Brimming-Performance

In 2006, Kwame Dawes was commissioned by the USC Art Department to compose a sequence of poems based on the art of New York-based South Carolina painter Brian Rutenberg. The poems were then published as Brimming by the Poetry Initiative's Stepping Stone Press as part of the celebration of Rutenberg's work. The poems, al exploring the landscape of the low country of South Carolina, were written for multiple voices.

Dawes then designed and directed a multi-disciplinary production of Brimming in a work that includes music, dance and spoken word performances of the poems. The piece was designed for a cellist, a mezzo-soprano, a dancer and four voices. The performance was first staged at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia South Carolina and has since been staged in various places. The piece features the stunning images of Rutenburg's art in a colorful media collage of images and words which complement the performance on the stage.

Brimming makes use dance, song, and the spoken word to transport viewers into the landscape, history and culture of South Carolina 's low-country. This is a delicate sound poem, a splendid marriage of the arts to create something whole and elegant
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Program running time: 50 minutes
Personnel: 8
Technical Crew: 1