Events will take place at The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island. City.

View the show program.

I came here to weep is a performance and collective exorcism co-created with the public. It is a multimodal, interactive project made up of four participatory scores with corresponding materials and environments that examines U.S. territorial possession through the redaction, deconstruction and performance of absurdist colonial texts. The iteration at The Chocolate Factory Theater focuses on The Treaty of Paris 1898, which ceded the current colonies of Puerto Rico and Guam, and other territories colonized by Spain, to the U.S.

I came here to weep instigates audience assembly, transmission, and revenge and invites the public into multiple forms of witnessing and activating the work. Please see below for the list of events and how to RSVP.

Many of the events that comprise I came here to weep are free. Certain events are ticketed, with tiered ticket prices starting at $5, with a zero cost option available by entering code “weep” at checkout. Please select the ticket price that best represents your personal circumstances. We wish for these events to be accessible to everyone.

ACCESS
For access support for any of the events please contact: ariel@acanarytorsi.org.
All events on Thursday, June 8 include ASL Artistry.

The Chocolate Factory Theater’s street level performance space is fully wheelchair accessible. However, ADA bathrooms are not presently available.

OPENING EVENT
Sun, June 4
3-7 PM: Open Hours – Free
5 PM: Clearing Practice performed by devynn emory
7-9 PM: Communal Meal – Limited seating, RSVP HERE

+ Bring a phone or tablet and earbuds to access audio.

This Opening Event is a celebration. Come and open the space with us!

Open Hours is dedicated to the public’s independent exploration and activation of the project’s materials and participatory text and audio scores. Facilitators are present to support visitors’ experiences.

The communal meal is sancocho, a vegan dish made of tubers indigenous to the Caribbean, prepared by Yanira Castro. The meal is curated by Marielys Burgos Meléndez. Boricua guest artists and thinkers, Yarisa Colón Torres, José Troche, and Gabo Tomassini, share historical context about LAND occupation, and personal stories and art that depicts/embodies the complexities of belongings, self-determination and emancipation.

OPEN HOURS – Free
Wed, June 7 – Sat, June 10
3-7 PM
5 PM: Clearing Practice performed by devynn emory (June 7,8) or Martita Abril (June 9,10)
+ ASL Facilitator Thurs, June 8
+ Bring a phone or tablet and earbuds to access audio.

Open Hours is dedicated to the public’s independent exploration and activation of the project’s materials and participatory text and audio scores. Facilitators are present to support visitors’ experiences.

GROUP ACTIVATION – Limited Reservations
Tues, June 6 (Open Dress, RSVP HERE)
Wed, June 7 – Sat, June 10 (RSVP HERE)
7 PM
+ ASL Facilitator Thurs, June 8

Yanira Castro facilitates a group activation with the audience of the project’s participatory scores. Clearing Practice performed by devynn emory (June 7,8) or Martita Abril (June 6, 9,10).

CLOSING EVENT – TIERRA
Sun, June 11
1:30-6 PM (45 min per visitor): Tea Ritual – Limited Seating, SIGN UP HERE
7-9 PM: Communal Meal – Limited seating, RSVP HERE

I came here to weep concludes with a collaboration with four Boricua teens from Girl Scout Troop 6000. The teens and Castro developed a tea ritual and oral history project on land, embodiment, and self-determination. The teens perform a care ceremony to enact the ingestion of land as an intimate ritual for two, a visitor and a teen.

The meal is sancocho, a vegan dish made of tubers indigenous to the Caribbean, prepared by Castro. At this communal meal, teens from Girl Scout Troop 6000 share stories about land, and guide guests through gestures.

——–

Created by Yanira Castro Negroni in collaboration with Ariel Lembeck (Creative Producer, Open Hours Facilitator); Kathy Couch (Light); Stephan Moore (Live and Interactive Sound Design); Erica Ricketts (Audio Score Design); Martita Abril (Audio Performance, Clearing Practice); devynn emory (Clearing Practice); Marielys Burgos Meléndez (Rehearsal Direction for Yanira, Audio Performance, Meal Curation); Doris Reyes Archives (Styling for Yanira); Katie Dean (Graphic Design); LD DeArmon (Stage Management, Open Hours Facilitator); Brandon Kazen-Maddox (Hearing ASL Artist & Curator); Elizabeth Ramirez (Hearing ASL Interpreter); Marsellette Davis (Director of Artistic Sign Language); Gabo Tomassini (Guest Percussionist Opening Meal); Yarisa Colón Torres (Guest Artist Opening Meal, Poet & Ph.D. student, Puerto Rican and Caribbean Literature); José Troche (Guest Artist Opening Meal, Artist-Thinker, M.A. Puerto Rican Studies); Girl Scouts Troop 6000* (Tea Ritual and Closing Meal).

I came here to weep is made possible with support from Creative Capital and a NYSCA Individual Artists’ Interdisciplinary Artist Commission made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

* Troop 6000 is a Girl Scout program specially designed to serve girls in the New York City Shelter System. Each week, Troop 6000 meets in shelters across the city. Troop meetings are facilitated by trained troop leaders – women also living in the shelter system paired with community-based volunteers – and give girls the opportunity to make new friends, earn badges, and see themselves as leaders in their communities.