project image
Frank/ie Consent
GRIEF PIECE

first performed on January 16, 2020
The Mudlark Public Theatre
performed once in 2020

CYPRESS ATLAS

New Orleans, LA
cypressatlas@gmail.com

GRIEF PIECE
CYPRESS ATLAS

In 2019, someone I was deeply in love with died suddenly. Through my own grieving process, I realized how much grief surrounded me in my community. It is difficult to know what to do with our memories, our grief. This piece was a collective processing with those present. I set up a microphone with a vocal looper. I created a circle of VHS tapes and in the center of the space placed hammers and wrenches. I explained that the public was invited to speak a memory of someone no longer in their lives into the microphone and then join me in my activity. I started by speaking a memory, which began the vocal loop. I picked up a hammer and began destroying a VHS tape and unspooling the tape. Members of the public followed, creating a cacophonous vocal loop of memories. We all destroyed and unspooled the VHS tapes and brought them together in the middle. The tape represented our memories and our grief. We brought it together into a big pile and offered it to anyone who would like to take it.