For the Depths of Us is the first in a series of works started by Audrey Di Mola and Chris Bisram, which is now being continued by Bisram and their Company Shakun Davi Dance. For the Depths of us is a metaphorical day-lighting through activism utilizing dance and storytelling as devices for spreading awareness of a buried body of water to audience members/participants. Through For the Depths of Us, participants walked Sunswick Creek, a body of water that has been redirected underneath concrete and into our sewage system. This body of water was once a vital part of the Astoria community and was once a marker for where Astoria ends and Long Island City started. The waterway provided food, water and was once a space for ceremony. By walking, dancing and story-telling along the pathway of Sunswick carved out by Visual Artist Mary Mist and Writer/Researcher Sergey Kandinsky we have brought back awareness to the waterway. We have created a project that even 4 years later is still being discussed and re-examined by Bisram, an Astoria/L.I.C/Queens based artist with community members.
This project has now become the inspiration for a series of works, where Bisram is examining, crafting and dancing with hidden bodies of water and the elements that are now inhabiting them. Through the usage of fine arts, film and dance bisram aims to create a project highlighting and discussing hidden bodies of water in the 5 Boroughs, starting with their home borough of Queens. For the Depths of Us and Sunswick creek has become a foundational element of their pedagogy and still informs their inquiries and ideaologies around water, industrialization and human impact on topography.
Language from The Works on Water Post:
What do pomegranates, an underground stream and things we've left in the dark have in common? FOR THE DEPTHS OF US.
In the late 1800s a body of water that ran through Ravenswood to the East River was buried underground to make way for increasing industrialization. What in us has been buried in the name of progress– what have we sent down into the dark? Kin To The Cove artists Christopher Bisram and Audrey di Mola lead a neighborhood performance-walk tracing the path of Sunswick Creek down to the Cove, woven with personal and collective mythologies in the form of dance, storytelling, song, and ritual. What can be recovered when we make the ecological practice of “daylighting” a stream, metaphorically? What can be found, inside us, out of the Depths?
Kin To The Cove's full day event in Astoria/LIC, Queens: June 25th 10-11:30am beach cleanup, communal altar creation, and opening ritual at The Cove (31st Dr & Vernon Blvd) with Blue Bus Project; 5pm we gather at 16 Oaks Grove (21st St & 37th Ave) to begin the performance-walk down to the Cove, followed by a 'Kindig' gathering as we move into sunset and nighttime.
June 25, 10 am beach clean-up and opening ceremony at the Cove
June 25, 5 pm FOR THE DEPTHS OF US, meet at 16 Oaks Grove in Ravenswood. The performance weaves storytelling and dance back down to the Cove.
Special thanks to dancers: Angela Eslava, Jennifer Vazquez, Graciela Morena, and Nicole Ulloa.