Kneading Breaths

Newark, NJ, 2022/12
Manhattan, NY, 2023/03

Performed on the Winter Solstice of 2022, 'Kneading Breaths' prompts reflection on the transformation of food into cultural symbols, and ordinary days into celebrated festivals, exploring how art, via community-based practices, can challenge and reshape traditional celebrations. Through collective mourning, chanting, and sharing of food, the performance illuminates the intricate interconnections between language, culture, and territory. Recognizing the emergence of a pantheistic, post-secular spirituality in contemporary art, this performance seeks to bridge diasporic identities. It welcomes audience members to assume the role of myth-makers, intertwining personal memory, familial stories, and cultural history with an collective-speculated future through ritual and foodmaking.