The Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington hosts a ballet called a“A Mother’s Rite” next week.
“A Mother’s Rite” was created by the Black Iris Project, a ballet collaborative that develops ballet works focused on diversity and Black history.
The museum is offering “A Mother’s Rite” in conjunction with the One Village Alliance’s Raising Kings 2020 - a week-long series of events around Wilmington next week focused on empowering young black men and their families.
“It’s a beautiful solo ballet where the choreographer Jeremy McQueen is really looking at one mother’s journey through the stages of grief after she’s thrust into the spotlight through her son’s racially-motivated murder by police,” said Jonathan Whitney, manager of performance programs and community engagement for the Delaware Art Museum.
Whitney says he became aware of McQueen’s work when they met several years ago.
“This piece - I saw an excerpt of it last year and what drew me to it is there’s a national conversation around police violence against black men. And what this was, it looked at something that wasn’t being talked about and that was the suffering of these mothers who lose a son and then are thrust into the spotlight,” said Whitney.
“A Mother’s Rite” is scheduled for January 23, and will include additional performances by local ensembles from Pieces of a Dream, Inc. and the Christina Cultural Arts Center, as well as Q&A with director Jeremy McQueen.
For more information and tickets, can be found at the Delaware Art Museum's website.
