​WE HAVE RISEN – Ireland’s Journey to Liberty with a Historic African-American Dimension
An ELEVATE ATLANTA 2021 event – in collaboration with the City of Atlanta.
Gateway Performance Productions in association with the Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community presents – We Have Risen – an Outdoor Performance conceived, directed and adapted for the stage by Gateway’s Producing Artistic Director Sandra Hughes. The Outdoor Art Installation was created by Gateway resident visual artist Michael Hickey and Sandra Hughes. Masks by Michael Hickey.
OUTDOOR L0CATION: 1083 Austin Ave. 30307 – near the corner of Euclid and Austin Avenues. On the grounds of the Little 5 Points Center for Art and Community . FREE parking is available in the lots at the L5PCAC. If you wish, bring a chair and/or blanket with you.
PERFORMANCE EXCERPTS
DRAMA – Fredrick Douglass, an escaped slave from America, meets Irish abolitionist Daniel O’Connell in Dublin during the Great Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor) . Fredrick Douglass: REGINALD PRIM, Gateway Associate Artist. Daniel O’Connell: MICHAEL HICKEY, Gateway Co-founder. Paul Dunbar poem performed by Gateway Guest Artist D. OLIVIA JONES.
MASK THEATRE – A Tribute to The United Irish Women . Choreographed and performed by Gateway Guest Artist KRISTA HARRIS. Acapella singing in the Irish Language: MICHAEL HICKEY. Words of Ellice Pilkington performed by SANDRA HUGHES.
SPOKEN WORD – The Civil Rights Movement/ America to Ireland and Pandemic Reflections – Written and Performed by Gateway Guest Artists: D. OLIVIA JONES, EUGENIA TOURE , JEFF DICKERSON and Gateway Artist- In- Residence SANDRA HUGHES.
The We Have Risen Art Installation is an ongoing outdoor art exhibit on the grounds of the Little 5 Points Center for Art and Community.
PHOTOS – Photographer: Sandra Hughes. Phoenix Mask Performer: Krista Harris. Masks: Michael Hickey
The L5PCAC is following CDC guidelines for this event: face coverings and social distancing.
We Have Risen was originally commissioned by the Country of Ireland through the Consulate General of Ireland in Atlanta and Art on the Atlanta Beltline. Additional support was provided by the City of Atlanta, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Fulton County Commissioners with guidance from Fulton County Arts and Culture.
Gateway offers virtual classes:- Acting, Creative Writing, Mime, Visual Art/Drawing
For more information contact: Gateway Performance Productions gatewaypp@masktheatre.org – (404) 222 9262 www.gatewayperformanceproductions.org
Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community director@l5pcc.org

This performance is part of

A Free Outdoor Public Art Installation

WE HAVE RISEN
Ireland’s Journey to Liberty with a Historic African American Dimension
March 14 – December 31, 2021

Concept: Sandra Hughes
Design: Michael Hickey & Sandra Hughes
Construction & Painted Surface: Michael Hickey

Location
Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community 
Outdoors – At the  Corner of Euclid & Austin Avenues
1083 Austin Ave. NE 
Atlanta, GA 30307

We Have Risen visually commemorates the meeting of Fredrick Douglass – the Father of the American Civil Rights Movement –  and Irish Abolitionist Daniel O’Connell in Dublin, Ireland.

The installation features the Atlanta Phoenix rising from the ashes of the city after it was burned to the ground.  Portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King, American Civil Rights Leader, and Father Thomas O’Reilly, who prevented Atlanta churches from being burned during the Civil War, are included with a background of Atlanta’s modern skyline. 

The Irish Phoenix also rises by overcoming the long term effects of the Great Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor in the Irish language – meaning “The Great Hunger” in English) to begin a journey to liberty that becomes deeply and directly influenced by the American Civil Rights Movement. From this effort The Irish Free State is born and will celebrate its 100th anniversary during 2022. 

The We Have Risen Arts Installation was originally commissioned and exhibited outdoors by Art on the Atlanta Beltline with support from the government of Ireland through the Consulate General of Ireland in Atlanta. It’s also been exhibited indoors within the large rotunda in the Art Gallery at the Central Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library.  

THE ARTISTS
Gateway’s Michael Hickey and Sandra Hughes have received 5 commissions from Art on the Atlanta Beltline for the co-creation of new large-scale outdoor art Installations and related original performances written and directed by Sandra.  Michael is an award-winning visual artist, mask maker, set designer, performer and teaching artist. Sandra is an award-winning conceptual designer, writer, choreographer, director, performer, flutist and teaching artist. 

GATEWAY PERFORMANCE PRODUCTIONS
Gateway Performance Productions is a multi-disciplinary, nonprofit arts organization founded in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia. Gateway opened its venue – The Mask Center – in the Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community in July of 2000. The Company creates original  drama, dance, visual art and music for live and virtual platforms –  on stage, television, radio , film and online. Gateway specializes in mime and mask theatre. Its artists have performed the Company’s original productions and presented master classes throughout the USA and in 13 other countries.  Gateway is a founding member of the North American Network of Irish Cultural Centers.

ART INSTALLATION OUTDOOR SITE
HISTORY
Gateway Performance Productions’ We Have Risen Art Installation is located on the site of an American Civil War field hospital. The site was selected for this use because it had a water source – a natural spring. The spring is now beneath the old school building built over the spring. The school was converted into the Little 5 Points Community Center (recently re-named the Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community ) during the 1980’s, according to Joe Shifalo – one of the Center’s founders. 

L5PCAC has been the artistic home of Gateway’s performance, exhibit, video studio, rehearsal venue – The Mask Center –  since 2000. The Center is also a resource for other artists and arts organizations of all ages in areas of theatre, visual art and dance. The Center also houses WRFG Community Radio. L5PCAC Website: http://www.l5pcc.org/

OUTDOOR PERFORMING ARTS SERIES
We are pleased to announce a four-part series of FREE outdoor public performances presented in conjunction with the We Have Risen Art Installation:
March – June 2021. 
Presented
by 
Gateway Performance Productions 
 Third Sundays at 3 pm 
Grounds of the Little 5 Points Center for Arts and Community

This Performance Series features three of the oldest performing art forms known to humankind – mime, mask theatre and the Irish mummers –  each performed and maintained by Gateway Performance Productions’ artists.  As was done in times of old, these ancient, ancestral art forms invite us to take our entertainment out of doors, beneath a sheltering tree, near a natural spring to celebrate together in community. 

Gateway Performance Productions offers ongoing virtual and in-person classes in Acting/New Play Development, Creative Writing, Mime and Drawing with instructors Sandra Hughes and Michael Hickey. To select and pay class fees click here.

For general, performance or class information contact: 
gatewaypp@masktheatre.org or 404 222 9262
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Michael Hickey’s Bio
Sandra Hughes’ Bio