modjeskamodjeskamodjeska

modjeskamodjeskamodjeska, is a durational multidisciplinary performance installation that investigates the embodied activation of prayer and calls attention to the erosion of our coastlines. cyan and Swift look to oysters as ancestral guides for moving forward.

Along the shoreline, audiences will be able to hear cyan sing love songs and prayers. Throughout the performance, Billion Oyster Project will be offering educational resources on care practices for our waterways. There will also be a local oyster shucker present offering oysters and insight on oyster restoration.

About Summer Happenings Festival:

The Summer Happenings Festival returns to the parks of New York City with its offerings of free, public performance art from Friday, June 9th to Sunday, June 18th. Curated by Amanda + James in partnership with Asia Stewart, The third iteration of Summer happenings is centered on the theme of Coastlines.

Too often, many of us rush through New York City and forget that we live on a series of islands whose natural landscape has been adapted and shaped by generations of forgotten inhabitants. We neglect our land’s past: the violence that resides in soil stolen from the Lenape people (including the Wappinger, Munsee Lenape, Schaghticoke, Canarsie, Matinecock, and Lekawe nations). We look past the waterways’ paths; many brush up against terminals, docks, and piers and have been constructed for and destroyed by cycles of trade, capital, and exchange. As coastal living becomes increasingly precarious with climate change, we hope you will consider the history, value, beauty, and fragility of our brackish borders. Our presence here is not neutral.

Host or Publisher Amanda + James