Postponed:The Great Northern: Tracing Sacred Steps: The Cinematic Experience
The Screening of our film Tracing Sacred Steps Scheduled for Friday January 30th has been postponed to honor the planned nationwide strike and march. We’ll share the new date and time as soon as they’re confirmed.
Thank you for your understanding.
Artist Bios
Deneane Richburg
Deneane Richburg is the founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody, the home for her choreographic work. Deneane grew up a competitive figure skater—spending time in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as the skating world was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her ancestry’s truths. Working in this space, to quote Zora Neale Hurston, she always felt “most colored when [she was] thrown against a sharp white background.” Richburg realized the need to carve out space for her blackness hence her decision to establish Brownbody. Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black communities by inviting the nuance, beauty, and complexity of blackness into the work. Richburg received her MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University in
2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton College. Deneane has been creating work for both the ice and the stage for over 15 years and, thru her company, had the good fortune of working with Urban Bush Women on translating two of their works onto the ice. Deneane has also performed with companies including FlyGround, and Kariamu and Company. Deneane is a grateful recipient of a 2017 and 2023 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center, funded by The McKnight Foundation, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Roobi Starla Gaskins
Roobi Starla Gaskins is a NYC-based artist specializing in dance, choreography, and wearable art. While she has always had a passion for dance, her movement foundation was shaped by 14 years of competitive figure skating, during which she competed internationally as a member of the Puerto Rican national team. After an injury, she redirected her career path and began formal dance training at Bard College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Dance with a focus in Africana Studies. She toured nationally as a company member with Urban Bush Women and has performed with artists and companies including Abby Z and the New Utility, Brownbody, Houston Grand Opera, Marjani Forte-Saunders, and LaJune McMillan. In addition to performing, she coaches figure skating and teaches house dance in the NYC area.
Thomasina Petrus
Thomasina Petrus is a 25-year equity actor and professional jazz vocalist, a company member at Penumbra Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, and Park Square Theatre, and has performed with the Twin Cities most beloved artists. Mentors and friends, James “Cornbread” Harris, Sr., Javetta Steele, T. Mycheal Rambo, Stokley, Walter Chancellor, Austene Cleopatra Van, and Prince, have encouraged her to continue creating exceptional music and theatre by launching Thomasina Production. Highlights include: Lady Day @ Emerson’s Bar & Grill by Lanie Robertson, Etta James… Dreams to Remember, Hot Chocolate Holiday musical series, and the 5-women a cappella ensemble “The Sound Effects,” HOLD a play on incarcerated women thru music and poetry, and Five Points by Harrison David Rivers. She is a Performance/Bessie Award Nominee.
Sandra Richardson
Sandra Richardson has been an activist and facilitator in Minneapolis for most of her life, and currently leads The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism workshops across the Twin Cities. Her involvements include: board member of African Community Services, Co-chair of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park Legacy Council and represents the council as part of the Parks and Power Coalition. She managed the Catholic Charities Family Shelter for 10 years and managed and directed Sabathani Community Center’s Family Resources program serving approximately 20,000 people for basic needs support annually for 7 years. As the principal of Sankofa Consulting, Sandra has worked to strengthen anti-racist initiatives in community non-profits, labor organizations and local governments. Sandra is currently the Undoing Racism, Healing & Organizational Consultant for Brownbody, Inc. Selected to be a 2016 Roy Wilkins Community Policy Fellow, she is now a Roy Wilkins Advanced Methods Policy Fellow. In 2018, Sandra was a member of the Roy Wilkins Institute delegation to the Fifth World Conference on Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality in Vitoria, Brazil.
