performance, music, multi-screen video, sound
2020–2023
The Slow Drop is a multidisciplinary project by Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere which includes a spatial music performance, a multi-screen video and sound installation, and a series of photographic portraits of musician collaborators.
The Slow Drop began with the question: What might a creative response sound like in the wake of climate change? Artistic reactions to climate change are necessary to build understanding of the realities of changing landscapes. Cities like New Orleans are at the frontline of climate change, whose urgency leads us to think critically in order to probe new narrative spaces for transformation.
Troy Sawyer performing in The Slow Drop, Musicians' Village, New Orleans, 2022.
The first component of The Slow Drop was a spatial music performance that took place on October 8, 2022 in Musicians’ Village, New Orleans, LA. The performance titled The Slow Drop: Musicians’ Village was built through the musical talents of residents of New Orleans Musicians’ Village —a 2006 housing initiative in the Upper Ninth Ward that provided assistance to bring musicians back to the neighborhood after the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.
We began working with Musicians’ Village musicians / residents in January of 2020, continued remotely over the pandemic, and then again in-person through 2021 and 2022. Collaborating musicians include Danny Abel, Sam Albright, Denise Bonis, Tom Chute, Sula Janet Evans, Helen Gillet, Edward Lee Jr., Thomas McDonald, Margie Perez, Troy Sawyer, Gabriel Velasco, and Chip Wilson.
Edward Lee, Jr. performing in The Slow Drop, Musicians' Village, New Orleans, 2022.
Neighbors and visitors listening to and participating in The Slow Drop, Musicians' Village, New Orleans, 2022.
The Slow Drop is a neighborhood score consisting of melodic textures, percussive accents, and vibrant tones that reference the ecology and the layered acoustic environment of New Orleans. On October 8, 2022, neighbors and audiences experienced a fluid musical performance by residents of Musicians’ Village performing from the porches and yards of their own homes; as audiences moved through Musicians’ Village, distinct scores emerged as each composed their own listening route through the neighborhood.
The video and audio intermix of the October 8, 2022 performance is edited as a multi-screen video and sound installation that captures the spatial musical aspects of the performance. Alongside the installation, photographic portraits of collaborating musicians are exhibited with accompanying text/story-telling that speaks of the individual and collective histories of Musicians’ Village.
Chip Wilson performing in The Slow Drop, Musicians' Village, New Orleans, 2022.
Denise Bonis performing in The Slow Drop, Musicians' Village, New Orleans, 2022.
Map and event poster.
clockwise from top left: Thomas McDonald, Danny Abel, Margie Perez, Troy Sawyer.
clockwise from top left: Chip Wilson, Sula Evans, Edward Lee Jr., Denise Bonis.
clockwise from top left: Helen Gillet, Gabriel Velasco, Tom Chute, Sam Albright.
The October 8, 2022 event was curated by Anna Mecugni and included a participatory ancestral tribute to Musicians’ Village founding resident Council Chief Joseph Jenkins in the Black Indian tradition, featuring Big Chiefs Kevin Goodman and Kevin Turner who co-curated the production with Maroon Queen Reesie (Cherice Harrison-Nelson).
Funding for The Slow Drop comes from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Research Foundation of the City University of New York (CUNY), Harpo Foundation, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, City of New Orleans Mayor's Office of Cultural Economy, Social Practice CUNY, Jazz Foundation of America, and the College of Staten Island/CUNY Dean's Research Award. Further support comes from Antenna through Antenna::Spillways Residency Program, Interlude Artist Residency, Louisiana Board of Regents, University of New Orleans Office of Research, and the National Park Service and Jefferson National Parks Association’s Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative. Performance partners include the New Orleans Jazz Museum, WWOZ, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, University of New Orleans School of the Arts, Technical and Audio/Visual support comes from Katapult Events, Corporate Lighting & Audio, and RCD Visuals.
© Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere, 2020–2023