Jonathan González: Ways to Move: Black Insurgent Grammars

Please join us for a book launch for Jonathan González’s Ways to Move: Black Insurgent Grammars, co-hosted by Ugly Duckling Presse. Choreographer, artist and writer Jonathan González will host a night of sonic and embodied performances by Kingsley Ibeneche and Vitch Boul-Ra, prompted by Ways to Move. The event will also feature a reading by González.

Moving between archival fragments, rehearsal notes, and speculative memory, Ways to Move: Black Insurgent Grammars traces the embodied frequencies and assembled states of Black life. González theorizes Blackness as a grammar, occupying the interstices of white colonial culture; Black movement and expression are both defined by and break down the hegemonic. Through a consideration of land, politics, magic, and movement, this hybrid work performs the perpetually unfinished task of resistance. 

About the artists:

Jonathan González is a choreographer, artist and writer. His practice explores the relations between culture, memory, architecture, and embodiment through performance, installation, and text.  

Kingsley Ibeneche is a Nigerian-American Choreographer, Musician, Writer and DJ, raised in Camden, New Jersey. He currently works out of Philadelphia and New York. Kingsley received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Ballet Performance, and a Masters of Fine Arts in dance pedagogy at Bennington College. Kingsley has been a part of notable companies such as Philadanco 2, Balance Dance Theater in NY, and a company member with Just Sole Street Theater. He later joined Pilobolus Dance Theater in 2015 working on their production of “Shadowland.” Getting to tour around 5 continents with the company for 3 years. After company life Kingsley signed with Bloc Talent Agency & is currently signed with United Talent Agency. He has worked with & danced background for known acts and platforms such as Alicia Keys (VMA’s), Swae Lee, Halsey (SNL), James Blake, Travis Scott (VMA’s), GAP, and NIKE. His musicianship has helped him create 3 completed bodies of musical work including Udo his debut album, as well as a generous amount of vocal features and sharing the stage with acts such as Boddhi Satva, IvySole, Solchyld, and Lee Clarke, Bilal, Skip Marley, Ali Shaheed, Adrian Younge, Madison Mcferrin, Sunshine Anderson, Maya. His music has been featured in publications and platforms such as:The FADER, Paste Mag, okayafrica, NPR, afropunk, KEXP, The Creative Independent and SOFAR. Kingsley’s debut album “Udo” came out last September and garnered a lot of eyes on the artist who is blending mediums through the lens of his Nigerian culture. Kingsley is currently at Bennington College as visiting professor. Enticed by using his creative engines to highlight social change, Ibeneche focuses his performances on connecting the African people and the African diaspora through movement and sound.  

Vitche-Boul Ra is a Transhumanist Folk-Theurgist with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts (Sculpture concentration) from The University of the Arts [2018] with additional studies in Dance. Ra investigates Black sovereignty through Performativity and Possibility as a medium. A Philadelphia native, It has shown at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vox Populi and more. In NYC, Ra presented in both Movement Research and Black Aesthetics/J.A.W. at Judson Church in 2023. Continually It collaborates with Moor Mother [Goddess] stateside and internationally. In 2021 It lectured at Yale School of Art and in 2023 Ra showed at the Murray Art Museum Albury in Albury, NSW (Australia) in addition to being awarded a 2023 Pew Fellowship