The Ways We Love and The Ways We Love Better, Monumental Movement Toward Being Future Being(s)

Created by Emily Johnson/Catalyst

Performed by Emily Johnson and Angel Acuña, Nia-Selassi Clark, Linda LaBeija, Denaysha Macklin, Annie Ming-Hao Wang, Angelica Mondol Viaña, Ashley Pierre-Louis, Katrina Reid, Kim Savarino, Sasha Smith, Stacy Lynn Smith, Paul Aster Stone-Tsao, Kim Velsey, Sugar Vendil

Invocation by Nataneh River

Garments and Masks by Jeffrey Gibson

Sculpture by Jeffrey Gibson, BECAUSE ONCE YOU ENTER MY HOUSE IT BECOMES OUR HOUSE, 2020. Plywood, posters, steel, LEDs, and performances, 44 x 44 x 21 ft.

Presented by Socrates Sculpture Park, September 16, 2020

Johnson's 'The Ways We Love...' is site-specific dance work that stages pathways for regeneration, renewal and transformation. The performance begins with a gathering at the shore of the East River estuary with words from artist and activist Nataneh River, and then moves to ascend Gibson’s monument. Incorporating storytelling, invocation, movement, and light, 'The Ways We Love...' illuminates Indigenous presence and the histories held in the parkland, which is situated in Lenapehoking – homeland of the Lenapeyok people. The performance culminates with the planting of tobacco, and the project continued spring 2021 with the planting of Sehsapsing corn seeds — a tribute to the future and a commitment to Lenape return.

All photos by Scott Lynch, 2020

This film was shot and edited by Cut/Cut/Cut: Chelsea Knight & Itziar Barrio. Drone footage was captured by KMDeco Creative Solutions: Mark DiConzo & R3D Shifters: Angelo Soriano. Audio recording and mixing was done by Tristan Sheperd.Show less

Office, Minneapolis, MN, US612.597.7400emily@catalystdance.com

Emily Johnson / Catalyst is based on Mannahatta in Lenapehoking. We work to pay respect to Lenape homeland, people and ancestors past, present, and future by organizing with communities from the Lenape diaspora to build pathways for Lenapeyok return. We have been taught to name Lenape Nations and say cama’i to our relatives from Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, OK; Delaware Nation of Oklahoma in Anadarko, OK; Stockbridge-Munsee and Mohican Community in Wisconsin; Moravian Delaware of the Thames in Ontario, Canada; Munsee-Delaware Nation at Munceytown in Ontario, Canada; Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario, Canada. 

We strive to be in good relations with our kin—human and more than human—and in effort to support growing kinstillatory relations and sovereign, liberated futures we are anti-colonial and abolitionist in all capacities. We are committed to on-the-ground water and land protection, consistent decolonization work, and Land Back. 

Quyanaqvaa-lli elpeni to all Sovereign Nations, Indigenous and First Nations people who live in relation to and from Lenapehoking and upon whose lands we work and tour.

Cart (0)