ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE

TRIBE (TRI314 Multidisciplinary Visual Performances, d.b.a. TRIBE), is a Brooklyn, New York based multidisciplinary arts collective founded by Shamel Pitts in December 2019. The arts collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is composed of international and local artists working across mediums such as movement, choreography, lighting design, video mapping projection, poetry, spoken word, painting, cinematography, scenography, dramaturgy, costume styling, and music composition.

MISSION

TRIBE’s mission is cultivating space to create a platform for artists – most specifically artists of color – with huge inspiration from the Afrofuturism movement. This movement states that we have a responsibility through our work to tell new stories and create a brighter future that is different, and shines more luminously, from its past.

Understanding that Performance Art and Live Art are practices of human connection, TRIBE acts nationally and internationally by developing art exchanges in collaboration with institutions and artists, with a focus on the African diaspora.

TRIBE art projects include, but are not restricted to: movement based work, live multidisciplinary performance, video art, video documentary, photography, exhibition, commissioned dance choreography, art residency, and workshops.

Ultimately, TRIBE aims to bring the audience and community into experiences that humanizes Black and Brown bodies and shares the colorfulness within Blackness that allows us to be multiplicitous.

Members & Collaborators

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Shamel Pitts

Artist, Choreographer, Performer, Teacher
2023 Bessie Award Nominee
2021 Bessie Award Winner
2020 Guggenheim Fellow
2019 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow
2018 Princess Grace Award

Mirelle Martins

Creative Director, Founding Artist

Brittany Wilson

Managing Director

Rus Snelling

Artistic Production Manager, Lighting Designer

E Katrina Lewis

Artistic Administrator

Lucca Del Carlo

Transmedia Artist, Video Light & Mapping Designer

Elizabeth Schmuhl

Founding Member, Former Director of Development

Pam PAnozzo

Digital Creative Associate

Tushrik Fredericks

Performer, Stylist

Ashley Pierre-Louis​

Dramaturge, Performer

Marcella Lewis

Performer

Itai Zwecker

Photographer, Cinematographer

Taylor Antisdel

Photographer, Cinematographer

The Adeboye Brothers
Matthew Adeboye & David Adeboye

Photographers & Cinematographers

Alex Apt

Photographer

Sivan Jacobovitz

Musician, Composer

Naomi Rapaport

Costume Designer

Sophie Myrtil-McCourty
Lotus Arts Management

Worldwide Booking

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MARCEL PRZYMUSINSKIPresident
ALEXANDER KIPKAVice President
LOREN BAILEYTreasurer
GLENN ALAN STISKAL Secretary
CLAUDIA RANKINE Board Member
SHAMEL PITTS Board Member, Founding Artistic Director

Marcel Przymusinski

President

Glenn Alan Stiskal

Secretary

Claudia Rankine

Board Member

For the past several years since leaving Batsheva Dance Company in 2016, I’ve been asked whether or not I would start a dance company. And I’ve always felt the answer to be no way! However, after the creation of my trilogy of works known as the “BLACK SERIES”, which engaged 11 artists from all over the globe, I realized that I had an immense passion towards creating space and giving platform for diverse artists to cultivate and share ideas through performance art. Each creation process became a revelation on my artistic directional path. It allowed me to focus my passion on what I already had, and that was a multidisciplinary performance arts TRIBE!

Art by: Synthia Saint James

funding

International Tour to Belgrade Dance Festival 2023 supported by:

International engagements are supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International, a program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
                 

GRANTS, PRIZES & AWARDS

Mid Atlantic Arts

Mellon Foundation

Arison Arts Foundation

Howard Gilman Foundation

Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Harkness Dance Foundation

Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund

National Performance Network

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA)

Artis Discretionary Grant

Princess Grace Foundation

Trust for Mutual Understanding

American Dance Abroad

Best out of Town Production – ArtsATL

Audience Choice Award – STOFF

ART FESTIVALS

Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023

Belgrade Dance Festival 2023

Live Artery 2023, 2022 

Times Square Live Arts 2021

Adelaide Festival 2020 – Adelaide / Australia

Colours Festival 2019 – Stuttgart / Germany

Cross Festival 2019 – Verbania / Italy

Cena Brasil Internacional 2019 – Rio de Janeiro /Brazil

Machol Shalem Dance International 2018 – Jerusalem

Aura Dance Festival 2018 – Kaunas / Lithuania

Binary/ M1 Contemporary Festival 2018 – Singapore

ImpulsTanz 2018 – Vienna / Austria

Pool International Dance Film Festival 2017 – Berlin

Stockholm Fringe Festival 2017 – Stockholm / Sweden

ART RESIDENCIES

BOFFO Performance Festival Fire Island (2023)

The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (2023)

Baryshnikov Arts Center 2023

JACK 2022

CAP UCLA 2022

Miami Light Project 2021

New York Live Arts – Artist in Residency 2023 / 2022

Catskills Mountain Foundation 2021

Bridgestreet Theatre 2021

GIBNEY 2021

New York Live Arts 2020

Jacob’s Pillow 2020

92 Street Y / Harkness Dance Center 2021 / 2020

YoungArts 2020

Dock 11 / Eden Studios 2019 / 2018 / 2017

gloATL 2019 / 2018

Derida Dance Center 2018

Cross Award 2018

 Additional TRIBE commissioning, development and core operating support is provided by the Mellon Foundation; Arison Arts Foundation; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Ford Foundation; 92Y Harkness Dance Center; National Performance Network (NPN) Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund Project. The Creation, Development & Artist Engagement Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency); New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.