Wax-Kô is a ceremony, a conversation with land and sea. It centers themes of migration, death, and resurrection as thousands of Senegalese lose their lives every year in the ocean attempting the crossing to Europe. Wax-Kô is saying what must be said, and also failing to do so. 

Wax-Kô has been curated into ND’ART MOOVE FESTIVAL at Le Château Cultural Center in Saint-Louis, Senegal. This piece is in collaboration with Baye Cheikh Kébé and will premiere on Friday, December 13.

rituals for rock ancestors: Performing community upriver

I am a selected presenter for the Annual American Studies Association (ASA) Conference in November 2024. I will be presenting, Rituals for Rock Ancestors: Performing Community Upriver with Jen Shook, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Dance, & Performance Studies at Grinnell College.

Several long-distance collaborations between artists, archival researchers, anthropologists, and engineers converged upon the ancient rocks of Easton, PA when a geology-inspired sculpture trail installation called for a performance to lead local community members along the trail. The resulting collective performance, Upriver, combined storytelling, poetry, dance, music, working horses and mules, braucherei, steelwork, hard labor, and soft eco-prints. And it turns out the ancestor rocks knew us before we knew them.

This multimedia performance presentation shares the process of making relations among humans and more-than-humans, grounded in a very particular place across vastly different perspectives and times. Attendees will then be led through creative cartography exercise reflecting on community, place, and time.

Call Her By Her Name: Lenape Sippu

This performance will take place in and around the neighborhood surrounding 52nd Street SEPTA station and Painted Bride in West Philadelphia. Dancers, line drummers, musicians, storytellers, and performance artists will process to Painted Bride where we will be met with music, a dance party, free chair massages, and performances. Featuring the words of Lenape historian and scholar Karelle Hall. Audiences will listen to the words centering climate justice, reciprocity, and radical care. Following the performances we will lead a litter pick up around the neighborhood.

Featuring Esther Baker, Emma White Thunder, Tchin, Storyline Drumline, Heidi Wiren Kébé, Barber, Chloe Marie, Boubacar Djiga, YaFave Trashman, and Temple University dancers.

As a part of ‘’La Ville En Mouv’ment’’ les Arts dans la Rue I also performed in Palmarin, Senegal at the Palm Festival organized by Bigué Ndiaye in collaboration with Fatou Cissé. This performance will build on the Propelled Animals previous performance in Ouakam. It will feature site-responsive performances and installations created in collaboration with Senegal-based artists. The performance will be a procession through the village of Palmarin.

Festival Director: Bigué Ndiaye
Senegal-based Performers: Baye Cheikh, Pape Cheikh, Khadi Ba, Mix Baba, Rokhaya Coulibaly, Bamba Diagne, Mbaye Faye (Prince)

Made Possible by: Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, University of Texas at Austin, Carnegie Mellon University, and Headlong Dance Theater

’La Ville En Mouv’ment’ les Arts dans la Rue

I performed in ‘’La Ville En Mouv’ment’’ les Arts dans la Rue with the Propelled Animals featuring new site-responsive performances and installations created in collaboration with Senegal-based artists. The performance will be a procession through Marché de Ouakam in Dakar. We are focused on recycling, upcycling, protest, cross-cultural social and artistic discourse, and environmental justice.

Festival Director: Fatou Cissé
Senegal-based Performers: Baye Cheikh, Pape Cheikh, Khadi Ba, Mix Baba, Rokhaya Coulibaly, Bamba Diagne, Mbaye Faye (Prince)

Join Performance as Public Practice (PPP's) Fridays@2 speaker series for a conversation with the propelled animals!

The Performance as Public Practice Fridays@2 speaker series facilitates discussions about the creation and study of performance. PPP welcomes artists from within and beyond the Winship Drama Building, including current students, distinguished alumni and arts leaders from across the country, to share their research and methodology. Up next is a conversation with Propelled Animals - a group of artists, dancers, scholars, musicians and designers, including faculty member and Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Academic Affairs Raquel Monroe.

CONFLUX was a performance event on the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. Transforming the Explorer riverboat into an immersive art experience, collaborators Celeste Neuhaus and Heidi Wiren Bartlett will lead the audience on a journey into the river and within themselves. Adorned with sparkling, diatom flags, illuminated by magic spells, and live video projections, these events will be visible on the boat and alongside the river. Participants will observe microscopic plankton species essential to all river life, and be guided into an embodied relationship with the diverse ecosystem of Southwestern Pennsylvania. As the riverboat embarks, dancers will move as personified plankton, and as the riverboat returns to shore, a River Siren will sing on behalf of the water and the land at the confluence of the three rivers.

This project is made possible through a partnership with the SHIFTWORKS and Riverlife.

Performance event featuring Heidi Wiren Bartlett and collaborators.

Friday, July 8, at 7 p.m., starting at the pedestrian bridge by the Silk Complex

Watch the Upriver trailer.

Upriver is a project featuring sculptures and a performance event on Bushkill Creek. Debuting on July 8, the work is an active collaboration with local artists, scholars, geologists, musicians, and engineers. In a procession down the Karl Stirner Arts Trail, stories will be told and actions materialized into sculptural form, with each aspect of the performance intended to reflect the mythologies of “The Place at the Forks.”

The event starts in the Simon Silk Mill parking lot (1262 Simon Blvd.). The event is free and should last about one hour. Parking is available on Bushkill Drive at the corner of 13th Street in Silk’s upper-level parking lot. Overflow parking can be found in the back lot of Silk. Closed-toed sneakers, hiking shoes, or boots are suggested.