Afrofuturism

Our Earthship
2025-04-12 15:00 - 2025-04-13 15:00 (America/New_York)
This immersive dance performance created and directed by Jeff Jean-Philippe, Founder and Artistic Director of OneLove and The Expressive Movement dance company introduces the exploration and wonder of the relationship between Earth (in its many forms) and human interaction. It delves into what it is like to build a relationship with the ground we walk on, the things we pass by, and the resources we rely on, all through a human-centric lens. This experience goes beyond mere observation; it encourages you to engage, interact, and connect with the Earth. Together, we cultivate this relationship, creating “Our Earth-ship.”

Performance Dates & Tickets

3pm | Saturday 4/12 | Tickets

7pm | Saturday 4/12 | Tickets

3pm | Sunday 4/13 | Tickets

Generously sponsored by Artists Building Capacity as World Citizens.

Learn More About Jeff Jean-Phillippe

My purpose is to guide people to excel in their life because I know they can. I am passionate about playing the role that helps people rediscover a meaningful life full of passion and purpose, all while I can live a life that I am proud of. I am a man of many trades but mentoring humans through their personal lives, artistic journeys, and holistic health, to achieve a magnificent break-through is where I thrive.Being the Artistic Director and Founder of The Expressive Movement dance company, Dance Advisor for Positive Street Art, Hip Hop educator at various studios and institutions in New England, and nomad of the earth, I have had the honor of deeply connecting, exchanging wisdom, and providing guidance to people all over the world. With these inspiring experiences, I created my personal brand, J-Brand, an organization where I express my purpose through mentorship, holistic practices, dance/art, and comedy.My largest successes are the moments where I achieve pure presence, as presence is our strongest state of authenticity and love. In a society where our natural order is constantly overstimulated, I put in work everyday to master this mind and body so I can serve others and bring them closer to their personal truths and purpose in this lifetime.

SeaCHANGE CONFERENCE 2024
2024-09-13 08:00 - 2024-09-15 16:30
Welcome to year 3 of SeaCHANGE! People are still talking about the experiences at the previous conferences, using words like “magic” and “transformational”.This is a conference like no other. We gather creators of different identities, races, and ages and explore how the arts can contribute to healing and social change through a series of daily questions:

We give you space for conversations on big questions… workshops with amazing artists… an open mic night and dancing… and relaxed time to connect and cross-pollinate ideas in a beautiful setting.The ripple effects of the community we experience for three days go far beyond the conference: new friendships, inspiration and ideas, and collaborations among participants.

Join Theater for the People, Green Acre, and Kinship on September 13, 14 & 15 as we delve deep into our collective wisdom and explore together the answers to these questions through conversation and creativity.

To make the most of this extraordinary experience we encourage attendance for the entire event:

Option 1 | Full Conference | Including overnight | $399

Includes: 3-Day Conference admission | Overnight accommodations (Friday & Saturday) | Meals — Friday lunch through Sunday lunch

Option 2 | 3-Day Commuter Pass | $225

Includes: 3-Day Conference admission | Meals — Friday lunch through Sunday lunch

Also, we do have 1-Day ($80) & 2-Day ($130) passes available which can be selected at check out.

While we do have costs to cover, we truly want everyone who is excited about the conference to be able to join. We are happy to work out a plan with you to overcome any obstacles. Please reach out the SeaCHANGE team at seachange@greenacre.org to start the conversation.

Last Year’s Highlights

Hi, this is Najee Brown and I’m just so excited about this weekend we had three Incredible days at Green Acre Bahá’í Center of Learning doing the SeaCHANGE conference.

I just can’t begin to say how excited and how proud and like over the moon I am of what I experienced this weekend—people just opening up and being vulnerable and showing their humanity like never before, simply because they felt like they were in a safe space.

Testimonials

“Honestly I came here just wanting to create art, just being open-minded, not really knowing what to expect, and I came out with so much more than I could have ever hoped for. So that was something that was really beautiful about this experience and I just hope to do this again someday.”

“If I could describe this weekend in one word it would be ‘replenished,’ ‘potential,’ ‘invigorating,’ ’transformational’.”

“There were so many elements of how we were able to weave the creativity and the gifts of the artists, and the musicians, and the dancers here, and then seeing how the young and the old and people from so many identities and backgrounds came together. It’s so rare to be in that space, so it really exceeded my expectations.”

“One of the greatest parts of this gift, the little bit that I’ve been able to be here, was the diversity of the people, of different ages and different backgrounds, but the warmth—the warmth that was felt here the minute and I walked in the door, and the motivation behind the themes to help one another.”

“The only thing I can do is just sing, but art is more than that—you know, just singing—it’s everything.”

“I saw the dance instructors that were going to be leading workshops and I was really looking forward to, as a disabled person, some of the benefits and knowledge those people would bring to me through SeaCHANGE conference and I got that.”

“What feeds me is the heart and the spirit and even the body, and this weekend was this gorgeous collaboration between all of those elements: not just the mind, but the heart, and the spirit, and the body—and that is medicine.”

“I learned that I don’t have to be out here alone anymore, and I don’t have to hide who I am anymore.”

“Seeing folks interact with some of the artwork that was on the wall, particularly a piece called ‘Unbound’ by Arya Badiyan, which was about hair, and it was about hair filling the space of this picture—and it’s a beautiful, beautiful painting—but I got to see four different women respond to that in such a deep and visceral way. It obviously meant so much more than just the hair—it was about freedom.”

SeaCHANGE Presented by

POSTPONED: A Futuristic Costume Ball
2022-10-21 18:30 - 21:00
We regret that circumstances have dictated that we postpone the Afrofuturism Costume Ball to later in the winter or spring. Stay tuned for announcements on a future date.

Closing Event: Afrofuturism 2022 Art Exhibit

The Afrofuturism 2022 Exhibit has displayed a vision of the future in which people of African descent are vital to the progress and advancement of the human race. The exhibit has graced the walls of both Green Acre and the Seacoast African-American Cultural Center (SAACC) for the past 6 months and will draw to a close Friday October 21st, with a celebration focused on the future! Green Acre, in collaboration with SAACC, will host a family-friendly Futuristic Costume Ball. Use your imagination to create an outfit that represents the future (even if only vaguely)!

“Through art, science, philosophy, and exploration they (people of African descent) lead our world forward.”

The above quote, taken from the Afrofuturism 2022 artist’s call, may help spark ideas for outfits/costumes—but don’t let that limit you! This alcohol and substance-free Futuristic Costume Ball is not a place for cultural appropriation, but a place to bring creativity, levity and playfulness to YOUR vision of a myriad aspects of the future—a future that includes the contributions of the entire human race! And this party welcomes all members of the family (singles are members of families too!).

To make this event accessible to all, tickets are on a sliding scale, include free for those who need it.

Doors open at 6:30pm! Light refreshments will be provided! Dancing will happen!

A Night of Live Art, Music, Dancing & S’mores!
2022-08-27 19:00 - 21:00
Join Green Acre and Theater for the People for a night of music, dancing and community art—complete with a bonfire and s’mores! Part of the SeaCHANGE Conference, which explores how the arts can be used for healing and social change, this is an evening to unwind and have a great time! We’ll start with a community mural and live aerosol art at 7:00 PM. While this event is alcohol-free, we’ll also be dancing outdoors at the Green Acre campus as Najee Brown of Theater for the People spins music that’ll make your feet move and your heart pump! After the dancing cools down, we’ll warm back up with a fire and s’mores!

Tickets are required, and are on a sliding scale. Come out and join the SeaCHANGE Conference participants—folks who are focused on uplifting our communities through the arts—and have a great time under the stars!

An Evening with Poet Laureate Diannely Antigua
2022-08-26 19:30 - 21:00
Green Acre and Theater for the People present an evening of award-winning poetry with Portsmouth Poet Laureate Diannely Antigua. Her debut collection Ugly Music was the winner of the Pamet River Prize and a 2020 Whiting Award. She received her BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where she won the Jack Kerouac Creative Writing Scholarship; and received her MFA at NYU where she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship to Florence, Italy.

Diannely Antigua’s poetry presentation will be followed immediately by a live jazz performance by Ysanne accompanied by local virtuoso Nick Mainella. Ysanne, a classically trained vocalist, gave an outstanding performance here in the Seacoast area as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill at Seacoast Rep last year.

Part of the SeaCHANGE Conference, which explores how art can be used for healing and social change, this evening of words and ideas is open to the public. To ensure this event is accessible to all, there will be a “pay what you can” ticket option. Tickets are required and can be purchased below.

SeaChange Conference | Reshaping Tomorrow through Creativity & Community
2022-08-26 09:00 - 2022-08-28 18:00 | Green Acre: A Bahá’í Center of Learning, 61 Green Acre Drive, Eliot, Maine, 03903
“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” – Ruha Benjamin

Our community, country, and the world need artists’ contributions to heal and build something new. What would it look like to get working artists, arts administrators, activists, and the creative community to explore these questions?

How can the arts be used for healing and social change?How might we highlight and amplify the work of BIPOC* artists?What would it take for our community to create a resource-rich environment for artists and grow how we use arts for healing and social change?

Join Theater for the People, Green Acre, and Kinship on August 26-28 to delve deep into our collective wisdom and explore together the answers to these questions. You can come for one, two, or three days.

This will not be a traditional conference where there are panels and the audience mostly listens. There will be inspiring speakers and a range of performances and workshops, plus many opportunities for the participants to talk with each other, and suggest your own ideas for conversations.

Together we will:

Explore the key questions of the conference through participatory dialogue and gather the wisdom of the whole groupBuild new connections and collaborationsGenerate ideas for action on how we can create a resource rich environment for the arts and BIPOC artists in Seacoast, New England and beyondParticipate in workshops on dance, visual arts, poetry and more

Hosted by Victoria Carrington and Najee Brown, our artistic guides will inspire us with stellar performances and stimulating engagement — Jeryl Palana Pilapil Brown (Dance & Movement), Diannely Antigua (Creative Writing & Poetry), Nailah Randell-Bellinger (Choreographer/Educator), Richard Haynes (Visual Artist), Toni Singleton (Nurse/Educator/Dancer), Sandi Clark Kaddy (Theater Artist), and Beth Tener (Conversation Host).

As an intergenerational, multicultural community, we will learn together what we can do to advance change. We will engage in transformative exercises that awaken us to connect and collaborate for the betterment of all. Whether you are seasoned in community work or beginning your journey, SeaChange needs your contribution.

We will come together in a beautiful location along the Piscataqua river in Eliot, Maine—just 10 minutes from Portsmouth, NH. The natural environment and quiet pace will allow for extraordinary experiences to unfold—a genuinely rejuvenating way to wrap up the summer.

Schedule

• Fri 8/26 | 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM + evening performance at 7:00 PM• Sat 8/27 | 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM + evening performance at 7:00 PM• Sun 8/28 | 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Detailed Daily Schedule

Tuition

• Entire Conference – $225• 2-Day Pass – $130• 1-Day Pass – $80

Important notes

• Costs include lunch, snacks, and workshop materials• If you wish to attend and the cost is a barrier, please email us at greenacre@usbnc.org for sliding scale and scholarship options.• Overnight accommodations are available at $100/night

* This conference is intended for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and community members of all cultural backgrounds who are actively engaged in anti-racism, justice, inclusion, social change, spirituality, arts, or leadership work with children, youth, or adults. If you are committed to transformational conversations and change-making work, this space is for you!

Location:

Organizers:

Juneteenth Walk
2022-06-19 11:00 - 12:00
Celebrate Juneteenth side-by-side with others of goodwill by walking from Kittery, Maine to the African Burying Ground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire! Meet at the John Paul Jones Memorial Park on the Kittery side of the Route 1 Memorial Bridge. Walkers will depart at 11:00 am and walk the 0.8 miles to the Burying Ground, located at 386 State St, Portsmouth, NH. Stay to hear New Orleans style jazz band Midnight BBQ and a church-style ceremony with Reverend Jeffery McIlwain of North Star AME Zion Church around 12:00 pm. This event is co-hosted by The Seacoast African-American Cultural Center, Green Acre Baha’i Center of Learning, and Black Lives Matter Seacoast, in cooperation with Theater for the People and the Seacoast NAACP.

Parking for those participating in the walk is available at Kittery Walk-in Care, 35 Walker St, as well as more wheelchair accessible parking spots across Hunter Ave, by the Warren’s Lobster sign. If you’d rather join in after the parade at the African Burying Ground, there are designated accessible parking spaces in the Parrot Lot on Pleasant St, which is 0.3 miles from the African Burying Ground. Parking in all lots is free.

Afterwards, grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and make your way back to the Burying Ground at 2:00 pm for Uproar — a free, high-energy performance that introduces audiences to the unique lineages of African-American step dance and demonstrates how enslaved people on American soil used stepping as a vehicle for communication, self-expression, and joy. This performance features an intergenerational step team, poets, and musicians.

Black Comic Books & Superheroes
2022-06-12 14:00 - 15:00 | Seacoast African American Cultural Center (SAACC), 10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 03801, United States
Save the Date!

Join the Seacoast African American Cultural Center for a review of Afrofuturism and Black Superheroes in the comic book genre.

Details and registration coming soon!

Electric Voices | Octavia Butler
2022-06-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Green Acre: A Bahá’í Center of Learning, 61 Green Acre Drive, Eliot, Maine, 03903
This is a night of spoken word, live music, and great discussion. On May 22nd we’ll blend these art forms to honor the words of Afro-Futuristic, feminist author, Octavia Butler. You don’t want to miss this!

At this time masks are still required inside the building.

Black Authors
2022-06-05 14:00 - 15:00 | Seacoast African American Cultural Center (SAACC), 10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 03801, United States
Save the Date!

Join the Seacoast African American Cultural Center for a discussion of Black authors.

Details and registration coming soon!

RootsUprising
2022-05-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Green Acre: A Bahá’í Center of Learning, 61 Green Acre Drive, Eliot, Maine, 03903
RootsUprising returns to Green Acre as they present We Are... an evening performance of new works, created by artistic director, Nailah Randall-Bellinger, will be performed including, Entangled Gaze, Zipporah, Rooted We Are, along with excerpt from Initiation- In Love Solidarity.

RootsUprising is an intergenerational motion art collective composed of dancers and wordsmiths. The company reflects upon the dynamics of the human condition through the lens of movement, music, poetry, and song. RootsUprisng, which was conceived in 1998 as part of Randall-Bellinger’s Master Thesis project, Dancing Beloved, aims to celebrate the resilience and beauty of all BIPOC people.

As part of Theater for the People, RootsUprising expands upon the mission of bringing the arts to all communities as a means of engagement and community upliftment.

Moving Your Way
2022-05-21 11:00 - 13:00 | Green Acre: A Bahá’í Center of Learning, 61 Green Acre Drive, Eliot, Maine, 03903
Moving Your Way is a movement experience that invites all participants to explore their rhythmic sensibility and tap into their authentic soul. After a 30 minute meditation participants will be guided though techniques of African dance and improvisational movement by Nailah Randall-Bellinger, artistic director of RootsUprising, and Jeryl Palaña Pilapil-Brown.

Nailah Randall-Bellinger (she/her) is a dance educator and scholar. For over thirty-five years, she has taught modern and contemporary classes throughout the United States and abroad at national conventions and universities. She has studied, performed, and lectured in Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, the Czech Republic, and Senegal. She has worked with film director and poet S. Pearl, and performed as a member of Karen McDonald’s New Age Dance Workshop dance company and Jamie Nichols Fast Feet, Inc. After receiving a Masters degree from Lesley University with a concentration in Interdisciplinary Studies: Dance, and African American literature, she began to focus and develop the concept of the “dancing text” as a means to explore the corporeality of dance. In 2015, Randall-Bellinger collaborated with a group of artists in Cambridge to give voice to the voiceless in the production of Stories Without Roofs: Transitions, featuring essays, monologues, poetry, songs, dance, and general musings of residents of shelters in the city of Cambridge. She has created original work for Boston-based contemporary dance company Urbanity and was choreographer for the Boston production Ragtime at Wheelock Family Theater. In 2020, she was awarded the Alorie Parkhill Learning and Travel Grant to study expressions of dance in South East Asia. Randall-Bellinger currently serves as the Chair of the Dance Department at The Cambridge School of Weston. She has been a teaching artist at Harvard Dance Center for over a decade. In Spring 2021, Randall-Bellinger facilitated the first of a series of virtual artist-led discussions around artistry, identity, and advocacy, where she presented her film works #shesstillbreathing and Women’s Work, both inspired and constructed within the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic. She most recently was a co-choreographer for the A.R.T. Arboretum project. She is also one of seven artists commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) in 2021 to create a new work on campus. The work, titled Initiation– In Love Solidarity, explores the resilience and evolving identity of women of the African diaspora.

Jeryl Palana Pilapil-Brown, is a Filipino-American choreographer, dancer and educator in Boston. Since graduating from Dean College with her B.A. as a dancer major, she has traveled throughout the states and abroad to Canada, London, Barcelona and Japan to immerse herself in various dance styles; the main ones being contemporary, floorwork, street styles and heels. Jeryl now dedicates her time teaching and sharing with students of all ages throughout New England. She aims to bring diverse groups of people together through her choreographic works and organizing annual events like “The Hip Hop Exchange” dance festival.

Green Acre Opening Event
2022-05-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Green Acre: A Bahá’í Center of Learning, 61 Green Acre Drive, Eliot, Maine, 03903
Immerse yourself in the spirit of insight—into the past, the present and the future—at the opening of the AFROFUTURISM 2022 art exhibit at Green Acre. In collaboration with the Seacoast African American Cultural Center, Green Acre brings you an exhibit that promotes a vision: a vision of the future in which people of African descent not only have a place in—but are synonymous with—the progress and advancement of the human race. This will be no passive art gallery opening, but an evening of artistic exploration and engagement, in which all can participate in the generation of insight fueled by the arts.

SAACC Opening Reception
2022-04-28 18:00 | Seacoast African American Cultural Center (SAACC), 10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH, 03801, United States
