The Perelman Performing Arts Center has selected Dramaturgy alum Blossom Johnson '19 as one of nine artists for the second Democracy Cycle program. The Democracy Cycle, a partnership between PAC NYC and the Civis Foundation, is a commissioning program that will support artists in developing twenty-five performance artworks over a five-year period. The projects, which will explore the practice and experience of democracy, each receive $60,000 towards their development.
Johnson’s project, created in collaboration with Daniel Leeman, is a theater production titled Proclamation to the Great White Father and All His People. The play will trace the 1969 Indigenous occupation of Alcatraz by pan-Indigenous protest group Indians of All Tribes, using archival footage, interviews, and reenactments to highlight this radical experiment in self-governance and collective care. Each performance will end by involving the audience in a “civic re-imagining circle” about justice, governance, and imagining an expansive democracy.
Johnson is a Diné playwright and screenwriter. She is from the Yé’ii Dine’é Táchii’nii (Giant People) clan, and her maternal grandfather is from the Deeshchíí’nii (Start of the Red Streak People) clan. Her plays include Red Running Into Water, monster SLAYer, Diné Nishłį (i am a sacred being) Or, A Boarding School Play, Our Legendary Mother, K’é, Dark Earth and ayóó'áníínísh'ní. Her work has been developed and presented by Bag&Baggage and Native Theater Project, Alternative Theater Ensemble, La Lengua, Mixed Blood Theater, Durango PlayFest, Pillsbury House Theatre (CAP) and New Native Theatre. Additionally, she has been supported by Willowtail Springs in Mancos, CO, Alternative Theater Ensemble's AlterLab, First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship, La Lengua/ Alternative Theater Ensemble’s Decolonization Stories Commission, The Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship, Netflix Animation Foundations Program, UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center, and the Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Support for Individuals. Johnson has worked with the Guthrie Theater, Native Voices at the Autry, UCSB Launch Pad, PlayPenn, Urbanite Theatre, and Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program.
