A Black femme story of interior lives and shared fantasies. Blooming in the shadows of the prison, our imaginations form a strange sisterhood with the power to disintegrate walls.
Queer and dreamy, ambitious and angsty, and inspired by Black girls, abolition feminists, and waiting rooms everywhere, FORCE! is an original work by Anna Martine Whitehead in collaboration with Ayanna Woods and a constellation of freedom dreamers.
UPCOMING + RECENT
FORCE! was recently recognized
-2022 National Performance Network Creation Fund Award
-2022 NEFA National Theater Project Award
-2023 NPN Development Fund Award
-2024 Wirtz Centers Residency with Pivot Arts
Anna Martine was named a 2022-2024 Vera List Center Fellow for Art and Politics for FORCE! an opera
This work has been developed primarily on the aboriginal lands of the Council of the Three Fires (the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi); the Illinois Confederacy (the Peoria and Kaskaskia Nations); and the Miami, Wea, Thakwiwaki, and Meskwaki Nations; also known as Chicago. This land is also home to the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Kiickapoo, and Mascouten Nations. Further,
this region was a significant site of Black spatial aspiration, serving as a major hub for the Underground Railroad and a terminus for the Great Migration. In addition to a centuries-old existence at the intersection of multiple Native and Black highways, Chicago sits at the near-confluence of three major rivers (Mississippi, Chicago, and Des Plaines), and rests at the mouth of Lake Michigan. The prairies of this land -- which used to contribute to the continent's largest continuous ecosystem -- are resilient, despite constant threat of removal. FORCE! an opera is grateful to the land and its stewards (past, present, and future) for providing a haven for our work of decolonization, repair, and reimagining. As a constellation, we continue to work toward a more balanced relationship with this place and its people.
