The Eclipse Cohort

Poets, dancers, activists, farmers, playwrights, visual artists, and musicians make up the Eclipse cohort. This dynamic group of local folks grew organically out of Culture Mill’s Eclipse. Since then, they’ve become a vital force within Southern Futures. They each bring unique perspectives to the work of celebrating the history of Black life in Chapel Hill.

About The Eclipse Cohort

This cohort of local artists, activists, poets, dancers, and farmers grew organically out of the group that collaborated around Culture Mill’s Eclipse. After Eclipse premiered in April 2021, Tommy and Murielle sought a way to maintain and grow this emerging community. CPA and Culture Mill arrived at the idea of investing in this cohort of local and emerging artists by providing them with time, space, and resources to continue collaborative community-building, and with deeper involvement in Southern Futures projects.

In spring 2023, the Eclipse Cohort participated in Geo 423: Social Geography, a class designed and co-taught by UNC-Chapel Hill Geography Department Chair Betsy Olson, Tommy Noonan, and Murielle Elizéon. This class took the practice developed during Eclipse and asked, “What would it mean for Eclipse to move into the spaces of main campus?” The Eclipse Cohort spent time exploring campus with students from the class, collaborated on creating soundscapes of the campus, and co-created an intervention into history and the landscape via a Sound Walk at the Old Well.

The Eclipse Cohort also aided in presenting a modified version of Eclipse during the Universities Studying Slavery Conference hosted at UNC in spring 2023. The Universities Studying Slavery conference began in 2015 at UVA, and UNC was one of the first of more than 100 institutions to join the consortium of institutions engaged in educational projects concerning the legacies of slavery and racism on their campuses. This year is the first time that UNC-CH hosted the conference, sponsored by the University’s History, Race and a Way Forward commission. The theme of this year’s conference was “At This Place: History, Race, and a Way Forward.” When CPA and Culture Mill learned about the conference, they knew they had to apply to participate, as Eclipse was a place-based interrogation of race and history on the UNC campus. The experience the group created was a modified version of the evening-length performance Eclipse, followed by a brief documentary about Eclipse and a facilitated talking circle around the experience.

Members of the Eclipse Cohort will curate CPA’s third bi-annual Commons Festival, a festival dedicated to local and emerging artists, in 2024.

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