André M. Zachery (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist and founding artistic director of Brooklyn-based Renegade Performance Group (RPG). Zachery’s practice, research and community engagement artistically focuses on Black/African Diaspora cultural practices through the mediums of choreography, site-specific projects, film, digital projection, audio installations and responsive technology. He is a former Jerome Foundation supported Movement Research artist-in-residence and a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship/Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography. He has served as a guest faculty artist in dance departments at Florida State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Ohio State University. His works have received acclaimed reviews from the New York Times, Culturebot and other notable publications. RPG has presented work at Danspace Project, The Kennedy Center, Wexner Center for the Arts, Harlem Stage and the Brooklyn Museum. Zachery extensively collaborates with artists of various genres and mediums to create innovative projects that expand notions of performance and space.

Fellowship Statement

I am interested in dimensionality as a means to disrupt and dismantle hierarchy. Currently, my work and research in Afrofuturism reconsiders the relationship of the Black body in digital landscapes to recoding (virtual) reality. The presence, experiences and narratives of the African Diaspora are severely lacking in the field of performance and technology. For me dimensionality offers the ability to shape and form our stories, legacies, myths and sense of place with complexity and nuance in consideration to time. Moving forward, I want to find ways to actualize the conversation and theory of Black futurity into physical and material spaces.  I want people to input their information into a constructed environment where the material and physical architectures interact cohesively with supporting sonic and visual elements, exploring how Afrofuturism can be a generative mechanism to address societal issues with parity, equity and resourcefulness

Photo by Rachel Neville.