This is how the forgetting begins. A child hears a song the adults of the daytime do not know, because the adults do not know it, they tell a child she is singing it wrong. So the child who can still hear the songs in The Great Symphony without needing to say the prayer folds the song away, deep in the back of her throat.
*
We are sick. We cannot undo what has made us sick. We cannot stay the same.
*
There is an old woman across the river.
She is made of sand and fire, carrying a child on her back.
I cannot reach her she has burned the river dry.
The mud is buried turned angry swallows rocks
and children who still believe in water.
*
This interactive meditation is an urgent search for the song folded in the throat of the child. Poets Vangile Gantsho and Toni Giselle Stuart, and filmmaker Vusumzi Ngxande present a 60-minute poetry and film performance, in the form of meditation, ritual and conversation. Working with the four elements, they explore our relationship to the past, asking, what must be remembered, in order to create new futures for us, especially in this moment of global uncertainty and change? The performance will include an interactive component.
Original Script – vangile gantsho & Toni Giselle Stuart
Poetry Performance – vangile gantsho & Toni Giselle Stuart
Videography – Vusumzi Ngxande
Sound Design – Vusumzi Ngxande
Film Directing, Editing & Producing – Vusumzi Ngxande