Bauman will work with Drexel University students and community members from outside the university to co-create a performative installation entitled Womb: The Black Wealth Project. Womb… is an inter-disciplinary community-engaged artwork to be housed in Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery. In exploring various aspects of Black wealth, from mentorship, to land ownership, to fantasy and speculative fiction, to community organizing there is lots of room for the student collaborators and Philadelphia residents to bring both personal research and academic findings to the project. Bauman and MBDance associate artistic director are working with various Drexel classes, dancers and community groups at the gallery. They will lead those groups in discussions, Story Circles and movement workshops all exploring various kinds of Black wealth. The dancers, Storykeepers, will help gather and amplify choreographic material from those discussions and workshops. Then, Bauman will choreograph, using material from the Storykeepers as well as physical vocabulary she is bringing. The Storykeepers will activate the gallery installation with a public performance at the Pearlstein towards the end of the three-week residency.
 
 
A bit more info about the installation vision:
We are inviting folks into a sensory landscape in which to travel and/or to sit in contemplation. In Philadelphia, a "Chocolate City" or majority Black location, MBDance will work with community members at large (guided by local community organizer and former MBDancer Valerie Ifill), with Drexel University students and with local design professionals to develop an immersive installation. At various points in the installation's life, MBDance, dance students and local community members will enliven the installation with live performance and tableaux. It is to contain projected as well as written accounts of liberation, loss and abundance which visitors can both take with them and add to. The installation will decumulate over its duration and photo documentation of that changing installation will be captured by a Philly-based photographer and added to the installation. We are developing the installation partly through a Rankin Artist Scholar Fellowship awarded to Maria Bauman by Drexel University. This component draws upon Bauman's community organizing background, on her history of community engaged artmaking from Urban Bush Women to cultural organizing with Service Employees International to her work with her own company MBDance.
 
List of Events

1. Tuesday, April 11th 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm - 418 Main (4th floor dance studio).  Rankin Fellow Welcome & Artist Talk: Maria Bauman and Womb: The Black Wealth Project
2. Dream Scape Haven: Stop by Pearlstein Gallery and participate in the installation.  Nap, rest, close your eyes, meditate or curl up with a book in our curated space of abundance and comfort. As part of Womb: The Black Wealth Project, we are reclaiming our Dreamscape as a natural resource to be protected and replenished. 

• Wednesday, April 12th 3:00-5:00 pm
• Thursday, April 13th -  5:00-6:30 pm
• Tuesday, April 18th - 5:00-6:30 pm
• Wednesday, April 19th -12:00-2:00 pm
• Thursday, April 20th - 5:00-6:30 pm
• Friday, April 21st - 4:00-5:00 pm
• Tuesday, April 25th -2:15-4:15
• Wednesday, April 26th - 12:00-1:30

1. Thursday, April 27th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM Pearlstein Gallery - Activation of Gallery Installation and Closing Party: 6:00 PM Reception, 6:30 pm Activation of space featuring Drexel Dance Community

 
*Artist Making Process Open for Drop In During Gallery Hours
 

The Rankin Scholar-in-Residence Series, named in honor of former Dean Marjorie Rankin and established through the continuing donations of her friends and colleagues, seeks to bring noted individuals to campus who excel in the multidisciplinary education championed by the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. The goal of the Series is to inspire students, stimulate research, invigorate professional networks, and aid in the continuing development of the Drexel community.