Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Northrop and the Walker Art Center will copresent Marks of RED, a creation by Shamel Pitts, artistic director and founder of the Brooklyn-based, Afrofuturistic arts collective TRIBE. In 2025, Northrop and the Walker Art Center copresented Touch of RED, and in 2024, BLACK HOLE - Trilogy and Triathlon by Shamel Pitts and TRIBE. TRIBE’s mission is to cultivate space to create a platform for artists — most specifically artists of color — to “tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different, and shines more luminously, from its past.”
- Afrofuturism is said to connect people from the African Diaspora to their forgotten African ancestry. How might this “creation of a brighter future” be inspired by imagining the experiences, hopes and dreams of African American ancestors?
- Why is it important to unlock this imagination? Could unlocking this imagination provide us with clues about how African American ancestors felt about the world around them?
- How do you think spaces for dreaming and imagining are created for and by artists (especially artists of color)? Why is it important for artists to cultivate identity-specific spaces?
Marks of RED, Pitts’ first choreographic work in which he will not perform on stage, will feature mostly women presenting and/or identifying as people of color. Through this work, TRIBE researches the nuances that are memorialized in and about womanhood, particularly for Black women. It explores and examines the effect that memory has on our senses, our bodies, our reality and our imaginative possibilities.
- How might memories affect your felt experience and your creativity, and how might your culture and gender influence your memories?
- Why might exploration of memory, through the lens of Black women, be necessary and relevant for all people, regardless of their gender or culture?
- How might Shamel Pitts’ first choreographic work in which he does not appear on stage create new imaginative possibilities for TRIBE?
Marks of RED will feature designs and scenic elements by Mimi Lien, acclaimed Chinese American set designer and MacArthur Fellow — the first set designer to receive this distinction. Arriving at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. In addition to designing award-winning stages around the country, Lien has exhibited large-scale public installations, performances and sculptures at international arts festivals worldwide.
- How do production elements, such as lighting, music or set design, influence the experience of the performer and audience member?
- How might set design, especially by a Chinese American woman, explore the nuances and memories of womanhood?
- Why are BIPOC multimedia collaborations important for evolving the landscape of dance and culture?
