The Black Iris Project is bringing their vision and mission to the Island this weekend in the form of a ballet performance titled A Mother’s Rite.

A Mother’s Rite is a solo ballet that tells the story of a Black mother losing her son to police violence. The piece is directed by Emmy-award winning choreographer Jeremy McQueen and is making its New England debut on July 26 at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.

Mr. McQueen was inspired by a performance he saw by Solange at Radio City Music Hall in 2017. He remembers the audience being entranced by her performance, especially during a scene where she appeared to be having a nervous breakdown.

The ballet starts in the middle of the action, bringing audiences immediately into a gripping narrative, according to Mr. McQueen.

Ballet features Fana Tesfagiorgis.

Amitava Parker

Ballet features Fana Tesfagiorgis.

Amitava Parker

“It starts after the mother has found out that her son’s killer has been acquitted of all charges and, essentially, the cameras have gone away,” he said. “And now she’s left with her own thoughts and memories to process how she’s going to continue to move forward with her life without such a big portion of her life being present.”

Fana Tesfagiorgis, a dancer formerly with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, will be performing the piece.

While choreographing, Mr. McQueen and collaborator Angelica Chéri focused on dividing the ballet into the stages of grief, and playing with how that grief could be revealed to the audience through movement.

“Where does this mother hold that grief? Where is it in the body and in that moment?” Mr. McQueen said. “A lot of times she’ll hold it in her hands. You might see her throughout the ballet, in certain moments, having a closed fist to kind of represent the hesitance to open up or to release the aggression.”

The project was originally developed on the Vineyard in 2018 as part of a residency through the Vineyard Arts Project. Mr. McQueen didn’t know much about the Island prior to that summer, but he relished the serenity and cultural history.

“Understanding the ways in which Black people have come together on Martha’s Vineyard historically and just coming together to unite in various different ways, whether it be recreationally or cathartically... that really inspired me,” he said.

Mr. McQueen said he is looking forward to introducing his work to Vineyard audiences.

“With the Black Iris Project, it’s always our mission to tell least commonly told stories, and to tell these stories outside of the context of Black History Month, to truly show the gaps in diversity that exist within the Black culture and the Black experience,” he said.

His hope is that people are inspired to act after seeing the performance.

“If people are a bit uncomfortable after they leave my work, then I know I’ve done my job because I know that it’s a memory that will last with them forever and will hopefully change them in ways that will provoke them to want to do more to support the diversity of artistic voices and artistic freedom that deserves to exist in this country,” Mr. McQueen said.

For ticket information, visit blackirisproject.org.