THEN A CUNNING VOICE AND A NIGHT WE SPEND GAZING AT STARS

 

Beginning at dusk and continuing until after sunrise, Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars is a gathering that weaves together stories and performance with the exchange of ideas, the sharing of food, and the endurance of spending a night together outside under the stars and sky.

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"It’s a sleepover to beat all sleepovers.” 

—New York Times

Throughout the night, the audience is guided through a series of richly crafted encounters—part ritual, part lyrical adventure—created by Emily Johnson. A group walk. A series of self-illuminated duets and solos. Stories and song. Gathering around a fire, a feast, conversations, silences and welcoming a new day.

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Under the night sky, at an outdoor gathering space, in and around 84 community-sewn quilts designed by Maggie Thompson, a participatory experience unfolds, inviting consideration of the histories we hold, and how we might envision our future, together.

Then a Cunning Voice...is rooted in community visioning sessions created in partnership with the Minneapolis -based Native American Community Development Institute. The visioning sessions start with the questions,

“What do you want for your well-­being? For your family and friends? Your neighborhood? Your city, town, or reserve?” 

The responses generate joy, reflection, responsibility:

I want my city to love itself more.
The Mayor of Richfield wants free mental health clinics.
Someone writes “A full happy life for our son”

The intentions are gathered on quilt squares which are sewn into a modular series of quilts during community sewing bees. Once created, the quilts are laid together to become one 4,000 square foot area, designed by textile artist Maggie Thompson, upon which we will host all night stargazing including moments of silence, performance, stories, and First-Nations star knowledge. We want to share time, to feel and also imagine the space below us on the ground and above us in the air. 

It is celebratory, to come together like this.
 

Spending the night in a city park, on a rooftop, or in the rural darkness is also an opportunity to spark conversation and action about safety. Safety comes to mind because many intentions voiced in the past two years have been about safety - most clearly safety from police violence. Many quilt squares say something similar to: “[I want] To not be afraid of police.” (NYC, June 2015). One says,  “[I want] The police to stop killing our kids.” (Vancouver BC, CA,  August 2015). This project cannot fix power dynamics that create racial violence but it can start to examine and shift dynamics by sharing responsibility and authorship with local residents, participants, host nations, and audiences. Our safety process will be co-organized with a local youth leadership team who develop a strategy for re-envisioning community health and for discussing community safety with police. What excites us about this is the possibility for long term effect-- building relationships between young people and police begins to change the nature of power. It changes relationship. 
 

PRESENTATIONS & PRODUCTION CREDITS

Then A Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars

was created by Emily Johnson in deep collaboration with the Performers

Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago

September 28th, 2019 5:00pm - September 29th, 2019 8:00am

Calumet Park, Zhigaagoong (Chicago)

Artistic Director
Emily Johnson

Directed by
Ain Gordon

Performers
Tania Isaac, Emily Johnson, Georgia Lucas

Designer and Textile Artist
Maggie Thompson

Lighting Designer
Lenore Doxsee

Artist and Food Futurist
Jen Rae

Fellow Kinstillatory Activator
Karyn Recollet

Creative Producer
George Lugg

Company Manager
Sara Lyons

Stage Manager
Zach Crumrine

Rematriative land activist Fawn Pochel

Playwright Marisa Carr

Multi-media artist Feather Metsch

Calumet resident Maricela Rivera

Violinist Dominic Johnson

Vocalist Suri Wong

Drummer Sekou Conde

Culinary Producer Cameron Heinze

Tea towel design and printing Moira Hibbard

Performers Dave Spencer and the RedLine Drummers

Stewards: Gina Hoch-Stall, Sam Horning, Celeste Brace, Nina-Jo Buttigieg, Kennedy Dehoop, Adeline Else, Joy Holder, Taia Koker, Selena Lasley, Brittanyrose Lonergan, Nia Odum 

Special thanks to Columbia College Chicago’s Doc Unit, Tom Callahan, and Mickey Neely. Catalyst acknowledges the creative contributions to this project from Aretha Aoki, Margot Bassett, Meredith Boggia, Julia Bither, James Everest, Krista Langberg.

Performers are wearing clothing designs from Nagla Jandu, VegeThreads, Meg Shop. Tania Issac’s lightsuit is designed by Lenore Doxsee. Emily Johnson’s second hat is designed by Emily Johnson and Julia Emily Knox, and fabricated by Julia Emily Knox at East Village Hats.

Nagla Jandu (Broome, Australia)  supports Aboriginal women to produce, exhibit, and sell distinctive hand crafted textiles and textile products with motifs and colours sourced from the unique Broome landscape. Vegethreads’ commitment to transparency, place-based labor, use of organic and eco-friendly materials and an ethical manufacturing supply chain means they have gained accreditation from Ethical Clothing Australia and pride themselves in working with local knitting mills and dye houses. Meg Shop is a locally made, women run independent clothing line based in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Toronto.

Acknowledgement of Country

Emily Johnson/Catalyst and The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago pay respect to Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi peoples, land, water and ancestors past, present, and future. We acknowledge that this work is presented on the lands of Council of Three Fires. We offer deep gratitude and aim for our actions here to support and advocate for the sovereignty of all Indian nations, for the historic Indigenous communities in Illinois, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live in the Chicagoland area, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands.

Chicago Partners

American Indian Center of Chicago, Dance Center of Columbia College, Envision Unlimited, Calumet Park Community Council, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Park District, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, The Field Museum, Sweet Water Foundation, South Shore Cultural Center, St. Kateri Center of Chicago, Red Line Drummers and Singers, Washburne Culinary Institute


WORLD PREMIERE presented by P.S. 122

August 19, 2017 5:30pm - August 20, 2017 8:00am

Randall’s Island Park, Lenapehoking (NYC)

Artistic Director
Emily Johnson

Directed by
Ain Gordon

Performers
Tania Isaac, Emily Johnson, Georgia Lucas

Designer and Textile Artist
Maggie Thompson

Lighting Designer
Lenore Doxsee

Artist and Food Futurist
Jen Rae

Creative Producer, Project and Tour Manager
Meredith Boggia

Managing Director and Special Projects
Yumi Tamashiro

Stage Manager
Matt Evans

Press Representative
Janet Stapleton

Recorded Sound and Story Contributors: James Everest, Julia Bither, Margot Bassett-Silver

The Lenapehoking hosting of Then a Cunning Voice is performed and conjured with
(listed in order of appearance):
Tatyana Tenenbaum, Hannah Salzer, Maggie Thompson, Tess Altman
Kelsey Grills, Marya Wethers, Katherine Puntiel

Performers and Storytellers
Grey McMurray, Balladeer
Hadrien Coumans and Joe Baker of the Lenape Center
Eric Peterson, Randall's Island Park
Lynn Bechtold, Violinist

Protocols
Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm- Mique'l Dangeli

Chaperone
Luz Carime Santa-Coloma

Community Partners
The Lenape Center, Performance Space 122, Broome St. Academy, Abrons Arts Center, Gibney Dance
Ideas City at New Museum, Randall's Island Park Alliance, Urban Farm on Randall's Island, New York Live Arts

Quilt Construction by
Volunteers in Minneapolis, North Adams, California, Tennessee, Tallahassee, Richfield MN, New York

SUPPORT

Then a Cunning Voice was created with generous support from MAP Fund and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project was developed with the support of residencies at Push Festival in Vancouver, BC; Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography in Tallahassee, FL; and a Forecast Public Art/RARE Residency in Richfield, MN.

RELATED LINKS

Then a Cunning Voice MANCC Residency

Then a Cunning Voice at Northern Spark Photos

Richfield Stargazing Project Blog

Culturebot: Sewing Together in January

Umyuangvigkaq: PS122 Long Table and Durational Sewing Bee Photos

Then a Cunning Voice Abrons Art Center Residency

Then a Cunning Voice New York Premiere at Randall's Island Park Alliance

 

 

Top Photo by Jonathan Godoy 

 
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.

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