Seth Parker Woods: Difficult Grace in photographs
April 18, 2024
On Thursday, April 11th Seth Parker Woods performed Difficult Grace at Penn Live Arts’ Zellerbach Theater. Below are photographs from this remarkable performance! Difficult Grace was presented by the Arthur Ross Gallery in conjunction with Barbara Earl Thomas: The Illuminated Body, which includes a portrait of Woods performing Difficult Grace.
Difficult Grace is a multimedia concert tour de force exploring identity, history and personal growth featuring Grammy-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods and dancer Roderick George. The performance draws inspiration from the Great Migration, archival research, immigration and the poetry of Kemi Alabi and Dudley Randall. Seth Parker Woods takes on multiple roles in the performance, which seamlessly blends artistic genres across music, film, spoken text, dance and visual arts (featuring artwork by Jacob Lawrence, Barbara Earl Thomas, Zoë McLean and Freida Abtan). The performance features music written for and with Seth by Freida Abtan, Monty Adkins, Fredrick Gifford, Nathalie Joachim, Ted Hearne and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay.
The Seth Parker Woods: Difficult Grace was curated by Emily Zimmerman, Director, Arthur Ross Gallery and supported by Logan Cryer, Program Manager for Barbara Earl Thomas: The Illuminated Body and Elizabeth McClafferty, Interim Gallery Manager and Public Engagement Coordinator. Major support for Barbara Earl Thomas: The Illuminated Body has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
Photographs by Eric Sucar.