James Scruggs
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James Scruggs
125 Lafayette Place
Plainfield, N.J.  07060
917 642 6495
[email protected]
 
James Scruggs is an artist who creates challenging topical performance work addressing America’s weaponization of Black skin and oppression of the LGBTQ+ community.
 
April 2024                 Awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship
 
March 2024              Commissioned by HERE Arts Center in association with CultureHub to produce  a                                          virtual live-streaming of work in progress excerpts from The American                                                                  Reconciliation Commission Play, which was originally commissioned to be written                                          by The  Perelman Arts Center and was awarded a MAP Grant
 
January 2023           Awarded the “Adding Justice Through The Arts Award from the New York State                                           Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for making social justice theater.
 
August 2022            Awarded a National Performance Network Creation and Development Fund                                               Grant to create OFF THE RECORD: Acts of Restorative Justice, a theatrical piece that                                    ACTUALLY changes lives by expunging criminal records. Commissioned by Arts                                                   Emerson, Art2Action and The Center at West Park for 2025 performances
 
June 2022                Performed a character Issue-Man in an original site specific interactive  work live on                                        Juneteenth, commissioned by The Flea, NYC
 
March 2019            Writer/Creator/Producer/Performer of A Voluptuary Life a solo work exploring the                                      life of a sexually active senior citizen discovering great worth in his life as a non-                                                  breeder. It was awarded a MAP Grant.
 
May 2018                Writer/Creator/Producer of MELT ! A site specific interactive mock rally                                                              commissioned by, and performed on The NYC Highline. Its “The year 2060, 17th Annual                                     Post Racial America Day Rally” and the president of USA arrives and outlaws gender reveals                                     and refuses to disclose  their gender
 
January 2018         Writer/Performer/Producer of Severe Clear; He worked at Windows on the World in                                      the WTC and was on vacation on 9/11. It was an interactive Zoom experience exploring                                      choices produced by Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab.
 
November 2017    Writer/Creator/Producer of Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show. This was a                                                 deconstructed minstrel show where unarmed black man shootings by policeman are                                         viewed as subjectively as one would view a sculpture. It was Awarded an Elliot Norton                                     Award in Boston for Outstanding Production Fringe Theater
 
May 2017               Writer/ Producer/Creator  3/Fifths SupremacyLand a satirical ethno-theme park.                                           Audience members chose a race, Black or White at the door for drastically different                                           experiences. It was awarded a MAP Grant and a Creative Capital Award
 
May 2014               Writer/Producer/Creator  Deepest Man a theatrical work incorporating a 40’ 3D                                             holographic projection surface to “bring” the audience underwater in an exploration of a                                   man's insanity;  he plunges his head into a sink and believes he is freediving.
 
June 2011               Writer/Producer/Performer in Tickets to Manhood. and it was commissioned by                                           Dixon Place, NYC.
 
June 2010              Writer/Performer/Producer of Touchscape, performed at Dixon Place. It was                                                  awarded  a residency at The Baryshnikov Arts Center.
 
May 2008               Writer/Producer of Rus(h), commissioned by HERE Arts Center, performed at 3LD Art                                   and Technology Center 
 
May 2005               Writer/Producer/Creator/Performer   Disposable Men a multi-media work with                                            radical audience interaction. Examining similarities Hollywood monsters and Black men                                    share, the unfounded fear of, and perceived oversize negative attributes. It was                                                  Awarded the first ever 2005 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding                                       Solo Performance and a Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation Grant for a                                       substantial upgrade in theatrical design.
 
Education            BFA School of Visual Arts / Film 1979
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