Public Program: Works-in-Progress | Ancestral Wisdom

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Works-in-Progress presents an evening of free performances exploring lineage, survival, and cultural inheritance through experimental and interdisciplinary works. Featuring whatitisliketobealive and She Wasn’t Looking Beautiful Tonight, the program engages with themes of nurturance, resilience, and the ongoing influence of marginalized communities in shaping contemporary culture. Light refreshments will be provided.

This event is the Public Program for the exhibition Ancestral Wisdom on view at the Longwood Art Gallery (now located at BCA HQ) through April 30, 2025. Learn more here: https://www.bronxarts.org/programs/connector/longwood-art-project/longwood-art-gallery
 

Performance Details:

whatitisliketobealive

Performed by: asmara and Penelope Montilla

Length: 30 minutes

Description:
This experimental performance combines original film, poetry, song, choreography, and theatrical performance to investigate and present the feeling of being a living thing/ nurturer of life in a society so intent on death/the threat of dying.

Deep in dirt, deep breath in water

you may be an ungrateful child

your being is sealed

Her daughter

_______________

She Wasn’t Looking Beautiful Tonight

Performed by: The Ballroom Arts Collaborative

Length: 20 min

Description:

Reach back to the night that inspired the creation of Ballroom to understand the future of queer and trans survival in the current political and social context. By underscoring the influence of ballroom in popular culture, She Wasn’t Looking Beautiful Tonight traces how despite the marginalization of queer and trans people of culture, their influence is truly universal. In a world where top-charting pop artists now explicitly reference vogue culture and dance, what does it mean to honor the ancestral wisdom of Ballroom’s origins? In this mixed-media performance, the use of vocal performance, projection, archival footage, original choreography, costume design, and internet references juxtaposes secrecy to exposure, popularity to marginalization, and self-deprecation to arrogance and places each of them in a journey of birthing the modern Ballroom community.