MONO NO AWARE PRESENTS: Softer by Ayanna Dozier.
As part of the OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES.

Dusk on FRIDAY SEPT 25th until Dawn SATURDAY SEPT 26th &
Dusk on SATURDAY SEPT 26th until Dawn SUNDAY SEPT 27th.
OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES presents 16MM films on LOOP visible from a distance from dusk until dawn every weekend.
72 ROCKWELL PLACE, Brooklyn, New York 11217 - Between BRIC Media Arts Center and BAM Rose Cinemas.
A printed program will be available on location. FULL DETAILS BELOW.
This screening directly benefits through suggested donations at a sliding scale.

PROGRAM INCLUDES

Softer by Ayanna Dozier
Softer examines the demands of "softening" that are requested of Black women's bodies in society—from job prospects to romantic ones—be that in their voice, their manners, and, critically, their hair. The experimental short plays upon the grooming rituals of softening that are terrifyingly rough through a recreation of a perm by a permanent wave machine (popular in the 1930s-1950s). The short mediates on the historical ways in which Black women have tried to answer this demand on softness through respectable appearance and behavior utilizing archival artifacts like a Pittsburgh Courier editorial and the permanent wave machine by Marjorie Joyner, the first Black American to receive a patent in the United States. . - A.D.

Ayanna Dozier is a PhD Candidate, filmmaker and performance artist. Her experimental short film, Softer (2020) will premiere as part of the official selection showcase in several fall film festivals including Open City Documentary Festival and the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. She is currently working on an expanded cinema piece on testimony and reproductive justice entitled Content Warning (2020). She is the author of Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope as part of the 33 1/3 series for Bloomsbury Academic Press. She is currently a lecturer at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Fordham University. She was a 2018-2019 Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies at the Whitney Independent Studies Program. She resides in Brooklyn, NY. Through a multidisciplinary practice of film (motion picture and still), research, and performance, my work maps out the topology of emotions and identity formation in social spaces we define as outside the boundaries of intimacy. In the same way how the personal is political inspired women to break down the boundaries between the space of the domestic to gain a social, political voice in the public, I link intimacy as a political project for women to claim in hopes of developing a more robust vocabulary around our engagement with intimate narratives like interpersonal relationships, sexual abuse, mental health, and sexuality.

With this series we ask that each presenting artist identify a non-profit they wish to bring attention to and support through this screening. Ayanna has selected the Sex workers project (NYC). The Sex Workers Project provides client-centered legal and social services to individuals who engage in sex work, regardless of whether they do so by choice, circumstance, or coercion. One of the first programs in the nation to assist survivors of human trafficking, the Sex Workers Project has pioneered an approach to service grounded in human rights, harm reduction and in the real life experiences of thier clients.

Please consider making a donation to support.

MONO NO AWARE OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES:
The OPEN AIR SCREENING SERIES allows for 16mm film projection viewing with social and physical distance guidelines in place. 16mm film prints are projected, on loop, from dusk until dawn. Each artist receives an honorarium from MONO to support their practice. Each artist is asked to select a non-profit for a portion of the proceeds to benefit, to which MONO will make a donation in their name. And, YOU the audience are invited to enjoy the work, take part in the conversation and we ask that you consider making a donation as it directly supports the artist and the organization with which they share concern.