Gates, Borders, Barriers: Julian Louis Phillips and Musicians from The New School
On Tuesday, September 20th, artist Julian Louis Phillips will be presenting “if they started the rhythm, how do we keep the beat?“—a site-specific performance at Fred Wilson’s Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds. Opening Julian’s performance will be a live instrumental jazz ensemble featuring students from the New School of Performing Arts with Kal Ferretti on trumpet, Jackson Trout on percussion, and Jasper Grigsby-Shulte on upright bass.
The performance is a loosely scripted work that combines speeches from African and Black revolutionaries and the laws and policies that excluded Black people from land and property throughout American history. This performance will take the point of view of someone who is aware of the omnipotent eye of neo-colonialism and who is struggling to escape it. Phillips will recite these passages while moving around the sculpture evoking “ring shouts,” which is a collective transcendent dance performed throughout the African Diaspora.
This event is part of Gates, Borders, Barriers, a series of public programs in connection with Fred Wilson’s year-long installation Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds. This program is presented in partnership with Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Dumbo Business Improvement District, DTBK + Dumbo Art Fund, New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, VIA Art Fund, and Pace Gallery.
Julian Louis Phillips
Julian Louis Phillips (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist working with performance, sculpture, video, and participatory practices. He is a graduate of Social Practice Queens at CUNY Queens College. Phillips is interested in socio-psychological dissonance and how it manifests in various forms of popular media. Mythologies around sport, national identity, and the police are where he finds material to explore the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance as a problem of perception. Phillips has been the recipient of the More Art Engaging Artist Fellowship, the Queens Museum Artist in Residency, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning Artist in Residency Fellowship, and NARS Foundation Residency. He has exhibited and performed throughout the region, including the Southeast Queens Biennial at York College and Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL), Jamaica, NY and New York Live Arts, New York, NY.
Musicians from The New School College of Performing Arts: Kal Ferretti, Jasper Grigsby-Schulte, and Jackson Trout
Kal Ferretti is a jazz trumpet player based in New York City, currently studying at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. She has studied under esteemed faculty such as Bruce Harris, Jimmy Owens, and currently, Alex Norris. She has performed at venues such as Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and the Bimhuis in Amsterdam during the Keep an Eye collegiate competition. She also appears on the Grace Fox Big Band debut record “Eleven O’ Seven.” She has been part of various honor bands including the JALC Youth Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and is an alum of the prestigious LaGuardia High School.
Jasper Grigsby-Schulte is an upright bassist based out of Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Portland Oregon, Jasper moved to New York to pursue a degree in Jazz Performance at The New School, where he is entering his senior year. During his time in New York, Jasper has studied with some of the most notable jazz and improvised music artists involved with the scene today, including Nicole Glover, Reid Anderson, and Or Bareket.
Since 2020, Jasper has performed with notable world-class musicians George Colligan, Matt Wilson, Steve Cardenas, and Rob Scheps, as well as represented The New School at the Berne Jazz festival in Berne, Sweden.
Jackson Trout is from Lancaster PA, currently living in Greenwich Village, New York, and studying performance at The New School. He has studied with teachers Amir Ziv, Kenny Washington, Pablo Rieppi, Jonathan Haas, Greg Gianiscolli, Leigh Howard Stevens, John Riley, and has performed in ensembles under the direction of Cheryl Moore (2011-2012), The Juilliard Pre-College Percussion Ensemble (2013 – 2015), The Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra (2013 – 2015), Bill Cunliffe Combo and Jimmy Greene Combo (SUNY Purchase Jazz intensive Summer 2016), Nicole Glover Improv. Ensemble (The New School Fall 2021 – Spring 2022), Laurence Hobgood Improv. Ensemble (The New School Fall 2021), Gene Perla Improv. Ensemble (The New School Fall 2022), Andy McKee (The New School Charles Mingus Ensemble Fall 2022). Both formally and informally, Trout has been acquainted in the styles of pit percussion, rock and roll, psychedelic rock, classical, contemporary, jazz, funk, RnB, hiphop, fusion, jam band, singer songwriter, and more. He is currently exploring the NYC jazz scene, and working as a freelance musician in New York and Pennsylvania.
location.
The sculpture site is located in the plaza inside of Columbus Park, in Downtown Brooklyn, which is situated close to the Borough Hall subway station and near the Kings County Supreme Court. You can enter the plaza from the North at Johnson Street and Cadman Plaza, or from the south at Court St and Montague Street. It is close to where the Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket is held.
Click here for Google Map directions.
By Subway: Take the 4/5 or the 2/3 to Borough Hall, or the A/C/F to Jay St, MetroTech.
By Bus: Take the B38, B41, B25, B52, B26 to Cadman Plaza West/Montague St.
accessibility.
The closest accessible subway station is the 4/5 2/3 Borough Hall Subway Station (Manhattan and Bronx-bound only).
The Jay St-MetroTech Subway Station is also an accessible station, however it is a 7-minute walk away.
The sculpture site and plaza is paved and single-level with bench seating nearby.
Accessible public restrooms are available until 8pm on Tuesday evenings at the Prospect Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, located one block away at 286 Cadman Plaza W, Brooklyn, NY 11201. For hours, visit the BPL website.
Please contact info@moreart.org with any accessibility needs or inquiries.