Molly Joyce - Open Arms
molly joyce
PERSPECTIVE: open arms ep
Image description: A album cover featuring white text upon a black background with white lines and the words "PERSPECTIVE: Open Arms EP Molly Joyce"
Release date: January 27. 2023
On Jan. 27, 2023, Molly Joyce, an artist motivated by and through and because of disability, releases Open Arms, the companion EP to her new critically acclaimed album, Perspective. Released on Oct. 28, 2022, Perspective is “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture” (Pitchfork), “a powerful ongoing project … charged by an intense composer/performer relationship” (The Wire).
At the age of seven, Joyce’s left hand was nearly amputated in a car accident. After two decades of rejecting the label, Joyce now proudly identifies as disabled, using her impaired left hand to play her vintage toy organ — an instrument seemingly custom-built for the composer. On her new EP, Joyce collaborates with the Open Arms Dance Project, a community of dancers with diverse bodies, ages, and abilities in Boise, Idaho.
“For this EP, I interviewed disabled dance members and Open Arms founder Megan Brandel on three concepts: care, strength, and interdependence,” says Joyce. “Following the interviews, I added musical underscoring and created open-caption videos featuring text responses of the interviewees' answers. Several interviews were conducted with caretakers — grandmothers and relatives and friends. Other interviewees mentioned their social support. These aspects of disability often go undiscussed, at least publicly, and I feel fortunate for this opportunity.”
“Collaborating with Molly Joyce was an incredibly fulfilling process,” says Megan Brandel, the artist director of Open Arms Dance Project. “Through interviewing Open Arms dancers, and including their thoughts and voices in the sound score, Molly created a level of acknowledgment that was deeply empowering. This translated into Open Arms dancers creating innovative movements and performing confidently on stage. We all appreciated this process and collaboration immensely.”
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Heumann’s question inspired Perspective, Joyce’s multidisciplinary work featuring 47 disabled interviewees, worldwide, whose impairments range from physical to visual to intellectual to auditory, and whose backgrounds span race, class, gender, religion, and sexuality—veterans, activists, academics, pageant models, and others. On Perspective, Joyce asks her disability community numerous questions: “What is weakness for you?” “What is access for you?” and other queries related to their disabilities.
“I wondered if rethinking ‘weakness’ might foster a broader understanding of the term, of related terms, and of terms central to disability culture,” says Joyce. “The aim was to highlight the diversity and plurality of the disability community and, hopefully, reframe collective perceptions about disability.” The composer recorded the disabled interviewees’ responses and underscored the audio with her voice and vintage toy organ. But unlike most albums, Perspective is more than an aural experience. In an effort to be all-inclusive, to highlight multisensory accessibility, the new piece is designed to be listened to alongside a series of open-caption videos.
Before Perspective, Joyce’s work explored her relationship with disability, though she’d been longing to widen her focus, to engage her community. “For a long time, I wondered how to authentically highlight voices and viewpoints of the disability community, an incredibly diverse yet unified identity, and experience,” says Molly Joyce. “I hope Perspective offers singular insights into these outlooks by valuing the disabled experience as one all can learn from and engage with.”
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Credits:
Molly Joyce, composer and performer
Michael Hammond, producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer
Halcyon Arts Lab, DC iteration commissioner
Surel's Place, Idaho iteration commissioner
Open Arms Dance Project, Idaho iteration producer and collaborator
Dr. Tom von Sternberg and Eve Parker, Minnesota iteration commissioners
The Great Northern Festival, Minnesota iteration producer
Metropolis Ensemble, Assistant Producer
Sandy Guttman, Project Curator
Perspective was produced with residencies at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Halcyon Arts Lab, and Surel's Place.
Perspective was developed with presentations at Americans for the Arts, Ars Nova, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Momentary, National Sawdust, and The Peace Studio.
Special thanks to: Rachel Adams, Megan Brandel, Nicole Dowd, Jodi Eichelberger, Marne Elmore, Greg Hahn, Judi and Ed Joyce, Michael Kaufmann, Cynthia Post Hunt, Emma Saperstein, Ben Swartz, and Aisha White.
First Iteration // Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington, DC
Day Al-Mohamed
Sabrina Epstein
JJJJJerome Ellis
Shannon Finnegan
Matthew Flanagan
David Furukawa
Jerron Herman
Nicole Kelly
Miso Kwak
Lachi
Robert McRuer
Michael Marceau
Diego Mariscal
Robin Marquis
Yoshi Nakamura
Adam Roberge
Tom Shakespeare
Stefan Sunandan Honisch
Peter Wehrli
Erin Weierbach
Alice Wong
Second Iteration // Open Arms Dance Project and Surel’s Place in Boise, ID
Kristen Beaver
Megan Brandel
Gail C. Hawkins
Hava Fisherman
Heather Marie
Cade Willes *interviewed with grandmother Kay Willis
Third Iteration // The Great Northern Festival in Twin Cities, MN
Katie De Leo
Richard Grimm
Arbdella Hudson
Katrina Jirik
Kevin Kling
Amoke Kubat
Gaelynn Lea
Chris Martin
Nicole Mary Milligan
Leslye Orr
Atlas O. Phoenix
Donna Ray
Gabriel Rodreick
Danny Roherty
Matthew Sanford
Andy Slater
Nathan R. Stenberg
Poppy Jean Sundquist
Mai Thor
Debbie Towey
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