Libation
I give thanks and praise to Most High of Creation, I give thanks and praise to my mother and father, Veronica and Dennis Philbert. I give thanks and praise to their lineage. I give thanks and praise to the Spirit and ancestors of Kalinda. I give thanks and praise to all of my ancestors who came before me, those I know by name and those I do not. I give thanks and praise to those that support my growth and being. I give thanks and praise for the activity of my limbs, the soundness of my mind, the rhythm of my breath and the flow of my heart. I give thanks and praise for my “multiverse of self” for in it I reflect my community, my shadow, my bois/stick, my ancestors, my mirror beings and my actual/ideal self. I am grateful to be growing and give thanks for the lessons of this journey that I have chosen. May all benevolent spirits enter this space and all negative ones cease to reside here. As above, so below. And so it is.
Artist Statement
My childhood dreams transported me to this arrival.
Positioning myself firmly against my determination.
Fixed in the belief that the things I came here with would propel me further than any sight.
I am an evolving spiral of a woman.
Forces beyond my own spirit are banking on me to make my best better.
I am an evolving spiral of a woman.
Unicorn in my methods of love
&
Particularly uncommon in my sensibilities of art.
I am sensitively sensitive.
My art is my action.
My art is my heart.
I borrow the eyes of my ancestors to create.
I borrow the minkisi of creativity to heal.
It is with the prevailing power of spirit I fill my cup.
My cup runs over rainbows to share the future of my imaginations.
I am an evolving spiral of a woman.
Within the evolution of my spiraling, I repeatedly birth centuries of myself.
My name is Jamie Jillian Philbert.
PHOTO: AKM Studios
Statement of Purpose
On some gut level, below the thinking mind, we know there is more to our being than the masks that hide our true selves- Mingyur Rinpoche
We live in a world that often forgets its connection to source. As we progress in technology, we regress in our innate sensibilities. We trust machines more than we trust each other, more than we trust ourselves. We mask our true identities in order to fit into the systems that are imposed upon us. My work centres on the ability to retrieve and embody sources that ignite spirit activation through movement, word/sound power, writing, fashion, and visual consumption. I am interested in actively reminding the world around me about our maternal foundations and the importance of empowering it in order to empower those that come from it, which is all of us. I engage this social awareness alongside a Caribbean cultural lens. My focus is rooted in the Trinidad and Tobago martial art and cultural form of Kalinda. Kalinda is a multidimensional performance complex that includes dance, drumming, lavways (call and response), ritual and stick fighting. I am a Kalinda practitioner who investigates and serves its Afro Caribbean futuristic qualities as a means of practicing freedom.
PHOTO: Abigail Hadeed for Belmont Baby Dolls
Artist Bio
Interdisciplinary Artist, Educator, Scholar, Writer, Curator, and Filmmaker, Jamie Philbert is a native of Trinidad and Tobago, brought up in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. She is a dance graduate of Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for Music, Art and the Performing Arts. Upon graduating, she founded Echoes Dance Company (1999) in New York City and began presenting her choreography while freelancing for dance companies and choreographers like Janis Brenner, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Roger C. Jeffrey, Alfred Gallman, Nia Love Blacksmiths Daughter, Charles Moore Dance Theater, and H.T. Chen and dancers. Her choreographic work has been presented at various spaces including Carnegie Hall, Aaron Davis Hall/E-moves, Lincoln Center Out Of Doors, Mulberry St. Theater, Vassar College, Hollins University, Howard University, Riverside Theatre, D.A.D.D/Judson Memorial Church, S.O.B’s, Nuyorican’s Poets Cafe, Irving Plaza, BRIC/Arts, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Danny Simmons Corridor Gallery, MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), Queens Hall, Little Carib Theatre, Carifesta 2017 Barbados and Signatures/Serendipity UK. Her improvisational solo dance projects include live accompaniment to internationally acclaimed musicians like Masauko Chipembere, Jazzmeia Horn and Ruth Osman. In 2012, Jamie developed a music and movement program for early childhood education that fostered more than 1000 children throughout New York City. She has choreographed and starred in music videos for artists such as Blitz The Ambassador and Umar Bin Hassan of legendary known, The Last Poets. Jamie returned home to Trinidad and Tobago in 2015 and was appointed the Movement and Dance Coordinator for the National Performing Entities of Trinidad and Tobago. She curated her first art, performance and panel exhibition featuring exemplary artist, Sarah Burrows in a conversation around the condition of women in Trinidad and Tobago and the effects of gender based violence. She has directed three short films, two fashion films and one dance film. In 2018, she received the award for Best Caribbean Fashion Film from Caribbean Fashion Arts and Feature Festival for her film, SANKOFA. She is the founder of Art On Purpose, a multifaceted lifestyle brand that promotes social awareness and cultural responsibility through dance performance and education, fashion and creative arts education. In 2019, she began an official rites of passage journey towards becoming a bois woman, a warrior woman of Kalinda. This journey inspired her to conceptualize and develop a dance and performance technique rooted in the tradition and culture of Trinidad and Tobago's martial art form, Kalinda. This initiative is supported by and co-created with Rondel Benjamin, Founder of Bois Academy of Trinidad and Tobago and the transitioned legendary bois man, King David Matthew Brown, also known as “Acid”. Jamie serves as the first woman leader of Bois Academy of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a recurring guest teaching artist for Norwegian Theatre Academy undergrad and graduate programs and has also been a guest artist with Wayne State University Theatre and Dance Department’s Intro to World Dance, Modern Dance and Freedom Players. Jamie completed a MA in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Cultural Studies at the University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Jamie believes in the power of art and its ability to heal and create dynamic change. She dedicates all her movement and magic to the legacy of her transitioned parents, Dennis and Veronica Philbert.
PHOTO: Ariann Mieka Photography
Services
Choreography
Creative Art Direction
Fashion Styling
Live Performance
Art Curation
Movement Based Practice and Performance Education
Motivational Speaking
Food as a pleasure principle
Artist Consultation
Research and Data collection
Past Clients
Unit Trust Corporation
Akoma Bloom (Atlanta, Georgia)
Cumbe Dance (Brooklyn, New York)
Hollins University
Howard University
Ghinos TT
Guiseppe Preparatory School
Gbenga Akinnagbe- Actor
Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts (Trinidad and Tobago)
Gracie Jui Jitsui of Trinidad and Tobago