SHADES of GRAS, 2019
Sited in New Orleans,Shades of Gras amends the myth of the tragic mulatto. Think Elia Kazan’s Pinky Johnson meets Brad Pitt for a plaçage arrangement on a 300 year-old Mardi Gras float, but only after getting some red beans and rice and a blessing from Tremé‘s eponymous jazz drummer,UncleLionel Batiste. Abrams navigates her biracial identity amidst Creole culture, while getting advice from LYFT drivers and traveling back in time to a Quadroon Ballroom in the French Quarter. She dances in between second lines and the the lines of the film “Pinky” to invigorate antiquated legends and folklore that re-envision the American narrative of racial hybridity and mythological identities.
Sited in New Orleans,Shades of Gras amends the myth of the tragic mulatto. Think Elia Kazan’s Pinky Johnson meets Brad Pitt for a plaçage arrangement on a 300 year-old Mardi Gras float, but only after getting some red beans and rice and a blessing from Tremé‘s eponymous jazz drummer,UncleLionel Batiste. Abrams navigates her biracial identity amidst Creole culture, while getting advice from LYFT drivers and traveling back in time to a Quadroon Ballroom in the French Quarter. She dances in between second lines and the the lines of the film “Pinky” to invigorate antiquated legends and folklore that re-envision the American narrative of racial hybridity and mythological identities.
