past works
photo courtesy of WLT
Women like us
Inspired by the epilogue of Edwidge Danticat’s book Krik -Krak, this piece explores female ancestry speaking through our bodies and our breath, asking us to create in the midst of oppressive forces. The work not only pays homage to the ancestors of the performers but features the creative work of three generations of outspoken Haitian artists including Danticat, Toto Bissainthe, and Sabine Blazin of Oyasound and Marie Casimir.
Commission by World Literature Today for the 2018 Neustadt Festival Honoring Edwidge Danticat.
Choreographed by Marie Casimir
Performed by Maureen Azzun, Tessa Fungo, Hanna Golden, Keyve Martin, Bethey Ruble, Alexis Tella, Breanna Troutman, and Reese Twenter.
my mother’s labor (In my Country I Was…)
My mother moved from Haiti to the US at the age of 36. Like most immigrants she had to start completely over.
A movement and storytelling piece that delves into my mother’s immigrant labor and the residual points of physical and emotional pain left behind after years of domestic and care-taking work. The piece asks the audience to contribute their own work stories to reveal where our experiences overlap and where they diverge.
CHOKOLA LAKAY
“My boyfriend and I had just moved to Chicago and neither one of us had secured a job. We were eating Top Ramen and so many hot dogs…and then the cat popped the air mattress. Waiting for Chokola Peyi to arrive in the mail was like waiting for brown gold. “
Chokola Lakay traces my nomadic life and the pathways of Haitian Cacao between the women in family, used as means to root us even when we feel rootless.
The audience is invited to recite a chorus of ingredients necessary to make Haitian hot chocolate and move the piece along.
Different iterations of the piece have been performed at A Seat at The Table (Bryan Saner’s home) Chicago, North Park University Intro to Performance Studies class, Peace House (Englewood,Chicago), AfrikaNation fundraiser at The Root (Oklahoma City), Afrika Senke Cutltural Evening, OKC First Church of the Nazarene (Oklahoma City)
photo credit- Dennis McDonough
The instigation festival
The Instigation Festival brings Chicago & New Orleans music, movement and visual artists together for a week of improvised and interesting interdisciplinary collaboration in each city. Since it’s founding in 2016 by guitarist Steve Marquette and movement artist Marie Casimir, they have presented over seventy artists at twenty venues across seven festivals. Now entering it’s fifth year, the Instigation Festival continues its’ work of fostering connections between these cities’ creative arts communities, while expanding the scope to include performers from other cities.
photo courtesy of 6018 North
Lasiren
“They cast their bodies into the sea. Weak and strong, they plunge through her lullaby - she will bend them to her will and return lost souls to the soil, longing.”
A movement offering tied to LaSiren and allowing oneself to be seduced and loose consciousness, konsyans.
In collaboration with Helen Gillet and James Singelton.
Part of Water Music on the Beach & Instigation Festival