MKArts/MK Abadoo

MKArts’s newest work Hoptown, conceived by MK Abadoo, immerses audiences in Sistering methodologies of Black girls and women, thriving together over generations. It is inspired by the near parallel lives of two women from MK’s ancestral hometown, Hopkinsville "Hoptown," Kentucky: her mother, Regina Bowden, and Black feminist writer, bell hooks.

With audiences in the center of the performance space, the work unfolds within the experience of a total solar eclipse. In 2017, Hopkinsville was one of few global cities at the point of greatest eclipse. In Hoptown, audiences are enveloped in the luminescence of darkness. Here, witnesses are surrounded by the whispered power of vulnerable moments shared between four generations of Black women. Partnering with southern youth and elder-centered organizations, Hoptown creates a performance ritual guided by the potency of life-giving bonds formed in the dark spaces of one’s life, and the potential for blooming in any place or time.

Land acknowledgement: Ancestral territory of the Susquehannock, Nentego (Nanticoke),  Piscataway and Powhatan peoples
Estimated artist fee: $18,475/performance; $27,602/7-day community engagement/residency