Research Catalog

Title

Djola Branner papers.

Author

Branner, Djola

Publication

ca. 1983-2010.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Scully, Patrick, 1953-

Description

1.25 linear feet (2 boxes)

Summary

• Djola Branner, also professionally known as Bernard Branner, is a gay African American interdisciplinary artist who has worked as a writer, poet, dancer, choreographer, actor, and educator. The youngest of four siblings, Branner was born in 1957, and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychobiology in 1980. Branner established himself in San Francisco after graduation, where he first worked as a writer for publications such as "Coming Up!: The Lesbian/Gay Community Calendar of Events and Newspaper for the Bay Area"and "San Francisco Bay Guardian". While pursuing poetry and prose writing, he participated in poetry readings where he began performing in front of an audience. Around this time, Branner also began dancing after taking his first dance class at the age of twenty-five. He originally studied the Dunham Technique, a modern Afro-Caribbean dance pedagogy developed by Katherine Dunham, whom he would later meet and study under in Haiti. While Branner also took classes in jazz and ballet, he specialized in Afro-Haitian dance, including the Dunham Technique and traditional Haitian folkloric dance. Branner began his career as a dancer for Group Petit La Croix in 1985, a Haitian dance and drum company directed by Blanche Brown. While studying at San Francisco State University, Branner was a member of the school’s EMBAJE Dance Ensemble and Dance Kaiso. After graduating in 1989 with a Masters of Arts in Creative Arts, Interdisciplinary Arts, Branner founded Flesh and Spirit, a collaborative Haitian dance company based in San Francisco. As the company’s artistic director from 1989 to 1994, Branner performed at the San Francisco Carnival and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. During this time, he appeared in several Marlon Riggs films, including "Tongues Untied" (1989), "Anthem" (1991), and "Black Is… Black Ain’t" (1994). In 1990, Branner co-founded Postmodern African-American Homosexuals (Pomo Afro Homos) with Brian Freeman and Eric Gupton. The Pomo Afro Homos were a groundbreaking San Francisco-based performance group whose work explored the identities and experiences of gay Black men while challenging stereotypes, deconstructing myths, and creating opportunities for truthful, realistic representations of a historically underrepresented group. Branner served as the troupe’s co-artistic director from 1990 until 1995, during which he co-wrote and performed "Fierce Love: Stories of Black Gay Life" (1990) and "Dark Fruit" (1991) with Brian Freeman, Eric Gupton, and Marvin K. White. Pomo Afro Homos were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, touring nationally and internationally. After marrying Patrick Scully, a Minneapolis-based performance artist and founder of Patrick’s Cabaret, Branner relocated from San Francisco to Minneapolis in 1994. His first solo theatre performance, "Sweet Sadie", a one-person show about his relationship with his mother, premiered at Patrick’s Cabaret in 1994. He toured nationally and internationally with the show between 1994 and 1997. During this time, he also performed with Morris Johnson’s Drummers and Dancers of Langa. In 1995, Branner and his then-husband Patrick Scully collaborated on "Forever Hold Your Piece", a satirical performance piece about interracial gay marriage which premiered in 1996 at Patrick’s Cabaret. That year, he was awarded a Jerome Travel and Study Grant to study dance in Haiti and was featured as a keynote speaker at artBlacklive-Two, a Black-led forum on live art sponsored by the Black Arts Alliance in Leicester, England. Branner later worked on "Homos in the House", a two act play, and "The House That Crack Built", a collaborative theater, music, and dance performance with Aaron Barnell. "Homos in the House" was subsequently co-commissioned by Intermedia Arts and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1998. The following year, Branner was awarded the McKnight Fellowship for an 18-month fellowship at Intermedia Arts. He was also Bush Artist Fellow of 2000, for which he was awarded a $40,0000 grant from the Bush Foundation. In 2000, Branner staged "Mighty Real: A Tribute to Sylvester" a stage tribute to the openly gay Black singer-songwriter and legendary Queen of Disco that premiered at Intermedia Arts. Branner earned a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from the New School for Drama in 2006. He has acted in plays like <title>Angels in America</title> and <title>Black Nativity</title>. Branner’s poetry, plays, and prose have been featured in journals such as "Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal" and "Yemonja", as well as anthologized in "In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology" and "ZYZZYVA". Branner has taught traditional Haitian dance and folklore at numerous institutions, including the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (1989-1994), Stanford University (1994), and Macalester College (1996-2002). He has also taught acting and theatre courses at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota. Currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at Hampshire College’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts, Branner formerly served as the dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts.
• The Djola Branner papers, 1983-2010, document his personal life and professional career as a writer, poet, dancer, choreographer, actor, and educator. The collection reflects how his identity and experiences as a gay Black man informed much of his creative work.

Subjects

• African Americans in the performing arts
• Choreographers
• African American actors
• African American entertainers
• African American dancers
• African American artists
• Pomo Afro Homos (Theater group)
• Authors, Black
• Flesh and Spirit (Dance company)
• African American poets
• African American dramatists
• African American gays
• Folk dancing, Haitian

Source (note)

• Gift of Djola Branner, 2012.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

• In the Life Archive (ITLA) miscellaneous collections, Sc MG 736, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Call Number

Sc MG 868

OCLC

1232235933

Author

Branner, Djola, creator.

Title

Djola Branner papers.

Production

ca. 1983-2010.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Location of Other Archival Materials

In the Life Archive (ITLA) miscellaneous collections, Sc MG 736, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Materials Separated from the Resource: Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: audio material. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270. Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographs

Source

Gift of Djola Branner, 2012.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Added Author

Scully, Patrick, 1953-

Research Call Number

Sc MG 868