Based in New York, Najja Codrington is a cofounder of Brooklyn Jumbies along with Ali Sylvester and is also musical director of the KowTeff School of African Dance. Codrington was born into a family deeply rooted in both African and African Caribbean culture. At age ten, under the guidance of Obara Wali Rahman, he received his first formal training in the Sabar orchestra as a member of Sabar Ak-Ru-Afrique. Codrington's studies encompass music and dance from both the Caribbean and West Africa. He has traveled to Senegal, West Africa, where he studied under the tutelage of the Drame/Diabaté griot family. As a result, he was exposed to an extensive amount of lore. Having studied African dance and drumming intensively for many years, Codrington has learned from several people, including Sewaa Codrington, Aissatou Diop, Wilhemina Taylor, Gregory Ince, Karim Braithway, Kissima Diabaté, and Souleyman Diop, to name just a few. Currently, he is involved in many cultural activities, including Cultural Youth International's Brooklyn Jumbies, Adlib Steel Pan Orchestra, KowTeff African Dance Company, Bakh Yaye, and A Touch of Folklore & More. Codrington firmly believes that the cultural arts are not merely an economic tool; they are an inherent part of his spirit and a dominant driving force. With this drive, he unselfishly mentors youth, instilling discipline, direction, and pride. He gives special thanks and praise to his mother, without whom he would not be who he is today. Codrington brings high-spirited energy to all groups he embraces.
Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. is an organization whose sole purpose is to heighten the community's cultural awareness of African and African Caribbean culture. Brooklyn Jumbies perform stilt dancing, which is one of the numerous cultural elements of the African and Caribbean diaspora. The founding members of Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. are Ali Sylvester and Najja Codrington. Since 2007, Brooklyn Jumbies Inc. has worked closely with Laura Anderson Barbata, presenting collaborative and outreach projects in Mexico, Jamaica, Singapore, and the United States. Since 2008, they have collaborated with the Zancudos de Zaachila (traditional stilt dancers from Oaxaca). With Anderson Barbata, they have performed in various museums, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; Centro Nacional de las Artes in Monterrey, Mexico; and Museo de la Ciudad de México. Among their most significant performances are Intervention: Wall Street, presented in the Financial District of New York (2011); Intervention: Indigo (2015), presented in Brooklyn, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Museum of the American Indian, New York, and Mexico City; Ocean Calling (2017), commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Academy and presented at the United Nations Plaza, New York; and Intervention: Ocean Blues (2018), commissioned by and performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, and in DUMBO, Brooklyn, as part of the New York Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice week organized by No Longer Empty.
Born in Mexico City, Laura Anderson Barbata is a Mexican transdisciplinary artist currently based in New York and Mexico City. Since 1992, she has initiated long-term projects and collaborations in the Venezuelan Amazon, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Norway, and the United States that address social justice and the environment. Her work often combines performance, procession, dance, music, spoken word, textile arts, costuming, papermaking, zines, and protest.
Barbata's work is in various private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Her work has received the Anonymous Was a Woman Award, grants from FONCA-INBA Mexico, the Mario Trujillo García Defense for Human Rights Award (Mexico), and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Artist in Residence Award, among others.
Barbata teaches in the Art, Culture, and Technology program at MIT and is an honorary fellow of the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies (LACIS) Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
www.lauraandersonbarbata.com
