Artist Performance: Testimony: from the Mother River & Open Studio
Spring will be in full bloom as A Studio in the Woods hosts a Performance and Open Studio by two Self As Universe Residents: interdisciplinary artist and dancer Rochelle Jamila and traditional clay artist Gary L. White, respectively.
Jamila will perform Testimony: from the Mother River on the levee of the Mississippi River, accompanied by Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes. White will then open his studio doors for attendees to learn about traditional clay harvesting, processing, shaping, and burn techniques.
The event will begin at 3pm. Snacks will be provided.
In Testimony: from the Mother, River Rochelle draws from the blues, hoodoo, folktales, and her family’s history in the Mississippi River’s delta to process climate grief and treat the blues as oracle. Rochelle blends experimental movement, sound, and animist prayer to channel the wisdom of a land where culture emerged alongside river flooding. Offered from atop a New Orleans’ levee on the Mother River of the North American continent, Testimony: from the Mother River invites us to consider the patriarchal hubris of restricting the flow of the Mississippi River and the ecological and spiritual implications of levee creation and destruction. Toni Morrison posits, “water has perfect memory… they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occasionally, the river floods these places. ‘Floods’ is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding: it is remembering.” Accompanied by New Orleans musician Bruce Sunpie Barnes, Rochelle’s performance invites us to contemplate flooding as remembering, reclamation, and (re)evolution with water and land.
