VASELINE

CREATED BY AMYRA LEON

VASELINE is a 60 minute multimedia performance piece based on 100 interviews with Black Women across the diaspora. Poetry, archives, visuals, music are intricately woven to bring the audience on a journey into the intergenerational complexities of Black Womanhood - our relationship to ancestors, the land & one another. Exploring the spiritual, mental, social, meteorological impact of slavery and the journey toward liberation.

“Discuss with me the

Birthing of a land

The way it gnaws at your insides

Before becoming soil

Turn tilt, breech knit

Into ties, umbilical tied

Tethered to a rib 

I forgot to count

 

How many ribs

Linger in the belly of the sea?

 

Breath a heavy resemblance

To an inescapable hunger

And the tendency to kill

 

Ain’t nature as violent as it is beautiful”

- Birth of Nation, Amyra Leon 2021

 The initial interviews were rooted in mourning & the resulting piece was one of great emotional, mental & spiritual exhaust. I want to make the piece more sustainable by incorporating new works based on new interviews and a series of wellness experiences.

I want it to feel as if hundreds of women are gathered on stage. I want to take the viewer to the forrest, the ocean, my living room, far beyond the limitations of the theatre. Film & photography will make this possible. I aim to build a vast multimedia landscape to expand the impact of the live performance.

I will use this opportunity to:

Curate community events for Black Women rooted in wellness and joy across the diaspora.

  • We will journey to the 9 Pulses of the Earth, the locations that “transferred” the most bodies during the Slave Trade.

    • Cape Coast Castle, Ghana 

    • Le Morne Brabant, Mauritius 

    • Gadsden’s Wharf, Charleston, South Carolina 

    • Island of Goree, Dakar Senegal 

    • Liverpool Maritime Mercantile , England 

    • Valongo Wharf, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    • Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

    • Royal Palaces of Abomey, Benin

    • Monticello, Charlottesville Virginia

  • Film new interviews

  • Community Forums

  • Gather Archives

  • Film visual landscapes and vignettes

  • Finalize score

  • Edit film

  • Finalize structure of the performance

  • Workshop performance with visual landscape

The events will be a place to gather, dream, and question. This creates a unique relationship with the audience in relation to the work and amongst themselves.

I know that with dedicated mentorship and the space to experiment, gather and process this work safely - I will be able to summon necessary entry points to this urgent message and align my artistic vision in a way that has not yet been possible.

So much of our history lingers beneath the tongue of the elders, in the laughter of a child, the soft hum of the wind, in a memory somewhere deep within seeking eager ears to listen and digest. They are calling us out by name, begging us to carry on the stories that make us who we are. It is this act of surrender and becoming that will lead us into a liberated future.

SUPPORT FOR VASELINE

  • Battersea Arts Centre Development Funding

  • Battersea Arts Centre Phoenix Award

  • Arts Council England

  • MCC

  • PBS AMERICAN MASTERS

GOALS

COMMUNAL

I want to connect women from across the diaspora through their stories. I will curate events rooted in wellness and meet with healers, organizers, youth, elders and families to summon sacred experiences for each community we film in. In doing so I will be able to bring together many different worlds within each community, hopefully expanding local awareness of resources and community support. When weaved together - we will have a collaged history of archives presented alongside the breathing history of women from around the world.

ARTISTIC

I aim to challenge myself to weave the mediums of my expertise to bring forth the untold story of our history and the path toward freedom. I want to build a multimedia experience to offer multiple entry points for the viewer to digest the tension and wonder of the work. I too want to use the visual landscape to support the live performance allowing the piece to be a malleable work to be used for varying cast sizes, locations, and languages. This will expand my experience as a community organizer, build new relationships with creatives around the world, share the intricacies of our individual and communal experiences whilst celebrating our culture and healing practices.

FINANCIAL: $500,000

This funding will be used to fund the following:

  • VASELINE, the film - to exist on its own and as a visual backdrop to the live performance.

  • Community events

  • Collaborator fees

  • Travel costs

  • Post production

  • COVID insurance

  • Location Fees

  • Time to workshop the live performance

  • Translators

  • Sign Language Interpreters

  • Accessibility Costs