A New Performance with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Ava Wanbli

We Remember Who We Were So We Can Find The Other: A New Performance with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Ava Wanbli

6 pm, Friday, Nov. 10, 2023
DePaul Art Museum
935 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago
Free

In a brand-new collaboration, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Ava Wanbli stage a roleplaying performance titled We Remember Who We Were So We Can Find The Other, in which the audience must navigate constructing a new world from the ashes of humanity. Hosted at the DePaul Art Museum in collaboration with Wrightwood 659, this live performance uses the context of gaming to challenge the notion of passive spectatorship and explores body politics through the construction of avatars.

SUPREMACY HAS INFECTED HUMANKIND. IT STARTED AS A FIRE IN OUR BELLIES. A SMALL FLAME OF HATE AND ENTITLEMENT. BUT OVER TIME THIS FLAME GREW AND GREW. THE WARMTH IT GAVE WAS INFECTIOUS, ADDICTIVE. IT WAS DESIGNED THAT WAY. DESIGNED TO GET PEOPLE HOOKED. WE ARE INFECTED BY IT AND AT FIRST WE HID IT IN MICRO AGGRESSIONS AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS INTOLERANCE. BUT AS THE FLAME IN OUR BELLIES BEGAN TO SPREAD THROUGHOUT OUR BODIES, CRACKS STARTED TO SHOW FROM UNDER OUR SKIN. THOSE THAT WERE THE LEAST RESISTANT WOULD BE THE FIRST TO GIVE THEMSELVES OVER TO THE TRANSITION, ALLOWING THEMSELVES TO BE BURNT FROM THE INSIDE OUT. LIKE THE BURNING BUSH IN THE BIBLE, THEIR BODIES WERE NOT DESTROYED BUT INSTEAD REPRESENTED MORE. THE BURNT HUSKS OF HUMANITY, THE NEW BODIES SAW THEMSELVES AS THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF LIFE AND BEGAN TO TEAR APART ANYTHING THAT WASN’T CONSUMED BY THE FLAME OF HATE. THESE NEW BODIES OF FIRE BURNED OTHERS AS THEY SLEPT, INFECTED THE WEAK-MINDED AND KILLED THE STRONG

THERE WAS NO TIME FOR RETALIATION, NO TIME TO RAISE AN ALARM

THE FLAMES OF HATE HAD INFILTRATED EVERYWHERE

AND ALL OF A SUDDEN

THERE WAS ONLY FIRE

ONLY THE LOST SOULS OF HUMANITY REMAIN

IT’S UP TO YOU

THE LOST SOULS

TO DETERMINE IF HUMANITY IS WORTH SAVING AS IT WAS

OR IF IT SHOULD BE REBUILT IN A NEW IMAGE

IN A BRAND NEW COLLABORATION, DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY AND AVA WANBLI STAGE A ROLEPLAYING PERFORMANCE IN WHICH THE AUDIENCE MUST NAVIGATE CONSTRUCTING A NEW WORLD FROM THE ASHES OF HUMANITY.

EACH DECISION YOU MAKE WILL CHANGE THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE

EVERY DECISION COUNTS

The work trans people have had to do to perform, labor, express, heal, communicate is not easily COMMUNICATED, OUR ability TO COMMUNICATE has been largely coded to survive the very people WE ARE COMMUNICATING WITH

IT’S TIME YOU HAD TO WORK TO SURVIVE ALONGSIDE US

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

THIS WILL NOT BE EASY FOR YOU

WE KNOW YOU ARE USED TO WATCHING

CONSUMING US

IN VIEWING THIS PERFORMANCE

YOU ARE PART OF IT

YOU WILL BE PLACED TOGETHER

YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

WHAT YOU DO

WHAT YOU WILL SEE

WHAT  WILL BE CONSUMED

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

YOU MAY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE

YOU MAY FEEL UNEASY

BUT YOU MIGHT FINALLY

DISPLAY THIS DISRUPTION

THAT LEAD TO

MULTITUDE OF POSSIBILITIES