AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi
AiRos 頌恩 medill’s ZÌRÁN // 自然 | in {sharing} my solitude
Part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
metal. earth. fire. wood. water
grief. worry. joy. anger. wisdom
is a series of {7} gathered movements from songs that have come through to me since 2018 mapping my travel through the aftermath of remembering. i spent much time alone- recalculating-listening- expressing -& Billie Holiday's solitude played on repeat. i would greet the earth daily, witnessed & held. so now i share this ritual to be witnessed weaving in of others in rebuilding.
this iteration is the beginning of this sharing
Jamila Kekulah’s Lay Your Burdens Down: Commune
Part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
Prayer is the unseen labor that extends beyond time and location. Prayer wraps us up in wisdom, in love, in care, in concern, in protection; offered from the many souls who wish it so.
We begin in the lobby.
Prayer cards will be offered for you to extend a prayer/intention. They will be collected and read aloud in the collective.
(ex.1 For T.J experiencing difficulty | ex.2 for myself, in need of support…)
Collaborator: Isabelle Taylor
Music/Sound: “Spirit Call” (SAULT); “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Jacob Collier, John Legend, and Tori Kelly); “Agape” (Nicholas Britell); “Lay My Burdens Down” (Billy Preston); “Total Praise” (Sunday Service Choir)
Eshan Rafi’s you want to have a nice experience and it should make sense
Part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
Drawing on my practice of working with archives and image making, I assemble materials from ongoing research into the history and politics of the Indian subcontinent. The performance centres around the sensational pop song Boom Boom by Pakistani icon Nazia Hassan, released in 1982. I ask how popular cultural scripts and collective feeling offer the potentiality for pleasure and joy, and equally, nationalisms and fascisms. Through repetition, layering, and a/synchronicity, I search for how the body knows when it is implicated in slow violence.
Mentorship: Luiza Moraes
Live Sound: Erin Thomas
Performance & Artistic/Administrative Support: Ashwaty Chennat
Costume: Jeff Hancock
Thank you to my father Rafi Ahmed Khan for generously contributing to my projects, Connie Kang for political-emotional dramaturgy, Josh Chambers-Letson for invaluable feedback that made me feel seen, everyone at Dhamma Dena for situating me in community, landscape and political struggle, and the rocks in Joshua Tree, the unceded territory of the Chemehuevi, Serrano, Mohave and Cahuilla people, for thinking with me on composition.
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Artist Bios
AiRos 頌恩 medill is a yellow hapa nonbinary trans Taiwanese american circle keeper, care worker, storyteller, facilitator, bodyworker, and culture bearer who is moving to organize abundance in the ecology of home. AiRos practices with the 5 elements (water, wood, fire, metal, earth) to align bodies to heaven and earth in reciprocity and reverence of feeling and the distribution of energies. As part of the diaspora air has a lifelong practice of traveling, moving through and shifting culture.
Jamila Kekulah is ever evolving. They are a mover, an observer, a movement creator, a lifelong learner, and a deep listener of the body. Jamila is interested in investigating how we inhabit ourselves and each other in this human experience.
Eshan Rafi is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, expanded photography, and video. Their works deal with the intersection of political events and personal archives, often staging the impossibility of representation. Their work has been exhibited, performed, and screened internationally including at SummerWorks Lab, Toronto; Sharjah Film Platform; M:ST 9 Performance Art Biennale, Calgary; and neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin. Rafi holds an MFA in Art, Theory, and Practice from Northwestern University, Evanston.
Collaborators
Alyssa Vera Ramos (collaborator, ZìRán // 自然) (she/her/ella) is a Boricua devising artist, theatre director, cultural strategist, and blossoming intimacy director dedicated to dreaming and practicing a liberated world. Her artistic work includes shaping many collaboratively written, often participatory plays, and explores themes of reproductive and racial justice and getting in right relationship with ancestors and each other. Alyssa is a curator of Swarm Artist Residency and a student at La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón.
Crystle LiWayway Diño (collaborator, ZìRán // 自然) is a Pinay Chicago native guided by her passions in the visual, performance, and healing arts rooted in community and her cultural upbringings. She unearths herstory and investigates time, place, and relation by incorporating elements of the body, participation, and memory and by creating movement using repetition in patterns immersed in personal stories, collective experiences, and folklore. She practices as a folk art therapist, performance and visual artist, mover & dancer, cultural worker, and youth development worker. She embodies her freedom by training in Filipino Martial Arts and dance and utilizes the concepts of Chicago House culture of freedom, love, and empowerment, as well as the Babaylan consciousness as foundation and impetus for her practices.
This event is part of Links Hall’s 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works, two groundbreaking weekends of new performance and public events. Representing some of the most talented makers in Chicago from dance, performance art, installation, and performance as social practice, six artists present works developed while in-residence at Links during the 2023-2024 season. Featured artists include: Links Hall Residents AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi, and Fellows Najee-Zaid Searcy and Lani T. Montreal.
Additional Events in the 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works
June 22 | Spring Fellow: Lani T. Montreal
All Co-MISSION Festival of New Works attendees are invited to return to Links Hall after Lani T. Montreal’s June 22nd performance for a karaoke party! There will be food provided and drinks available at the bar.
June 23 | Spring Fellow: Lani T. Montreal
June 28 | Spring Fellow: Najee-Zaid Searcy
June 29 | Spring Fellow: Najee-Zaid Searcy
All Co-MISSION Festival of New Works attendees are invited to return to Links Hall after Najee-Zaid Searcy’s performance on June 29th to catch some vibes from DJ Kamarimou and celebrate the end of Links Hall’s season. Cruise into the summer with us as we get ready for what’s next in our journey.
June 30 | Fall Residents: AiRos 頌恩 medill, Jamila Kekulah, and Eshan Rafi
Links Hall's Co-MISSION residencies and fellowships are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.