"Roots Parties are a making and conversation space" - Edisa Weeks
Since 2017 DELIRIOUS has been hosting Roots Parties, where Edisa invites people to join her in the journey of making 1,865 roots out of paper and twine for the Liberty installation. Each root is between 8 to 30 feet long, and hang from the ceiling to the floor to create a maze that the audience walks through, as if walking through the underbelly of American history, to eventually meet the Liberty character.
A Roots Party are like a mash-up between a sewing bee and barbershop talk, where people can make roots, enjoy a meal prepared by a BIPOC owned restaurant or caterer, and participate in a community discussion connected to liberty in America. A Roots Party generally lasts for four hours. Children are welcome and people are free to come and go as they please.
Discussion topics have included:
Closing Rikers: Mass Incarceration and Prison Reform (BRIC, Brooklyn, NY)
Legalizing Marijuana (Spaceworks at Williamsburg Public Library, Brooklyn, NY)
What’s In Our Hands: Financial Empowerment and Responsibility /supporting local businesses and credit unions (RestorationART, Brooklyn, NY)
Embracing Joy: Tapping into childhood play, laughter and joy as radical acts of liberty, resistance and wellness (Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY)
Healing Spaces: Creating all-body loving, liberatory practices of care (RestorationART, Brooklyn, NY)
Food Deserts (Geneva Public Library/Hobart and William, Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY)
Click image to watch a short 5 minute documentary by Chadwick Creative about a Roots Party at Williamsburg Public Library in collaboration with Spaceworks. Brooklyn, NY. photo: Julie Lemberger
photos by: Alex Bershaw, Chris Cameron, Rebecca Fitton, Julie Lemberger
A HUGE THANK YOU to the Many, MANY hands who have made a root!