A Reflection and Invitation to Overflow Radio at Northrop

Another new school year just began at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Even though Northrop — the campus' performing arts hub — operates year-round, we still get to participate in the energy and anticipation that a new school year offers. Bistro and study lounge tables disappear under laptops and piles of books, conversations buzz through the Atrium, echoing across Memorial Hall like loon calls on a lake. Better still, our student interns/workers return, Northrop’s Box Office is full of students again, and ushers knot their scarves in the bathrooms.

Amid our preparations for the Northrop Season, I am remembering last year at this time when I experienced the joy of being a student again in a dance course titled Creative & Structural Practice for Decolonization. Taught by Emily Johnson, founder of Catalyst, and facilitated by Carl Flink, the course blended Decolonial theory and practical guides toward Land Acknowledgement, Indigenous Style and contracts geared toward decolonization. I’m doing my best to practice the radical citation we worked on in class.

In the spirit of that practice, on October 9-12, Northrop will host the world premiere of Overflow Radio, created by Emily Johnson and Catalyst, which they describe as:

A performance, skill-share and radio transmission taking place over 24 non-consecutive hours within a massive quilt installation and across geographies and territories. The project also engages local partners to plant 1,000 trees and create a network of 1,000 tree care-ers in a large-scale community-care action. Overflow Radio emerges from Johnson’s practice of creating large-scale social choreographies and features complex contributions from Indigenous writers and scholars, performers, local community organizers, lo-fi radio wave artists, food futurists and land rematriative activists.

As part of our preparation to be good hosts, Northrop colleagues learned more about the land where we live, learn and work. This past summer, with Emily’s permission, I invited Northrop staff to participate in a Decolonization Roundtable during which we read, watched and discussed several texts and videos that Emily shared with our class. In addition to the links above, these included the TRUTH Report, written about the University of Minnesota. The report is titled “Oshkigin Noojimo'iwe, Naġi Waƞ P̣etu Uƞ Ihduwaṡ'ake He Oyate Kiƞ Zaniwic̣aye Kte,” which the authors understand to translate roughly into “the spirit that renews through fire heals the people” in Ojibwe and Dakota languages.

We continue our learning, and I’m grateful to Leomary Rodriguez, who helped colleagues and me work through questions about Catalyst’s Decolonization Rider. (A rider is a document attached to a contract that provides more specificity about how the parties will work together. The Decolonization Rider includes sections about a range of topics, from fonts to knowledge protection to land use fees.) Leomary also guides a Peer Learning Group on Decolonization and a Decolonization Track offered through First Nations Performing Arts. Now, as October approaches quickly, I relish the time and space and kinship we will focus on learning together in 24 “immersive and transformative communal” hours over four days in October in Mni Sota Makoce.

One of our first class assignments from Emily last fall was to create an invitation to an event, imaginary or real, and to consider what makes people feel welcome and encourages them to gather. Elements like food, warmth, comfort, stories and an invitation to bring an item or skill, often infuse Emily’s gatherings. That invitation assignment keeps returning to me this month as we prepare to welcome Emily back to Northrop, gathering audiences with her and on her behalf. Herewith, my invitation to you:

On the Northrop stage from Oct. 9-12, Emily Johnson / Catalyst and a collective of Indigenous writers, thinkers and scholars will be at the center of a quilt installation, created by Maggie Thompson as a site of listening, learning, nourishment and movement, titled Overflow Radio. Northrop is honored and excited to host this experience and to invite our friends, colleagues and communities to contribute their time and energy to the premiere.

While Overflow Radio spans time and geographies expansively, the work feels at home, now, in Mni Sota Makoce and at Northrop. Gathering, with intention and care, reflects our experience of Operation Metro Surge last winter and the concurrent artistic offerings that felt, and still feel, urgent and necessary. Our cultural moment requires stillness and deep listening as much as it requires action. Our bodies require comfort, movement and fuel.

Joyfully, Northrop opens its doors and its stage for four full afternoons of connection, learning and deep listening. Each performance cycle lasts six hours, and spending six hours together is a commitment — a devotion of time that accrues meaning and relation. Each audience that fills the space over the four days will have its own personality, forming a community within quilts inscribed with handwritten messages, shaping the collective experience. If an afternoon of kinship sounds like something you need, or like a gift of time that you can offer, we invite you to join us.

Gather, listen, move, feast and learn with us. Come back to school, in the best ways. I welcome you to Northrop and to Emily Johnson / Catalyst: Overflow Radio.

People sit on quilts and listen to a radio in a big room. An adult tenderly touches a kid's head.

Images: Emily Johnson / Catalyst, performance view, YOUR HONOR, a care procession. Photo by Douglas Mason.

A Reflection & Invitation to Overflow Radio

More About the Event

Emily Johnson / Catalyst: Overflow Radio