Steeg Law is delighted to shine the community spotlight on Antenna, a New Orleans-based organization that is committed to being a vital participant in the life of the city through the creation and support of artist- and writer-driven programs.
Through its robust slate of multidisciplinary programs, Antenna works to serve as an engine for cultural production, a resource for creative practitioners, and a welcoming entry point into the arts for audiences across the city.
Antenna has been working towards its mission of offering intentionally designed and implemented programming to support the creative community of New Orleans since 2005. These programs include:
- Draw-A-Thon, Antenna’s longest standing program, a 24-hour public arts extravaganza celebrating creating for the sake of creation in an effort to bring out the artist in everyone.
- Two gallery spaces, Antenna Gallery and The Reading Room, focused on showcasing visual artists of various mediums and projects at the intersection of literary and visual arts.
- Spillways and Paper Machine Artist-in-Residence Programs, which provide opportunities for up to 10 artists annually to explore and engage with the New Orleans arts community, while developing community oriented artistic projects.
- The Platforms Fund re-granting program which supports artistic projects across the city in collaboration with the Warhol Foundation.
- Signals, a quarterly event and publication series styled as a live-action arts and culture magazine.
- Room 220, Antenna’s literary initiative which hosts events, open calls, and an online literary journal as well as highlighting opportunities for writers across the city.
Slave Rebellion Reenactment
Through Antenna’s Spillways residency program, the organization has been working for the past several years in collaboration with a host of community partners and led by artist Dread Scott to develop the Slave Rebellion Reenactment. Slave Rebellion Reenactment is a community-engaged performance piece initiated by artist Dread Scott & documented by John Ackomfrah—reinterpreting Louisiana’s German Coast Uprising of 1811, the largest rebellion of enslaved people in North American history. Slave Rebellion Reenactment is set to take place November 8-9th, 2019, through the river parishes outside of New Orleans. The artwork will be a spectacular sight; 500 reenactors, many on horses, armed with cane knives and prop muskets, flags flying, most in 19th century French colonial garments, others in period militia uniforms, singing in Creole to African drumming over 26 miles.
The project highlights how a brave vision of freedom from the past can connect to contemporary society, aiming to shift dominant narratives about the way we view others. The Reenactment will end with a parade from the Old U.S. Mint to Congo Square for a culminating celebration on November 9th, 2019.