Every Step is a Prayer

Cara Mía Theatre’s Mellon Playwright in Residence Virginia Grise presented Talleres for Dreaming: Episode 4 livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Tuesday 29 March 2022 at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Every Step is a Prayer: An Interview with Sharon Day and Chas Jewett facilitated by Priscilla Solis Ybarra
Episode 4 of Da Grove: Un Taller for Dreaming

“I dream a world where the birds sing and the seasons change and the land, water, and wind are free and where reciprocity—not competition—is the value that structures our relations.” -Priscilla Solis Ybarra

In this interview, Dr. Priscilla Solis Ybarra (author of Writing the Goodlife: Mexican American Literature and the Environment) talks to Ojibwe Water Woman Sharon Day, founder of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, and organizer Chas Jewett, a Mni Coujou Lakota enrolled in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. As an environmental activist, Sharon has led 20 plus Water Walks since 2011, walking over 10,000 miles along the waterways of North America to offer prayers for the rivers. These extended ceremonies have occurred along the banks of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Cuyahoga, and Salt rivers. Her play, We Will Do It for the Water, produced by Pangea World Theater, weaves songs and prayers into a historical reflection of 10 years of water protection, from the Coldwater Spring in the Twin Cities to Standing Rock in North Dakota. Building on her father’s and grandfather’s generations of political actions, Chas was at Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock and shared her story in We Will Do It for the Water. In the last episode of this series, Priscilla, Sharon and Chas will discuss indiugeous art practice and how “body, mind, and spirit can become whole through time-honored Indigenous culture and practice.”

Da Grove: Un Taller for Dreaming is a Siembra Fellowship Commission, curated by Virginia Grise, produced by Cara Mía Theatre in association with a todo dar productions and Pleasant Groove, with the support of the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Communities Foundation of Texas through North Texas Cares 2.0.

About the Series
Facilitated by Cara Mía Theatre’s Mellon Playwright in Residence Virginia Grise, Talleres for Dreaming are performance labs that explore artistic and creative processes driven by the insurgent possibility of collective dreaming. Equal parts political study group, artist salon, community action committee, and theater, the talleres focus on embodied inquiry, facilitated conversations, curated gatherings, and art-making workshops that honor the lived realities, daily practices, rooted wisdoms, and embodied knowledge of local communities, culminating in a public performance and artistic provocations designed by taller participants.

In collaboration with a todo dar productions, Talleres for Dreaming are being developed at Cara Mía Theatre in Dallas Texas, with Books in the Barrio, Terra Advocati and Galeria E.V.A in San Antonio Texas, at Galeria Mitotera in South Tucson Arizona and at AAA3A in the Bronx, NY. This series of virtual artist talks, curated by Grise and edited by virtual technical director James Ruth, will feature guest artists from the talleres whose work centers Abolition, Liberation and Love as Art and Life Practice.

“I am interested in how we create ecologies of care in the face of state violence, how we dream when our communities are under attack and how we create spaces for movement, joy and celebration amidst all of it. As an artist, I want to craft and build spaces for collective dreaming.” -Virginia Grise

Land Acknowledgement
We would like to recognize the Native people whose ancestral lands are where Cara Mía theatre operates. We wish to acknowledgethe land of the Kickapoo (Kickapoo), Tawákoni, Wichita and Caddo people which is now called Dallas. Comanches and Kiowa have also lived in this region although it is not often recognized as their homeland. We acknowledge that Dallas is stolen land, and that this city was built with stolen labor. Cara Mía Theatre’s Da Grove honors the experience and cultures of Black, Indigenous and People of Color and we call for the unity and solidarity of all of our peoples in making a better world.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.