Yo Miss
Thursday, August 13 2015
Where human rights meets Hip Hop, meets the power of women and girls. Fusing the art of theatre, poetry, and music, YO MISS! is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad, always truth-telling show about immigrant/refugee teenagers and incarcerated youth grappling with the cataclysmic events that shaped them. Using midi-controllers and an original musical score to accompany her compelling performance, Judith Sloan remixes her own traumatic experiences with those of her students and transforms into a multitude of characters from ages 14 to 80.
"In YO MISS!, Judith Sloan's art and teaching cross-pollinate. It is a performance about performances, a story containing many stories." -The New York Times
"New York is reborn every day through the collision of cultures, producing new fusions and syntheses. One of the most moving moments in YO MISS is when she chants the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish, as the musicians perform "Soon and Very Soon," the soaring gospel song, often performed at funerals, about going to see the Lord. The universality of human experience, Sloan suggests, can lead to cross-cultural understanding, empathy and insight." -The Jewish Week
"This is immersive, resonant theater. Communication, cultural destabilization, history and commonality, are dramatized, raising questions, offering response. [Sloan] is an audacious artist." -Woman Around Town
"…mercurial, mesmerizing, meaningful and entertaining, YO MISS is a one-person whirlwind of characterscreating sudden and exhilarating encounters with the life and spirit of New York City challenging preconceptions while reminding us of our common humanity. Judith Sloan's work is inspiring and not to be missed." -Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary)