Benae Beamon

Artist Statement

Tap dance is the primary force in my work and the basis for my rhythmic lexicon as a performance artist. This lexicon, inspired by hip hop, jazz, spoken word, and west and south African movement and sound, allows me to craft silence using sound with an intentionally Afrocentric frame. My work deals with questions of historical archiving, ritual, power, and black existence, by drawing from traditional movements in black culture (both historical and personal). As a performance artist, I am committed to creating work where tap dance and performance become sites of existence rather than events with a clear beginning or end. I access this using tap dance and black ritual/inspiration to deny the invisibility of black life, acknowledge intersectional identity as powerful, and highlight that blackness and queerness are keys to abundance, hope, and endless possibility.

Benae Beamon_"Time Blackened"_performance_2019_premiered at ICA VCU as part of the Greater Force exhibition

Bio

Benae Beamon was raised in North Carolina, and her work is informed by black, Southern culture. She holds a B.A. from Colgate University, an M.A. in Religion from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Social Ethics from Boston University. As a performance artist, Beamon uses movement, rhythm, space, and language as tools to sculpt sound and highlight the rich place where race, gender, sexuality and class intersect with culture and ritual. Both her artistic work and scholarship examine the extraordinary and spectacular in the everyday, focusing on the way that the mundane can be sacred ritual. She has performed at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston with Subject:Matter, a Boston-based tap dance company. Independently, she was a 2019 finalist for the Hudgen's Prize and has premiered work at VCU Institute for Contemporary Art and, most recently, at Arts on Site in New York City.

http://www.benaebeamon.com