Howling at the Moon

Performed on the traditional homelands of the Nipmuc Nation. A multivocal ceremony of memory, ancestry, and survival.

Ancestral Voices

Larry Spotted Crow Mann: As I share the words of my Nipmuc ancestors, by way of actual letters from my great great great grandfather Samuel Vickers, uncles and cousins during their service in the Civil War. Between 1863 to 1907, we experienced 3 generations of children being removed to Boarding Schools or “farmed out” to white homes. I invoke the spirit of those children taken; some who never returned home.

Jennifer Johnson: My research for this work is grounded in the traditions and rituals around death and memory that my family brought from Ireland and practice in new ways for the new world.

Carlos Uriona: We learned during those terrible years of the military dictatorship, in Argentina, where many of my generation went missing forever, that dancing in the streets is not just an act of celebration, it can be an act of mourning and an act of defiance.

Travis Coe: As a child, I chose to communicate with dolls and spirits as an escape from frequent punishment. In all the silence, I heard supernatural whispers connecting me to African spirituality and the divine wisdom of my Black and Latinx ancestors.

Milena Dabova: I dialogue with my grandmother and aunt in Bulgaria through space and time, asking questions about sanity, insanity, and creating my own path.

This performance takes place on the traditional homelands of the Nipmuc Nation and other Indigenous peoples who have had and continue to have a presence and travel this land.