You are invited to the Kinstillatory fire, March 16th 6-8pm at Abrons Arts Center.
Ashley Pierre-Louis, Colette Denali Montoya and Camille Georgeson-Usher (via Emily Johnson) share work fireside.
These artists, in an unassailable power gather us toward story.
Indigiqueer languages flooding letters, finding erotics, holding possibility and moving through layers of light, through complication, through the f*ckery of colonization. Gather on the Lower East Side of Mannahatta in Lenapehoking. There is joy here, partnership, a pleasure activism finding way alongside adrienne maree brown. The fire itself is process. A way to bring us out of the catastrophe of now.
A lot is happening in the time/space envelope of the kinstillatory that is care, that is necessary. This is a practice of provocating. This is an offering of seed, of vessel, of protection, of becomingness.
Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter is hosted, held, and lightly curated by Emily Johnson and Karyn Recollet. The fire is central and communities are invited to GATHER HERE as artists and organizers articulate our collective futures, our otherwise possibilities. Fireside, we bring practices, grammars and needs forward and through the portals fire allows. The fire itself is process, a way to bring us out of the catastrophe of now. A lot is happening in the time/space envelope of the kinstillatory that is care, that is necessary. This is a practice of provocating. This is an offering of seed, of vessel, of protection, of becomingness.
Artists
Colette Denali Montoya is a member of Isleta Pueblo and a descendant of San Felipe Pueblo, living in Lenapehoking. As a queer, Indigenous librarian/ archivist/ oral historian, she works at the intersections of oral history and memory. In her work as a university reference librarian, as well as an audio archivist at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Colette connects people to stories and knowledge. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison and earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree at the City University of New York – Queens College. Colette is currently an Oral History Association - National Endowment for the Humanities fellow working with Indigenous oral histories from Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument.
Ashley Pierre-Louis grew up on the lands of the Tequesta, Miccosukee, and Seminole peoples (Miami, FL) and received education from New World School of the Arts and later from Florida State University. After graduating, she moved to Lenapehoking (New York City) and has been working with various artists and collaborators in the field.
She is the associate choreographer for the play Help (2022) by acclaimed poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, directed by Taibi Magar, and commissioned at The Shed in New York. She premiered the play Thoughts of A Colored Man (2020) by playwright Keenan Scott II and director Steve Broadnax III at Syracuse Stage and Baltimore Center Stage as well as performed for the premiere of Donna Uchizono’s work March Under an Empty reign (2018) at The Joyce: NY Quadrille Festival. She was one of Gallim’s Moving Women spring 2021 artist-in-residence and has also been a part of Alvin Ailey’s inaugural Choreography Unlocked Festival (2018) under the direction of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women, and Robert Battle.
Her most current artistic work include working with Shamel Pitts’ multidisciplinary performance collective TRIBE as a performer & maker in Pitts’ performance art residency incubator Solace of RED and as dramaturge for Pitts’ newest evening-length duet, Touch of RED. She also works with Indigenous choreographer Emily Johnson in her newest multi-scalar creation, Being Future Being as a performer, as well as freelances and choreographs in the city. Other current artistic collaborations include working with Edisa Weeks and DELIRIOUS Dances as part of Edisa’s 3 RITES project: Life, Liberty, Happiness as well as acting as the Dream Partner and Program Manager for Florida State University’s 2023 spring semester study domestic program, Arts in NYC.
Camille Georgeson-Usher is a Coast Salish / Sahtu Dene / Scottish scholar, artist, and arts administrator from Galiano Island, British Columbia, unceded territories of the Penelakut and Lamalcha First Nations, as well as other Hul’qumi’num speaking peoples and is the ceded traditional territories of Tsawwassen First Nation. She is a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies department at Queen’s University where she is writing on ontologies of gathering. She is interested in looking at the many ways in which peoples move together through urban space, relationalities and intimacies with the everyday, and acts of mark making through the example of public art practices as types of gathering from an Indigenous perspective.
Usher completed her MA in Art History at Concordia University. Her thesis, “more than just flesh: the arts as resistance and sexual empowerment,” focused on how the arts may be used as a tool to engage Indigenous youth in discussions of health and sexuality. She is currently Assistant Professor of Art History and Curatorial Practices (Tenure-Track) at OCAD University in Toronto, ON. She served for over five years as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Curatorial Collective and sits on several boards and committees: Toronto Biennial of Art, Board Member; OCADU Indigenous Education Council Member; City of Kingston’s Public Art Working Group, Committee Member; Research Creation Committee, Queen’s University, Member. In addition to Usher’s professional and academic work she also has a profound love of long distance running and has completed 10 full marathons, one of which was a 50km event that thread through mountainous trails in Quebec. She began learning piano in 2018. She lives in Toronto, ON.
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Catalyst programs are made possible in part with generous funding from Dance/NYC, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mellon Foundation and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.