Luke Williams
Artist Statement
Luke Williams is a writer, and performer working in experimental theatre and dance. He examines new rituals for participation that awaken from third spaces created with collaborators not limited to: family, cultural workers, and Black community. Luke’s care-based pedagogy emphasizes the transformative process of creation which strives beyond the commodification of art and racial capitalism. His most recent project, INERTIA (2020-2021), offers a new ritual for grieving practices amidst the prolonged moment of continuous suffering arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and the percussive drumbeat of anti-blackness.
Bio
Luke Williams is a graduate student in the Modern Thought & Literature School in the school of Humanities & Sciences. His research aims to examine the sociopolitical possibilities through a corporeal framework. Grounded within dance studies, Luke seeks to explore the power contained in the body. He draws upon the rich traditions of Black Cultural Studies, Performance Studies, and African-American Literature.
Email: lucasw@stanford.edu
INERTIA
Project Description
INERTIA gestures to Newtonian laws of motion as a metaphor for our current moment. “Objects at rest tend to stay at rest and objects in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.” Right now, we're in a prolonged moment of continuous suffering: from the surging wave of the pandemic, the percussive drumbeat of anti-Blackness, and a throbbing ache that comes from the inability to purge this dis-ease. These forces seem unstoppable. INERTIA is an examination of how we can provide an outside force to disrupt those forces in our lives that are continuous yet very important to be upset.
INERTIA also strives to create a healing space. It’s an investigation into how we can make things together, how we can be there emotionally for each other, and how we can remember those who have passed. Because we can’t gather, many of our rituals for grieving people are unavailable. How can we make new ones? How can we create movement in a new direction? And so, in part, a hope of the work is to create a space where we can be there for each other to grieve, to make ritual, and to help people heal from the losses that have been happening.
Learn more at https://linktr.ee/INERTIA2021
Follow the Team
- Stuart Robertson
- Tyler "Eaglebabel" Brooks
- Dayonna Tucker
- Charlie O'Donohue
- Olivia Higa
- Max Sutton
- Eli Shi
- Malcolm Stuart
- Jamayka Young