artist statement

"as a poet in american theater/ i find

most activity that takes place on our

stages overwhelmingly shallow/ stilted &

imitative. that is probably one of the

reasons i insist on calling myself a poet or

writer/ rather than a playwright/ i am

interested solely in the poetry of a

moment/ the emotional & aesthetic im-

pact of a character or a line/"

Unrecovered Losses/ Black Theatre Traditions

-ntozake shange

Wielding ecowomanist and Black feminist practices, I devise theatrical ceremonies for reclamation, re/memory, revival, and revolution. Ignited by my family's stories of land loss and reclamation, I devise choreographic, visual, poetic, and experimental theatrical ceremonies that venerate the cultural and spiritual technologies of southern, rural Black folks. By centering historical and contemporary ecowomanist, ethnographic, and environmental methodologies and movements for climate reparations and liberation, my current body of work illuminates how “generative apocalypse,” upends regressive political, environmental and economic systems to make way for a more just society. Fueled by messy, magical, and medicinal rituals for Black liberation, thriving, and climate intimacy, I imagine my work as a gathering ground, where portals of possibility conjure communal, personal, and planetary evolution.

biography

Ebony Noelle Golden is a city-born, southern, Black woman. She is a proud descendant of self-emancipated sharecroppers who migrated from rural East Texas and Louisiana to Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles for economic and educational opportunities. Golden is a theatrical ceremonialist, culture worker, public scholar, and entrepreneur who wields ecowomanist and Black feminist practices—often invoking messy, magical, and medicinal methods to support movements for cultural wellness and social justice. Her approach to art-making, strategic design, teaching, and organizing is steeped in Black women’s activism, experimental performance, and the socio-spiritual power that resides in the communities with which she organizes. Golden’s work embodies the power of art and collaboration as drivers of the movement for liberation.  

Since 2009, Ebony has worked with more than 100 justice-oriented organizations through her consulting practice Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative. In 2020, she established Jupiter Performance Studio as a space to practice and perform Black diasporic, spiritual, and cultural traditions. Golden’s performance art oeuvre venerates the everyday rituals of southern Black folks as witnessed in the site-specific ceremonies and visual poems she devises, choreographs and directs. 

In 2017, Golden began developing in the name of the m/other tree, a body of work that uplifts wisdom, healing practices, and earth-affirming rituals of southern Black women and femme healers. In 2024, Apollo and National Black Theatre in New York, NY co-produced and presented Golden’s The Divining: Ceremonies from in the name of the m/other tree, a multi-disciplinary immersive ritual that unfolded on the streets of Harlem and the Apollo Stages at the Victoria Theater. The next episode of this theatrical ceremony, again, the watercarriers, centers on women mystics over the age of 60, the primordial mothers described in Yoruba cosmology as the Iyaamí, and Golden’s own maternal lineage. again, the watercarriers will tour in 2025.  

Golden’s work has been presented at National Black Theatre; Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY (2023); Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, MA (2022); The Shed, New York, NY (2019); and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Bronx, NY (2018), and has been profiled by The New York Times and National Endowment for the Arts.

Golden is the recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2025), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (2023), a New England Foundation for the Arts National Theater Project Creation & Touring Grant (2023), an Association for Theatre in Higher Education Transformational Practice Award (2022), a Creative Capital Award (2020), and fellowships from Cave Canem Foundation (2010, 2011, and 2012). She was selected as the inaugural SOUL Directing Resident at National Black Theatre and Hi-ARTS’ inaugural Skylab artist-in-residence. She has also been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Peterborough, NH (2023) and Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (2023).

Golden holds an M.A. from New York University, an M.F.A. from American University, and a B.A. from Texas A&M University. She is the founder of Jupiter Performance Studio, a hub for the development, exploration, and production of diasporic Black performance traditions, as well as Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, a cultural consultancy. She has served as an entrepreneurship fellow at Princeton University, a visiting Associate Professor of Performance and Performance Studies in Pratt’s graduate program and a visiting lecturer at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at New School, among other institutions. She is a proud member of the United Order of Tents-Diretha Tent #35, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and serves on the board of directors for Double Edge Theatre. Learn more about what Ebony is up to by visiting bettysdaughterarts.com, jupiterperformancestudio.com or via instagram @ebonynoellegolden. Photo Credit: Melisa Cardona