For one sleepless Saturday night, the Athens uptown area will be transformed from a place of the drunken wanderer to an open stage for artists involved in dance, music, theater and visual arts.
As a celebration of the arts, the Nuit Blanche festival features different venues that provide spaces for artists to perform in, while community members observe or participate free of charge. Nuit Blanche, a French term meaning “white night,” refers to the “up-all-night” aspect of the festival.
Festival co-director Zelma Badu-Younge, an associate professor of dance, said the idea to bring a Nuit Blanche to Athens has been with her since she participated in the Toronto Nuit Blanche in 2010.
Because it is the first Nuit Blanche in Athens, Badu-Younge said she is confident the festival will be a rare and exciting experience because it allows the community members and students to interact.
The festival will feature musicians, dancers, actors and artists of all genres to perform in venues including Donkey Coffee and Espresso, Central Venue, the Woolworth Building, Sol Restaurant, Inhale Yoga Studio and more.
Nathan Andary, a visiting assistant professor of dance, created a site-specific dance piece, “Fallacy,” that will be performed in the Woolworth Building, 31 S. Court Street.
The opportunity to perform in an unconventional space — an office building — prompted Andary to participate in the festival because it allowed him to challenge the norms associated with performance.
“I get to redefine what it means to be a performer and to be on stage,” he said. “(The festival) also redefines who and what the audience is and where an audience can be. For site-specific work, you can redesign the normal, mundane spaces and enliven them.”
Before the Nuit Blanche festival, Badu-Younge teamed up with Jennifer Petrie, a graduate assistant at the Walter International Education Center, to create the Pre-Nuit festival for children at Howard Park.
The Pre-Nuit will be held immediately before the Nuit Blanche begins and will focus on introducing the children to global culture through themed crafts.
“It’s a great time to let kids have fun with global crafts and culture and their own creative mind,” Petrie said. “Motown Steel Band will be there, so kids who make their own instruments can then join in and make music with the band.”
mg986611@ohiou.edu
