy. Keith. Feb 2008. Back in the Daze. Vibe Magazine. 102.
  24. News: Daughters of the Dust review – the dreamlike film that inspired Beyoncé's Lemonade. Bradshaw. Peter. 2017-05-31. The Guardian. 2017-07-08. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  25. News: Julie Dash's Epochal Feature, Daughters of the Dust, Embraces Realities and Reveries. Anderson. Melissa. 2017-04-04. Miami New Times. 2017-07-08.
  26. News: Daughters of the Dust: the film that inspired Beyoncé's Lemonade. Tara. Brady. The Irish Times. 2017-06-01. 2017-07-08. en-US.
  27. The Women Who Wanted A Revolution. New Republic. Lovia. Gyarkye. 2017-05-31. 2017-07-08. en-US.
  28. The Return of Julie Dash's Historic 'Daughters of the Dust'. The New Yorker. Richard. Brody. 2016-11-18. 2017-07-08.
  29. Web site: Doppler Incident - M HKA Ensembles. ensembles.org. en. 1997. 2017-07-04.
  30. Web site: Atlanta's Express Premieres doll plays in Rep w/ Bee Luther-Hatchee Jan. 10-March 16 . Playbill. en. 2001-12-21. 2017-07-03.
  31. Book: Hill, Anthony D. and Douglas Q. Barnett. The A to Z of African American Theater. Scarecrow Press/Rowman and Littlefield Publishing. 2009. 978-0810868984. Lanham, Maryland. 424.
  32. News: Franklin Furnace Artists teaching SEQuential ART for KIDS at PS217K, PS20K, and PS185K. Rubin Foundation. 2016-07-07. 2017-07-08. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20170607101100/http://www.sdrubin.org/featured-grantee/franklin-furnace-artists-teaching-sequential-art-kids-ps217k/. 2017-06-07. dead.

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