THEATRE

 

DEFOREST

This is the resounding chorus of the mourning families of all the trees who were murdered on their land.  Lives cut down; shortened before their time while the  leaflings stand aside and watch. They wear the trauma on their back.  These fallen trees were supposed to live a hundred lifetimes.  But their prehistory was reduced to nothing more than an abridged story we may never again share.  Here they lay. Pulled from their root.  They struggle to breathe.  The leaves fall. The wind moans.  The forest sings their hymn.  But no one can hear their pain. It seems their ballad will only fall on deaf ears.

Music: Tropic of Cancer by Panda Bear
*Screened at RWUL's 3rd Annual "I Luv Africa" Film Festival (GHANA 2015)

SUMMON THE STORM

The leaves are parched and the earth is broken.  And so it was somewhere between night and day when no one could see, that a spirit was sent to dance a storm into a brew.  This spirit pulled water up from the ground and conjured clouds out from a dry air.  Peacefully yet violently, a storm was summoned. So we were promised rain.  But we do not know how or when it will come.  For no one can predict the weather.

A Jamilla Okubo and Dexter R. Jones collaboration.  Designs & Movement by Jamilla Okubo Direction & Editing by Dex R. Jones
Music: Decollage by Balayeurs du Désert