Gaudino Creative Residencies: Oral History Workshop With Artist Tsedaye Makonnen

The Gaudino Fund, Dance Dept, and WCMA present

Join visiting artist Tsedaye Makonnen for an in-person workshop and lunch exploring the topic of oral history. We’ll discuss the role of storytelling in her current project, Astral Sea, and you’ll find out more about how you can be involved. 

Astral Sea in Williamstown will highlight the ongoing world-wide violence inflicted upon folks who are actively being displaced from their homes while emphasizing the possibilities of resilience and survival. Each performance is a cleansing, a shaking, a crashing—meant to look and feel violent, yet cathartic, as the performers fall into a trance state, opening themselves to the spirits of those who have transitioned. This is about carrying all of the fracturedness of being Black across time and space, honoring the names and stories that have been drowned out, creating a feeling of resolve and healing through the violent yet hopeful reflection, based in Black spiritual practices. Makonnen’s intention is to co-author a project that is rooted in Berkshire history while creating contemporary connections with local Black and immigrant communities.

Tsedaye Makonnen is an interdisciplinary artist-curator and cultural producer. Tsedaye’s practice is driven by Black feminist theory, firsthand site-specific research, and ethical social practice techniques, which become solo and collaborative site sensitive performances, objects, installations, and films. Her studio primarily focuses on intersectional feminism, reproductive health and migration. Tsedaye’s personal history is as a mother, the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, a doula and a sanctuary builder.

Students Only. Registration Required – Sign Up Here!

Please contact Roz Crews, Associate Curator of Programs at WCMA (rc15@williams.edu), if you have any questions.