Celebrating 180 years since Indian arrival on the island of Jamaica, and just prior to the tragic Hurricane Melissa climate event, Sindhoor-Natya Navarasa Dance Theater’s excerpt performances of ecofeminist love tales were presented to the public as part of an Emancipation Day regional tour from Kingston to Spanish Town, Montego Bay. Events celebrating Indo-Caribbean heritage were sponsored by the National Council of Indian Culture in collaboration with Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sports; and High Commission of India. Programming included World Health Organization efforts to bring public street clinics to the island, a lighting ceremony at Montego Bay Cultural Centre, and the commemoration of Honourable Olivia-Grange – introducing new National Policy for Culture, Entertainment, and Creative Economy.
Trekking audiences from the interior of De Waalse Kerk Amsterdam to fulfill rites of transformation in its surrounding gardens, immersive theater troupe Sites of Memory resurrected the spirits of those enslaved by Dutch systems – found buried beneath the venue. Nearby to historic medical garden Hortus Botanicus, the performances drew a through-line between narratives of stolen bodies, built landscapes, and nature-based healing technologies borrowed from those of Caribbean, African, and East Indian descent. This critical discourse through music, poetry, dance, visual art, and theatre was developed and presented in the context of the commemorative year of the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands and its (former) colonies in 1863/1873.
A 360° dance-theater-circus performance centering Black Ecology and Latin American Social Medicine engaged audiences in a built physic garden, complete with edible and medicinal scenic elements throughout its sensory landscape. Nonlinear storytelling welcomed audiences to add their narratives on the open mic, planting intentions for a just transition of resources in an imagined but feasible future. The traditional proscenium stage was replaced by a permaculture framework that shaped the theater space, crafting zones for patrons to walk through, tend to, rest in, or retreat from. Artists performed the real-time transformation of humans turned Landcestors, a rehabilitative act post- literal and figurative political wildfire. Listed by KQED as “Best Bay Area Theater We Saw” – Forgetting Tree was also awarded Theater Bay Area’s Open Doors Achievement for accessibility including Covid-conscious, ASL interpretation, and ASD sensory-first offerings in its program.
Transforming a former industrial landscape into a public space for nature restoration and community healing, this collaborative project challenged energy giant PG&E and San Francisco Parks & Recreation to honor the embedded histories of environmental racism in the predominantly BIPOC and immigrant inhabited region. The backdrop of newly built pollinator gardens, bee boxes, storytelling hikes, site-specific performances, and pop-up parades wove residents into a tapestry of ritual, communal grief-work, and intergenerational memory tending. Shortly after the activation, private entities blocked efforts to adequately archive the work. Spatial justice initiatives spearheaded by the creative group included community interviews, focus groups, and participatory action research. Embodied site-specific performances like those in our culminating ceremony can help to demystify disparities, foster empathy, and activate collective agency across all those investing in such marginalized urban environments.
The global themed Botanical Gardens of this sprawling urban oasis were complimented by a free multi-day site-specific sensory experience devised by award winning contemporary dance company RAWdance. Including kinetic water sculptures, live dance performances, meditative interactive activities, and a multimedia ecosystem of video projections and sound – this first ever installation in the 5.4 acre public space featured over 16,000 plants, engaging residents and tourists alike via its collection of walking trails and guided tours. Portal investigated the intersections of skyscrapers and gardens, migration and stagnation, and belonging and isolation after an unprecedented year of collective challenge.
Working directly with the City of San Francisco’s environmental health and public transportation efforts, Epiphany Dance Theater’s inspired instigations brought choreographers from seemingly disparate backgrounds together to narrate universal stories of resilience, beauty, and truth for its onsite and online public dance showings Trolley Dances, Native Land / Native Hands featuring Deaf Afro-indigenous choreographer Antoine Hunter, and Rock & Mortar at Z Space (Theater Artaud). Educational programming for school-age youth bolstered performance activities, anchoring creative praxis with themes of narrative medicine, critical performance theory, mutual aid as well as queer, disability, and climate justice.