Photo by Dora Lionstone
www.doralionstone.com
Photos by ©ATELIER AM, Hans van Hal
To get from one place to another
(2022)
Performance, 38 min.
Mayis Rukel, Mira Thompson, Anna Raiola
“We need to move from here to there.
We need to change the air.”
To get from one place to another, is a rehearsal of movement,
Oriented towards the horizon;
Where futures of care, justice, belonging, equity and abundance expand.
Cultivated into reality through the smallest, most intimate parts of our lives,
And our imagination, and our healing relationship with the land,
And the echoes of our ancestors; Lorde, Baldwin, hooks and more.
To help us move from here to there, what seeds do we plant?
Until the seeds grow, how do we make sure we survive in joy?
Based on the sacredness of the body, equipped with complex strategies of survival:
Disability Justice is here to hold every single one of us.
What persists in beholding justice?
The land is the body.
Grief can be the garden.
This is establishing touch with the past.
It is understanding cycles of violence.
It is a deep breath.
“Voyager, there are no bridges; one builds them as one moves.”
- Gloria Anzaldúa
Photos by ©Art in my Backyard, Daan Kooiman
The last image by Bilen Bilen
Commissioned by Atelier AM; 'To get from one place to another' premiered on September 24th, 2022 at the Corrosia Theater in Almere Haven, as the closure of the event Art in my Backyard by Museum M.
The work is the result of a two-months long collaboration between Mayıs Rukel, Mira Thompson and Anna Raiola.
Photos by Dora Lionstone
www.doralionstone.com
Credits, Inspiration, Lineage, Riverbeds
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Created, gathered, developed, organised and performed by Mayıs Rukel, Mira Thompson and Anna Raiola.
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Voice narration by Lucie Gérard.
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Mentorship by Victoria McKenzie.
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Made with the support of Atelier AM.
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With gratitude to the care and support of Vere van Hal, Tomas Heller and Christie Bakker.
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With the kind support from the Corrosia Theater team. Marc Mullenders, Desirée Kruizinga, Yasmin Ghandour, Roos, Nina, Laura.
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Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. I found this text while researching Leah's work, whom I first encountered in Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown.
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A Choreographer's Handbook by Jonathan Burrows. This text was recommended to me by Camille Barton during the development of my performance piece A Hand in C Major.
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Rehearsals for Living, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Robyn Maynard. Dearest Victoria McKenzie first mentioned this text to me in a loving email.
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Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Audre Lorde. This text and Lorde came into my life in 2013 when I was 21, with I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, recommended by my friend Jessica Johnson.
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Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo. Joy's work came into my life after I saw an Instagram post with her poem For Earth's Grandsons featured in it.
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The Politics of Trauma, Staci K. Haines. Recommended by Camille Barton as part of the Ecologies of Transformation readings.
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Ecologies of Transformation, the master's I am currently doing at the Sandberg Institute, curated and led by Camille Barton.
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Resilience Toolkit (of Nkem Ndefo / Lumos Transforms, conveyed to me by Char Azad) and Trauma Informed Principles (Lumos Transforms) conveyed to me by Camille Barton.
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Journey in Satchidananda, 1971 album by Alice Coltrane, offered to me as part of a practice by Victoria McKenzie for the Atelier AM process.
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Eline, my dear host in Almere, sharing herbal infusions and stories of healing with me.
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The spider that was making a web above my window, I was watching it and I heard "The web is the spider."
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Ghost by Beyoncé.
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Words of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin (whose words gave the piece its title) that I used from the interviews available online.
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'We Do This Til We Free Us' and 'Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police' by Mariame Kaba.
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The abolition work of Mariame Kaba, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley, Elizabeth Hinton, Assata Shakur, Heather Ann Thompson, Colin Kaepernick, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ejeris Dixon, Dean Spade, Zena Sharman.
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The Pendant animation by Teun Grondman.
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Ceviz Ağacı by Nazım Hikmet.
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Performance portraits by Dora Lionstone.
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Performance documentation photos by ©ATELIER AM, Hans van Hal and ©Art in my Backyard, Daan Kooiman.
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Losing You by Solange.
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Rare by Odunsi.
