Living Histories is a two hour durational performance set within a monumental landscape of ancient Baobab-inspired textile trees that hold and transmit the stories of formerly enslaved African American elders. Performers activate the space through movement, spoken word, poetry, and embodied ritual, guiding audiences into intimate encounters with memory and presence. Archival voices resonate through a sound composition by Lazarus Nance Letcher, inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s 1930s ethnographic recordings. Embedded throughout the installation, the healing voice of gina Breedlove becomes a sonic offering, a channel of ancestral care. As audiences move freely through this shifting world of cotton, light, and shadow, performance becomes a living archive. Witnessing becomes a shared act of remembrance.
Photo by Kate Russell.
