North Hennepin Community College will host the Stages of Equity 2024 festival from January-April 2024. This visual & performing arts festival is marketed as raising up the powerful work of BIPOC visual and performing artists. All festival activities, including exhibits, live performances – notably including the acclaimed ensemble Ten Thousand Things – and workshops, are free and open to the community

Advance registration is encouraged at: www.nhcc.edu/SOE

The Stages of Equity Festival is sponsored by NHCC’s Department of Theatre, the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Student Life. A central goal of the festival – organized and produced by Kathy Hendrickson, NHCC’s Interim Director of Community Impact – is to redress systemic racial inequities in the arts.

All creative projects, exhibits, workshops, and performances featured in the Stages of Equity 2024 festival are BIPOC-created. “We are at a pivotal time in our human history, as arts education, funding and programming are being cut nationwide,” said Kathy Hendrickson in a statement. “Stages of Equity is more important than ever to lift up, celebrate, and provide space for Black and Brown voices and stories to be amplified, and for us to process and express these realities together.”

Stages of Equity Event Schedule

EXHIBITION: PEYTON SCOTT RUSSELL

Artist Peyton Scott Russell combines the traditions of Plein Air painting with Graffiti in a new style he is calling Plein Aire Graffiti. He is disrupting both methods and creating art that expresses the action of painting, performance, and public attention in a pop-up style event. Once finished, the art may stay in place for a few hours or overnight for public viewing and/or drying time. Canvases are reclaimed later and prepped for gallery exhibitions.

Located in the Joseph Gazzuolo Gallery in the Fine Arts Center

Exhibit Open: December 20, 2023 – January 24, 2024
Artist’s Reception: January 11, 2024, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Typography & Graffiti Workshop: January 24, 2024, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. (located in the Fine Arts Center Main Theatre)

PERFORMANCE: REINCARNATION SOUP

A mythic tale of soup, Saigon, and recycled souls. Journey through the Vietnamese heart in this memory play, a solo performance written and performed Viet Nguyen.