In this piece, I held hundreds of acorns in my dress, against my belly. The only planned sound of the piece was the moment I released them, and they all fell and hit the ground at once, spreading out all around me. I then formed the acorns into a circle around me with my feet. I sat in the middle of the circle, and pulled long colorful ribbons out of a Mother Goose book, one by one. I tied the ribbons to each acorn, looping them back into the circle to form what might look like a flower formation. I picked up each ribbon and looped them around my arms, suspending the acorns in the air. I tied the ribbons around my waist, letting the acorns cascade between my legs. I piled the remaining acorns onto the open book.

In creating this piece, I pulled from the experience of recently discovering that I was pregnant. I contemplated all that this meant: for me, for my partner, and for the new life growing inside of me. At this time, I hadn’t told most people I knew, and this piece was a moment of expressing what I was experiencing without words.

This piece was originally planned to be performed in front of a live audience. The date it was scheduled quickly became the beginning of the pandemic, and instead of gathering in person, we live-streamed the event.