3 RITES features three interactive performance rituals (rites) about life, liberty and happiness. The work
examines how are these rights protected and promoted in America, and how are they manifested in the body.
The rites can be performed individual or as a unit. 

​LIFE is a durational performance installation. On one side of the room, four people whose eyes are sealed shut, repetitively and blindly either wrap black plastic bags with thread to create “stones” which carpet the floor; or decapitate sunflowers and attach found objects to the stalk to create new “flowers”. At the completion of each flower the person performs a ritual dance.
​
On the other side of the room, the outlines of a mural by painter Mark Turgeon (which highlights images in nature and text by Vandana Shiva, Buckminister Fuller, and Ralph Emerson), is drawn onto the walls. The audience is invited to participate in coloring the mural. The audience also generates the music for the event by selecting vinyl records to play on a portable record player.

LIBERTY is an interactive installation comprising of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five roots, representing the year that legalized chattel slavery ended in America. The roots are made of paper and twine and dangle from the ceiling to the floor. The audience physically separates and moves through the roots to find open spaces containing reflections on liberty such as:

• Retablos with portraits and quotes by whistle blowers such as Edward Snowden and Marsha Coleman-Adebayo  
• A wall of TV monitors with video of civic protests in America
• Headphones with the American national anthem sung in a montage of languages
• A table where the audience can write on paper what liberty means to them, place their message in a glass bottle, and hang the bottle on a bottle tree.

 
The LIBERTY installation includes a performance by Edisa Weeks where she is connected like a puppet to objects that have informed the Black experience in America (bible, black dildo, blonde wig, light bulb, gun, watermelon). Alternating between white face, black face and visceral ritual dance, the work examines the pathologizing of African-Americans and how the ideals of liberty are upheld in America.

HAPPINESS investigates how does laughter, pleasure and contentment reside in the body. It features four dancers and commissioned music by Nathaniel Braddock. The evening culminates in a dance party with music played live by the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International which is lead by Nathaniel Braddock. Their sound is a combination of American Folk, Soukous, Highlife, and Rumba music.

​Before and during the performance of HAPPINESS, the audience can watch or participate in:

• Eating a meal
• Learning a line dance
• Having their hair embellished by Delirious Hair Designs
• Receiving a foot massage
• Getting a temporary gold tattoo

ROOTS PARTY

Roots Party is a making and conversation space, where you can engage in a conversation, enjoy a meal, and join multimedia artist Edisa Weeks in her journey of making 1,865 roots out of paper and twine. The roots will be a part of the 3 RITES: Liberty installation.