By Polina Smith
Rhodessa Jones is a legendary artist and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area with a focus on theater and social justice work. Jones serves as co-artistic director of Cultural Odyssey and director of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, an award-winning theater company committed to women’s personal and social transformation. As a United States Artists Fellowship recipient, she expanded her work into jails and institutions around the nation and internationally. Jones has engaged with academic institutions through teaching residencies at Brown University, Scripps College Humanities Institute, and Dartmouth College. Rhodessa Jones is a vibrant and influential force for social progress through art.
Rhodessa Jones at the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco. Photo by Tumay Aslay
In the following interview, Polina Smith, who worked closely with The Medea Project for nine years, speaks with Rhodessa Jones to get her thoughts and insight on the role of art and the artist during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Polina Smith: What was The Medea Project doing before the ‘shelter-in-place’ order went into effect?
Rhodessa Jones: Well, we had just come back from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We had been invited by the Classical Literature Department to do a performance. It was very powerful! More and more we’ve been invited by classics departments to present at universities as they grapple with the questions: how do we make the classics relevant, how do they matter in the modern day?
The Medea Project has always worked with the classics, starting with the name. I knew the myth of Medea when I started working in the jails and I met a woman who had killed her baby. She had a big fight with her husband who wanted out. She was just getting addicted to crack, she smothered the baby in revenge. She had been a graduate of UC Berkeley. When I met her in jail, she was just ‘on the moon’ and I was trying to figure out who is this woman? She sat in the back in a cage all by herself. It just brought me back to my Medea.
As The Medea Project grew and became prominent, performers in the group started bringing in other stories. Demeter and Persephone was the other story I brought in. It is about a daughter being abducted and the mother having the power to stop the seasons. And so it began that the classics were showing up in the ‘matrilineage’ segment which we do at the end of each show. “I am Rhodessa, call me Persephone.”
I love the idea of the universal story, especially with incarcerated women. How do we bring in a story where everybody feels it? Then as director, my job is to instruct everybody to put yourself at the center of the story; what kind of Medea are you?
‘The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women’ performing at Blessed Unrest festival in San Francisco. Photo by Thatcher Hayward
How has The Medea Project been adjusting since the ‘shelter-in-place’ went into effect?
We had a wonderful Zoom meeting the other night. We're going to be meeting now on Zoom every Tuesday at six o'clock. It's been really lovely. Everybody was so happy to see everybody. We started to talk about life and dreams. Everybody had a lot of ideas, and we got to laugh and just be together. Everybody checked in and then there were just some crazy conversations that happened!
What do you think is the role of artists during this time?
I think one, we have to be a symbol of hope and light and laughter. We also have to be, as Mister Rogers’ mother always taught him, to be a helper. To go where the people are helping and do something. I think we must keep busy. The artist’s role? I think it's hope, I think it's light, I think it's assurance. And I think that it's making a way out of no way. I think that is what the artist does.
What is your spiritual perspective on this time?
Well, you know, Sekou Sundiata has this wonderful line in one of his poems. He’s talking about racism and the culture, but he says, "In this long reign of the upside-down," and I feel like we're in the upside-down. We're free falling. I was talking to Medea yesterday and it just came out of my heart when I said to them, "You know, I lament the freefall, but I do know where my heart lies," because everybody was writing and everybody was just so supportive of each other, and we all swore to be sisters forever and ever.
On one level, I think it's a good time to be still. I'm really enjoying those other places in my mind and in my heart. You know, lying in bed at night, when I finally turn off the television because in lockdown we are so (do we say blessed?) in this culture that we have stuff to distract us – and here we are on ‘Zoom’ talking - that I think we're gonna work through it, you know? But I don't know. I can't see through the darkness yet.
I call on my mother a lot. I call on my mother to tell me, to help me be still, to help me make sense of it, to help me be a better mother, lover, leader.
What gives you hope during this time?
I'm in lockdown, I'm at my house, it's just me, myself, and I. My nature is to enjoy the life, the light. My nature is not to be a somber dark person, but I try to prepare myself for the fact that we may be colliding. Somewhere somebody might be looking at Earth as this planet that's spiraling towards some great bang. That happens, but then I think, ‘Wow, it's too bad I can't feel the speed of it,’ versus like, ‘Oh God.’
So, I think what gives me hope is the fact that if I die tonight, I've had a good life, I think I've touched people. I still go out and talk to people because I think we must still honor the circle of life. These are traits and habits that I have, that my job, my directive from the goddess is to ‘Go do that.’ That's what happened with me with The Medea Project. She was like, ‘You go, and you do this.’ And I'm like, ‘Do what?’ She said, ‘You go, you're gonna see. You're gonna find out what you have to do.’
Rhodessa Jones opening Blessed Unrest at CounterPulse Theater. Photo by Thatcher Hayward
What would your message be to young artists during this time?
Work! Don't think about the work, just work. Just work and everything will be done in time. The alchemy of artistry, of art-making, has to do with keeping your heart open, keeping your eyes and your ears open. Right now, in the 21st Century, all these artists I know are doing stuff for each other online. Engage. Engage with each other.
Be ready to stand up for people you feel might be getting a bad deal. There's the Poor People's Campaign, you know, with Reverend William Barber. It popped up on my computer yesterday. This huge Poor People’s Campaign is underway because poor people are getting the short end of the stick.
They’re talking about this big deal in Congress, an emergency financial aid package, but if you do service work, if you have no identity in America. . . There’s people who are working their asses off, like my darling Roberto who worked three jobs. He took care of the restaurant, he served the food, but these people will be. . . The same ones that do the toilets, people who sweep up the bus station, where are they? How are they even going to be found?
We need to be stern and ready to take care of each other and to take care of those people who are less fortunate than us. My famous saying is “Politics don't work. Religion is a bit too eclectic, but art can be that parachute that catches us all.” I believe that. I really do.
Thank you so much Rhodessa Jones for chatting with us, we are deeply moved by the inspiration, leadership and vision you bring to so many during these challenging times.
For more information about Rhodessa Jones and The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women head to their websites. Also see our previous profile of Rhodessa Jones at Seismic Sisters.
Polina Smith is the Executive Director of Crescent Moon Theater Productions creating original, thought provoking new work that spans across the disciplines of theater, dance, music and circus. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Inquiry from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Smith is an art event producer for Bioneers and Seismic Sisters.