As We Grieve
December 2023
Immersive ritual piece explores collective and personal grief
As We Grieve is a multi-media immersive ritual performance piece that explores collective and personal grief in relation to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Through mediating the creative practices of Dan Gorelick, Raya Ward, and Marie-Terese Png, Bekah worked with each artist to create a container for a cross-disciplinary experimental work grounded in relational grief and communal support between the artists. As a catalyst, the piece centered contact with physical/sensory symbols of Palestinian land such as pomegranates, olive branches, sounds of mediterranean ocean and birds. Through poetry written by Marie-Terese Png, grief rituals and movement exploration by Raya Ward and Bekah Badilla, and music exploration and video/sound by Dan Gorelick, the piece’s first public exhibit took place at the Paper Kraine theatre in Manhattan.
Text by Rebekah Badilla 2023