Review of Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project edited by Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Lisa L. Moore, and Sharon Bridgforth

Authors

Harvey Young, Northwestern University

Date of this Version

Summer 2011

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 31:3 (Summer 2011).

Comments

Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

The Austin Project (tAP) is a performing arts initiative that began at the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. Consisting almost exclusively of women of color and produced by Omi Osun Joni Jones, tAP created opportunities for artists, amateur and professional, to collaborate, improvise with one another, and develop a variety of spoken word performances reflecting their subjectivity and experiences. Experiments in Jazz Aesthetic functions as both a sourcebook, containing representative fragments of writings developed by tAP between 2002 and 2006, and as an anthology of new works by prominent performance artists Sharon Bridgforth, Robbie McCauley, and Laurie Carlos, among others.