<>RETURN TO VISIONARY ARCHIVE

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE | VISIONARY | 11| 2008
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Ella Turenne awakens souls. 

Her practice combines contemporary and academic training in the arts with a cultivated activist vision.  She humbles herself to her own practice and the sensed and documented yearnings of her people.  She teaches, organizes and practices art - building and working with community in all of these spaces – she is truly an artist by all definitions, across, culture, ethnicity and gender.

Attracting by her courageous dedication to engaging Black women’s ideologies, cosmologies, bodiesand aesthetics, she confirms that it is in fact true - we are the ones we are waiting for.

REBORN is pleased to present VISIONARY Ella Turenne.

- Noelle Lorraine Williams| VISIONARY  | A Project of REBORN

This interview was conducted by e-mail October 2008.
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE |ELLA TURENNE
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| Ella Turenne is a soul builder.
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"For me, I am looking to see how my art - whether it’s the written or spoken word, visual art, film or theatre - can illuminate an issue and propel people to action…I have faith that I can accomplish being part of the empowerment of my community through my art.  I am one piece of the puzzle; it’s through collective effort that we will get to where we want to be." - Ella Turenne
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NOELLE LORRAINE WILLIAMS |  Your biography is a testament to your steadfast spirit.  Consistently it demonstrates adeep commitment to the craft of performance and visual art and a courageous grasp of some key issues that impact the lives people of color and consequently everyone worldwide.  What is your vision for your work in this life? What do you have faith in accomplishing?

ELLATURENNE |

I definitely have a deep commitment to my craft.  I take it very seriously.  I think natural talent is not enough.  You need to have a hunger for your craft that forces you to take it beyond talent.  I do not necessarily mean we all have to go out and get MFAs.  There are all sorts of ways artists can be trained and continue to hone their craft without having to go through the traditional education routes.  But I think if you are going to be serious about your art, you have to work at it every day.  You have to be humble enough to understand that there is always something for you to learn.  You have to be able to embrace critique.  The artists that understand this are the best artists.  You have to be passionate and breathe your art.  Edwidge Danticat said "You need a passion - one that won't be denied, that won't let you sleep, that's almost like breathing."  I came up with the slogan "Art or Die" to characterize this very idea - that art is needed for survival.
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"You have to be able to embrace critique.  The artists that understand this are the best artists.  You have to be passionate and breathe your art.  Edwidge Danticat said "You need a passion - one that won't be denied, that won't let you sleep, that's almost like breathing."- Ella Turenne

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NOELLE LORRAINE WILLIAMS | It is always significant to me that many people are disdainful of any connection between art and politics and art and spirituality when many of the most recognized and significant African American and Latino artists do just that.  Whether it is Catlett, Baraka, Hughes, Kahlo, Rivera or Baldwin a solid commitment to understanding the contemporary yearnings and desire of various communities is integral to their practice.

In what ways are these connections organic for you?  How does a "call and response"type practice actually innovate on the production of art?

ELLA TURENNE | The connection the community - and also artists that came before you - is extremely important.  I didn't realize that until after I left undergrad.  I was a bit cocky - I thought my art could exist in a vacuum and I didn't need to know about anything that came before me.  One day someone said to me after seeing one of my paintings, "That looks like something Faith Ringgold would do."  I was embarrassed because I didn't know who she was.  I went and looked her up and I fell in love with her work.  I fell in love with her story.  And that motivated me.  I then realized that we have to know who came before us.  We have to know what their struggle was.  And that also informs what we are going through today.  How would we appreciate our voting rights if we didn't know what it took to get them?

The call and response,"Krik, Krak" is important for me.  If I am to be a vessel through which my community makes a statement, I'd better be listening to what they have to say so I don't get it twisted.  Mentors have told me,"Write what you know."  If I write what I know, then I am going to write about my experience as a Haitian woman.  I am going to write about my experience as a Black woman.  I am going to write about the young men I work with in jails.  I am going to write about the young children who I work with whose parents are incarcerated.  I am going to write about them, draw about them, act them out.  And I'm going to work with them to get their message out as well.

NOELLE LORRAINE WILLIAMS | In what ways (if any) are you influenced by traditional and contemporary artistic practices in Haiti particularly with regard to women?  Are their particular cosmologies or beliefs that inform your artistic practice?  Does this in any way influence your conception of the boundaries of the body in "real time" or interpreted through artistic practice?

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Link
Ella Turenne
www.blackwomyn.com

Sistapac
www.sistapac.com
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Biography - EllaTurenne
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ELLATURENNE | is an artist,activist and educator. Her creative work spans over 20 years as anartist.  She has been described as a “one-woman army of culture.”

Ella has been involved in the television and film industry for over ten years. Oneof her first projects was her own television talk show, The Ella Show, which at the age of 19, she starred in,directed and produced. Later she took that experience and became the host andproducer of a live talk show called Not for Nothin’ at Cambridge Community Television. Some of herfilm credits include Arrangements,woodshed, The Viagra Dialogues, One More Try and recently Big, Dark, Scary Girl, which won an experimental film award at theReel Sister’s Film Festival. In 2000, she was selected as an Actor-in-Residenceat the acclaimed International Film and Video Workshops.

Ella is also a theatre veteran, having performed in her first play at the ageof 5. She has since performed in On Striver’s Row, Raft of the Medusa, Blood Wedding, Africa Atunbi!, Shades of Blue, Love Child and most recently Come Back to Me, featured in New York’s Fresh Fruit PlayFestival. She was also seen in the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival in the play Working Things Out.

Ella has been writing for as long as she has been performing. She was an Artsand Culture Journalist with the Haitian Times for four years. She has also written articlesfor Visual Voice Magazine and Stank Magazine. As a poet, her work has been showcased in various publicationsincluding Tanbou Magazine, The Anthology of Haitian Poets in Massachusetts, The Nubian Chronicles, i got somethin' to say and most recently Check the Rhyme: AnAnthology of Female Poets and Emcees (nominated for a 2007 NAACP Image Award). In 2006, she wasselected to participate in the prestigious Cave Canem poetry workshop led byacclaimed poet, Willie Perdomo. Ella’s first book, revolution|revolisyon|révolution1804 - 2004: An Artistic Commemoration of the Haitian Revolution was published in January 2004 (Liv Lakay Publications).Her work was recently featured in Letters from Young Activists: Today’s RebelsSpeak Out. Her most recentacademic essay on murals and prisons was published in an anthology by CambridgeScholars Press. She is currently working on an anthology of short fiction byHaitian women and an empowerment book about the struggles of being a youngwoman and surviving the crucial “twenty-something” years. She is completingseveral screenplays including one that seeks to dispel myths about vodouculture. Together with Jessica Nyel Willis and Maureen Aladin,members of SistaPAC Productions (an organization she co-founded) she is in theprocess of developing several dramas, comedies and reality pilots.

Ella is also a spoken word artist and has performed nationally at venues suchas The Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, The New Jersey Performing ArtsCenter Hip Hop Planet 2 Series and the Da’ Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles. Shewas featured on the Black Family Channel show Spoken,hosted by renowned poet Jessica Care Moore.

In addition to being a performer, Ella is a visual artist and curator. Her workhas been displayed at the Boston Center for the Arts, the Long IslandAfrican-American Museum and the Salmagundi Art House. She has co-curated theExposed, Echoes of our Ancestors and Remember Amadou exhibits. Neverlosing sight of the struggle for social justice, equality and positive socialchange, especially through the arts, Ella co-founded the SOULFINITEEntertainment Group, an organization dedicated to creating independent art. Sheis director, co-producer and actor in SOULFINITE's first independent shortfilm, woodshed,completed in 2006. woodshedwas accepted into several film festivals and received two "Best ShortFilm" nominations.  As an activist, she is an advisory board memberof the BLACKOUT Arts Collective, a grassroots organization whose mission is toempower communities of color through arts, education and activism. WithBlackout, Ella toured with Lyrics on Lockdown, a national tour where she performedand facilitated workshops educating communities about the prisonindustrial complex. She currently works with incarcerated youth and hasdeveloped arts based workshops with youth whose parents are incarcerated.