Intervention: Indigo

Collaborator Bios

The Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. is an organization whose sole purpose is to heighten the community’s cultural awareness of African and African-Caribbean culture. Brooklyn Jumbies perform stilt-dancing, which is one of the numerous cultural elements of the African and Caribbean Diaspora. The founding members of Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. are Ali Sylvester and Najja Codrington. Since 2007 the Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. have worked closely with Laura Anderson Barbata presenting collaborative and outreach projects in Mexico, Jamaica, Singapore and the US. Since 2008 they have collaborated with the Zancudos de Zaachila (traditional stilt-dancers from Oaxaca). With Barbata they have performed in various Museums, among the Modern Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Modern Art, MoMA in New York; Centro Nacional de las Artes in Monterrey, Mexico; and Museo de la Ciudad de México. Among their most significant performances are Jumbie Camp, 2007 presented on 24th Street Chelsea, New York; Intervention: Wall Street, presented in the Financial District of New York, 2011; STRUT! Madison, Wisconsin 2015; Intervention: Indigo, 2015, presented in Brooklyn, The Macy´s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, New York; What-Lives-Beneath, Kingston, Jamaica, 2016; Ocean Blue(s), 2017, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore; Ocean Calling, 2017 commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Academy and  presented at the United Nations Plaza, andIntervention: Ocean Blues, 2018, commissioned and performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, and in DUMBO, Brooklyn as part of New York Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice week organized by No Longer Empty.

Based in New York, Najja Codrington is a co-founder of the Brooklyn Jumbies along with Ali Sylvester, and is also Musical Director of the KowTeff School of African Dance. Najja was born into a family that is deeply rooted in both African and African-Caribbean culture. At the age of 10, under the guidance of Obara Wali Rahman, he received his first formal training of the Sabar orchestra as a member of Sabar Ak-Ru-Afrique. Najja’s studies encompass music and dance from both the Caribbean and West Africa. Najja has traveled abroad to Senegal, West Africa where he studied under the tutelage of the Drame/Diabate griot family. As a result, he was exposed to an extensive amount of lore. As Najja has studied African dance and drumming intensively for many years, several people have contributed to his learning, such as Sewaa Codrington, Aissatou Diop, Wilhemina Taylor, Gregory Ince, Karim Braithway, Kissima Diabate, and Souleyman Diop, to name just a few. Currently, Najja is involved in many cultural activities such as Cultural Youth International’s Brooklyn Jumbies, Adlib Steel Pan Orchestra KowTeff African Dance Company, Bakh Yaye and A Touch of Folklore & More. Najja firmly believes that the cultural arts are not merely an economic tool. It is an inherent part of his spirit, which is a dominant driving force. It is with this driving force that he unselfishly mentors youth, instilling discipline, direction and pride. He also gives special thanks and praise to his mother because he would not be who he is today if it were not for her. Najja brings high-spirited energy to all groups that he embraces.

Chris Walker is a professor of dance and founding artistic director of the First Wave program in the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the co-artistic director for the #BARS Workshop at The Public Theatre in NYC, a lab series for artists to investigate the intersection between contemporary verse and theater, created by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs. He is also a senior choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, and program director for the New Waves Dance & Performance Institute in Trinidad & Tobago.

Walker creates contemporary dance, theater and performance artwork rooted in the visual and performance cultures of the African Diaspora. He works in the disciplines of dance, theater, film/video. He served as movement director for two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale, which ran at the Public’s Martinson Hall and he is the recent choreographer for The Secret Life of Bees, The Musical produced by Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Since 2015 Walker has collaborated with Laura Anderson Barbata, some of their most significant projects are STRUT!, a multi layer cross-community project that involved more than 500 participants from both the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the local community during Barbata´s semester as IARP of UW, Madison; they also worked together to develop Jus Luv/Rolling Calf a Jamaican ‘mas’ for Intervention: Indigo, a performance that in 2015 was presented in Brooklyn, New York and the 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and most recently in Mexico City in 2020. Walker and Barbata also created and performed What-Lives-Beneath, 2016 and Ocean Calling presented at the UN Plaza, 2017. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Academy. 

His concert dance work has been presented in Europe, Asia and throughout the Americas. His collaboration with Kevin Ormsby and KasheDance in Toronto titled FACING Home: Love & Redemption is currently and has been on tour internationally since its premiere in 2015. He has received numerous international and national grants and honors for his creative research work. He recently completed a Romnes Fellowship, which supported his research on homophobia in the African Diaspora and in 2020 he was named one of the School of Education’s Impact 2030 Faculty Fellows.

Jarana Beat is a world music band that incorporates dance and activism. With Afro-Amerindian Mexican sounds, it offers a new interpretation that blends the origins of Mexican music with contemporary elements and draws from other cultures in the New York scene that share the same roots. Jarana Beat has collaborated with Barbata since 2015 for Intervention: Indigo and Ocean Calling, 2017.

Habibou Coulibaly. Master textile artisan from Burkina Faso. From his workshop in Ouagadougou, he collaborates with l’aviva home (www.laviavhome.com) on an ongoing collection of hand-woven, natural indigo-dyed textiles for the home. His indigo textiles are the foundation upon which this intervention was created.

Intervention: Indigo, Brooklyn (2015) performers:

Rolling Calf: Chris Walker

Indigo Queen: Augusta Brulla

Bull: Cheikh Gueye

Little Jaguar: Laura Anderson Barbata

Brooklyn Jumbies:

Rogue Cop- Kalique Hinds 

Mad Bull- Cheikh Gueye

Angel Indigo- Ali Sylvester

Shaggy Indigo- Keil Alibocas

L.A. Indigo- Orin Blackman

Spirit Indigo- Najja Codrington. 

Devil Cop, Oficial Añil- Konate Primus

Intervención: Índigo CDMX (2020), performers:

Rolling Calf: Chris Walker

Reina Indigo Queen: Melissa Castro (Danza UNAM)

Toro Loco: Luis Betancourt (Danza UNAM)

Olokún: Elizabeth Ross

Pequeño Jaguar: Laura Anderson Barbata

Teatro Pro-Alterne Zanqueros:

Ángel índigo: Karina Ballesteros

Poli granadero: Peyrak Herrera

Diablos ¨Los Rebeldes del Capricho¨: Guillermo Zolano Hernández, Nestor Quiteria Salas, Luis Alejandro Mariche García, Keny Jovany Verónica Sotelo, Claudio Solano Hernández, Luis Alberto Hernández Olmedo, Ramón Román López, Adrián Martinez Corcuera y Abad Hoyola Hernández

Indigo research advisors: Prof. Mary Hark, Prof. Carolyn Kallenborn and Prof. Jennifer Angus. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Handmade Indigo dyed paper: Hannah Bennet, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Añil handwoven textiles from Guatemala. Courtesy of Museo Textil de Oaxaca, México.http://www.museotextildeoaxaca.org.mx

Intervention: Indigo by Laura Anderson Barbata.

Rene Cervantes, photography, renecervantes.com
Alejandro Mejía, film, www.alejandro-mejia.com