wawoh! activates a new partnership between Little Brown Language and Derek Dizon, founder and steward of A Resting Place grief and loss cultural resource center in Seattle's Chinatown International District. Through this form of dance-incantation, we collaborate with the unique spirit energies of the space to embody hidden histories of migration and loss that continue to collectively move our communities in solidarity, grief and healing. wawoh! is a seed of a larger project on mourning rituals that includes an exploration of Filipino musical traditions of serenade. writing by Brittney Frantece for Variable West's Cliff Notes The video clip is from a performance for Seattle Artists at the Center. We transformed the exhibition space of the Fisher Pavilion into an intimate theater setting. In this section called “Migracion” we experiment with the tarima (wooden foot drums from the Fandango music and dance tradition of Veracruz, Mexico), transformed into symbolic material we encounter through touch and feel. As we move with them, the tarima becomes drum, boat, land, stage; giving us new paths of access to our body’s hidden histories of land and language loss, migration, displacement, and resistance.
