LIZ LERMAN

Liz Lerman’s four-decade career has involved personal story, public participation, and diverse collaborators including shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers. She is credited as “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art” (The Washington Post).

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lerman was developing a dance work called Wicked Bodies around these lines of inquiry. With support from an NCCAkron Satellite Residency, she chose to revisit and reimagine some of the material research in alternate ways resulting in three short films titled Justice, The Cosmos, and Forgiveness.

In May of 2021, Lerman led a Dancing Conversation with NCCAkron on women & witchcraft, with scholars from The University of Akron Francisca Ugalde, Daniela Jauk, and Heather Braun. Lerman is seeking “spells for forgiveness and healing” from the Akron community to conjure continued research, connection with others, and the learning of how to be together in community, again. To cast a spell, Akron community members can pick up a postage-paid and pre-addressed postcard, write a message on the card in response to its prompt, and drop the card in the mail to be delivered to Lerman. Postcards are available at the below-participating venues until September 1 while supplies last.

The postcard features artwork by Akron visual artist Joan Colbert. The artwork, What I Know, is a block print from Colbert’s series Thirteen Ways. The series contains thirteen small block prints based upon the poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, by Wallace Stevens.

Postcard Locations:
Akron Coffee Roasters, 30 N High St, Akron, OH 44308
Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, 73 S College St, Akron, OH 44325
Emily Davis Gallery, 150 E Exchange St, Akron, OH 44325
Gypsy Grace & The Vintage Goat, 451 W Market St, Akron, OH 44303
Gypsy Moon Lane, 1259 Sherman St, Akron, OH 44301
Hazeltree Interiors, 143 W Market St, Akron, OH 44303
Summit Artspace, 140 E Market St, Akron, OH 44308
Summit County Historical Society, 550 Copley Rd, Akron, OH 44320
Whiskertin, 1145 #306, Getz St, Akron, OH 44301
Zeber-Martell Gallery & Clay Studio, 43 Furnace St # G, Akron, OH 44308