"The Holy Presence of Joan D’arc"
By Julius Eastman

Film Produced by Looking Glass Arts

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In our inaugural season, LGA partnered with the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA to film Julius Eastman’s “The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc” (1980) for 10 cellos (under the Musical Direction of Seth Parker Woods) and the Prelude for Solo Baritone (performed by  Davóne Tines) in the hundred-year-old dairy barn adapted for use as a rustic recording space. The physicality of the composition and its driving call to “speak boldly” is palpable in the film—resonating through the floorboards and out onto the rolling green fields just beyond the barn doors.

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Protominimalist, pianist, singer and organizer Julius Eastman made a name for himself in the 1970s representing a new kind of artistic intellectual- one determined to redefine the role of modern creatives, committed to intersectionality and self-liberation. In a 1976 interview he professed, “What I am trying to achieve… is to be what I am to the fullest. Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest.” The unapologetic nonconformity and authenticity of Eastman’s compositions have undoubtedly contributed to the posthumous reemergence, recognition, and subsequent renaissance that his body of work has received in recent years.

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Featuring: Titilayo Ayangade, Hannah Collins, Melody C. Giron, Michael Haas, Dara Hankins, Christine Lamprea, Tomeka Reid, Nathaniel “Ace” Taylor, Davóne Tines, Seth Parker Woods, Kamyron Williams