In New York City’s coldest month of the year, in the middle of a pandemic, we perform an illuminated outdoor performance of a ritual for collective grief, safely distanced in the streets and on rooftops.
These performances are born from what we experienced as dire lack of public avenues to process or recognition of our collective trauma after nearly a year of an unprecedented pandemic. This show is an offering addressing collective mourning, healing, human resiliency and justice in community care. Since the genesis of 2020, we have largely been forced into isolation, maintaining our connections and consuming art virtually all while grieving the loss of thousands daily, barely able to keep up with the magnitude of our collective loss on a global scale. Our rituals and traditions for mourning have been often cut off or diminished. As the violence of white supremacy and capitalism continues to terrorize and we often find ourselves whip lashed between social isolation to protests for racial justice in the streets, how are our bodies finding ways to process the stress, chaos, and devastation around us without disassociating?
Our collective has been discussing the need for more open-facing, public rituals and holding space for grief and healing while developing new traditions and mythologies for this process. As an international collective, with members from Iran, India, Mexico, Taiwan, France and the United States, we bring story elements from our own traditions and cultures into a sort of Exquisite Corpse amalgam to create this new myth about mourning, writ large with illuminated puppets into an outdoor spectacle.
We are bringing light in the dark winter months, and performing safely and intimately on the streets and rooftops in neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn. We will pass through as if almost a dream or a vision with illuminated large puppets and costumes gliding through the streets and then into the skies on rooftops.
We are live streaming and recording these performances so audience can watch safely from their own homes as well. We have invitations to perform on rooftops of friends in Brooklyn. The first venue is the Brooklyn Time’s-Up! Space in Williamsburg at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. At the end of the performance we will process over the bridge with the lanterns, ending in China Town.
DATES:
Sat. March 6th: 6pm Williamsburg: meet at the corner of Bedford Ave and South Sixth street
Sun. March 7th: 6pm Crown Heights: Meet on Park Place between Bedford and Rogers Ave
Mon. March 8th: 7pm Bed-Stuy: meet at Marion Hopkinson Playground on Marion st. closer to Rockaway Ave.
Tues. March 9th: 6pm Williamsburg: meet at the corner of Bedford Ave and South Sixth street, culminating in a lantern procession over the Williamsburg Bridge.
Follow @Allímitecollective and #QuietUs/RiotUs for more details
Performances will also be live streamed on Instagram
Please donate to the project: Venmo @QuietUsRiotUs
Co-devised with Leah Bachar, Shan Y Chuang, Spicy Delight, Sanam Erfani, Monica Dudárov Hunken, Benny Woodard and with Phil Andrews on trumpet.
Co-Directed by Leah Bachar and Monica Dudárov Hunken
Inspired and produced by Al Límite Collective
in collaboration with BoxCutter Collective members; Joe Therrien, Sam Wilson and Tom Cunningham
Art design by Monica Dudárov Hunken
Costume design by AnnTreesa Joy and Monica Dudárov Hunken
Music composed by Benny Woodard
Narration alternating with Sam Wilson, Yana Landowne and Sylvain Souklaye
Ensemble/ Co-Devisers: