Celeste Jennings' "Citrus" uses intimate and personal storytelling to give voice to what it is and what its was like to be an African American woman in America, and its authenticity gave it deep emotional power at Friday's opening night at the Barrette Center for the Arts. Rather than a teaching experience, "Citrus" proved an unpretentiously experiential one. It went straight to the heart.
Told in the form of a choreopoem – "choreographed poetry" – nine black actresses of varying ages took on different roles, sang and danced their way through a series of tales reflecting the African American woman's pains, tragedies and even joys – but essentially a sense of not belonging.
They represented "the population often referred to as unknown or unidentified."
Jennings created "Citrus" from a series of her own poems, first about herself then others, while an undergraduate student at Dartmouth. It became her senior project, incorporating a costume element as she sees herself primarily as a costume designer. For the project, she began working with director Jameeka Holloway-Burrell, and the two took the work cross the Connecticut River to Northern Stage.
Read the Times Argus article: https://www.timesargus.com/features/vermont_arts/citrus-goes-straight-to-the-heart-of-black-womanhood/article_e46b6ae2-fd28-5122-bb00-b57313ae7400.html
