A Book of Poetry Comes to Life Through Original Music, Film and Dance Thresh & Hold: A Collaborative Ceremony

Castle of our Skins, Boston’s concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry, welcomes Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence and South Carolina poet Marlanda Dekine to Boston for an evening-length, multimedia experience centered around their forthcoming full-length debut poetry collection, Thresh & Hold (Hub City Press, 2022). The program, also called Thresh & Hold, will be both live-streamed and in-person, taking place at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre on Sunday, March 13th at 4:00pm.

Winner of the 2021 New Southern Voices Poetry Prize, Marlanda Dekine is a “Spirit-led poet obsessed with ancestry, memory, and the process of staying within one’s own body.” Their work takes on such forms as audio projects, poems, and workshops, exploring such concepts as remembrance, landscape, and shared history. Thresh & Hold is a dynamic extension of these themes being, as Marlanda Dekine shares of the live performance, a “book of poems re-coded into a collaborative ceremony of composed and improvisational music, dance, poetry, and short film.”

Launched in the 2020-2021 season, the Shirley Graham du Bois Creative in Residence program is an annual, open call to creatives of any discipline designed to provide a platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration and artistic showcase. “We are supporting this program,” note initial funders Arlene and Larry Dunn, “because it expands the necessary and important work Castle of our Skins is doing to celebrate and instigate Black artistry, and Shirley Graham Du Bois epitomizes the breadth of Black artistry and its impact on the world.”

Collaborating artists involved with Thresh & Hold include dancer Victoria Lynn Awkward of VLA Dance, South Carolina filmmaker Mahkia Greene, North Carolina composer Brittany J. Green, and Cuban pianist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora.

Tickets for both the live-streamed and in-person experience are PAY-WHAT-YOU-LIKE and can be reserved online at https://bit.ly/3va0kCp.

Thresh & Hold is co-sponsored by Boston Center for the Arts where Castle of our Skins is a Launchpad Resident. Supported, in part, from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through a CIP Project grant; a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture; and the Fromm Music Foundation.

ABOUT CASTLE OF OUR SKINS
Born out of the desire to foster cultural curiosity, Castle of our Skins is a Black arts institution that centers Black music, culture, and history through people, programming, and partnerships. From classrooms to concert halls and beyond, Castle of our Skins invites exploration into Black heritage and culture, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present. For more information, visit www.castleskins.org.

By Ashleigh Gordon Artistic/Executive Director and Violist | Castle of our Skins