other boxes
Stories for Future Ancestors Part I
AKA my contribution to the double solo show CONJUNCTION with Medea Exogiinos
STORIES FOR FUTURE ANCESTORS, PART 1: OTHER BOXES
I. Chimera (seeking/sought)
II. Masala (bringing/brought)
III. Nepantla (losing/lost)
IV. Indigofera (finding/found)
[LINKS COMING SOON]
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THE CHOREOGRAPHY
I. CHIMERA (Seeking/sought)
Music: John Hardy by Bela Fleck, Jie-Bing Chen, and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
II. MASALA (Bringing/brought)
Music: Folk Dreams by Nordic Raga
III. NEPANTLA (Losing/lost)
Music: Island No. 2 by Arooj Aftab
IV. INDIGOFERA (Finding/found)
Music: Hildegard of Bingen's O Tu Illustrata sung by Maia Ramnath and Medea Exogiinos;
Vestige I by Lorn
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THE VIDEOS
I. CHIMERA (Seeking/sought)
--an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts
--in Greek mythology, a hybrid creature composed of a lion with a goat's head and snake's tail
--any mythical hybrid composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling
--an illusion or fabrication of the mind; an unrealizable dream, a fancy
--a cartilaginous fish of the order chimaeraformes, including ghost sharks
--a liminal being*
* a being on the threshold: a being existing between classifications or categories; see nepantla
Music: Gånglåt från Laggars by Mynta
II. MASALA (Bringing/brought)
--a mixture of ground spices used in Indian cooking
--a thing that comprises a highly varied mixture of elements
--spicy; dramatic
--a genre of Indian film originating in 1970s Bollywood that freely mixes action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama; usually includes musical numbers set in picturesque locations
Music: Vildhonung by Nordic Raga
III. NEPANTLA (Losing/lost)
--in-between-ness
--borderlands
--a liminal place where multiple forms of reality can be viewed at the same time
--a liminal state, the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage
--a painful experience of confusion and anxiety, shattered self-identity and worldview; radical dis-identification
--a liminal space, where transformation can occur
--a space where structures of social classification are challenged
--a place for imagining and moving political change
Music: Island No. 2 by Arooj Aftab
IV. INDIGOFERA (Finding/found)
--indigofera: indigo-bearing; a genus of plants used for blue dye
--indigo: color between blue and violet on the electromagnetic spectrum
--indigo: from Latin (indicus) and Greek (indikon) for India
--indigo: color of the sixth chakra, the third eye, intuition and spiritual knowledge
--indigo bunting: a migratory bird that flies by night, using celestial navigation
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THE TEXTS
This is a living document which may continue to evolve. It is not a definitive statement with firm conclusions, but a personal exploration during a pause to take stock of things and get my bearings. It reflects my thought processes between 2020 and 2024, and corresponds to the videos and choreography i was making at the same time.
I. CHIMERA
A Story of the Chimera: A Chimera Walks into a Bar...
What This Is About:
Listening to the Ancestors
Many Kinds of Ancestors
Another Story of the Chimera: In Liminal Space
The Box Marked Other (Filling out the Form)
A Story of a Chimerical Wanderer
II. MASALA
Boxes in the Basement
Ancestor Stories
Beyond 7 generations: 63,000s BCE to 1750s
7 generations back: 1760s-1780s
6 generations back: 1790s-1810s
5 generations back: 1820s-1840s
4 generations back: 1850s-1870s
3 generations back: 1880s-1900s
2 generations back: 1910s-30s
1 generation back: 1940s-60s
Unpacking the Boxes: What I Learned (Listening to the Ancestors)
Who Are "My People"? (Many Kinds of Ancestors)
III. NEPANTLA
The Chimera Moved Out Onto the Plains Alone...
On Citation: An Intellectual Genealogy (Many Kinds of Ancestors)
Hybridity
Mestizaje
Liminality
Songs of Nepantla (Listening to the Ancestors)
1. Occam's Razor
2. Song of the Streets
3. Panoptes, Pandora
4. The Hungry Caterpillar
5. Song of Impurity
6. Boomerang
7. The Bridge
IV. INDIGOFERA
Indigo/Celestial Navigation
Soma
Indigofera
The "Medicine Wheel" (Listening to the Ancestors)
The Blood of the Covenant (Many Kinds of Ancestor)
I Have Many Kinds of Ancestor (What Do I Do?)
Maternal Kin
Paternal Kin
Kith of the Covenant
I Will Be Many Kinds of Ancestor (What Do I Leave Behind?)
A Story of a Crossroads