PERFORMANCE RESPONSE JOURNAL 2.0

Performance Response Journal 2.0 (PRJ2.0) works to collect reflection and insight from members of Chicago's performing arts community. Its co-organizers reflect below on the who & the what of the organization:

From CO Joanna Furnans:

- The performance response journal is a community and a platform.

- We are performing artists, writers, cultural producers, and witnesses.

- We are a community of instigators and responders: across genres, across town, across policies and priorities.

- We are, and are allied with, folx who identify as antiracist, intersectional feminists, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled.

- We are typically underserved and under-acknowledged.

- We value each other’s perspectives. We value the creative ways our perspectives are communicated.

- We are an archive of scenes. We are interviews and points of view.

- We are a collection of responses to dance and performance in Chicago.


From CO Aaliyah Christina:

Performance Response Journal (PRJ) highlights voices by artists for artists. PRJ relies on reflection and intersection with the what and how the artist-viewer sees performances. We stray away from the white supremacist format to create an anti-capitalist prism without hyper-criticism and medium degradation. We aim to provide a platform from writers of all forms & styles: essay, poetry, prose, etc. that encompass all contributors to Chicago’s performance community. PRJ repurposes the terms “value,” “sophistication,” and “professional” to open the audience member to the endless facets of making & reflecting. PRJ not only reflects on how we see the work, but how we see ourselves.
From CO Felicia Holman:

The PRJ Podcast is produced and hosted by Felicia Holman, and is an audio program of the Performance Response Journal. The PRJ Podcast is inspired by all the artists, all the arts writers, and all the meaning-making happening in the wake of COVID-19. Just as the written journal, the PRJ Podcast has been created to:

- hear what people think about the dance/performance work they see, create, or participate in encourage audiences to engage in honest, creative, and critical thinking in response to the vast array of dance/performance work in our communities.

- honor the artists who are creating and presenting dance/performance work with thoughtful and unique feedback.

- provide a forum for dance/performance writing by authors who are not specifically “critics”.

- offer a space for community members to reflect on the vitality of our artistic home, especially now in the age of COVID-19


In 2021, PRJ2.0 produced "Deconstructing Language: Liberationist Writing for Performance," a series of dance writing workshops for QTBIPOC writers in the Midwest and Rust Belt. NCCAkron supported these workshops through a Satellite Residency.