I need you to be wild/loud, so I can be calm/quiet, I need to be calm/quiet, so you can be wild/loud.

I need you to be wild/​loud, so I can be calm/​quiet, I need to be calm/​quiet, so you can be wild/​loud invites viewers to participate in an afternoon of performance art exploring the inheritance and futuring of cultural legacies. Situated at the intersections of migration, diaspora, and queerness, these artists place cultural heritage at the forefront of their practices, to explore themes of interiority, contradiction, inheritance, and shame. They consider what it means to embrace and reject inherited traditions. By expanding cultural legacy through chosen family, mentors, and role models, their work aims to create new knowledge and legacies. There will be a post-performance Q&A session to help untangle the themes and encourage a dynamic exchange between the artists and the audience. This discussion will not only highlight the individual performances but also explore their broader cultural and social implications.

Curator: Emerson Granillo
Performing Artists: Marco Guagnelli & Jeremy Thal, Jennifer Harge, and Emerson Granillo
Illustration: Stephanie Tyson Osorio
Moderator: Pau Nava

Marco Guagneli & Jeremy Thal: I Left Whispering Slowly

Created three months after Marco Guagnelli migrated to the United States from Mexico, I Left Whispering Slowly aims to illuminate the metaphoric and embodied experiences of personal loss, understood through the lens of geographic displacement, and their impact on the construction of social memory and cultural identity. The installation explores the concept that a garment can be both a place and a sculpture, and the performance embodies the idea that the body carries with it geographies and people.

In the United States, Marco grapples with translating his words, memories, and identity and defining both the context of his work and his position within it. This piece is a tribute to the essence of this country: a land of immigrants, and a reiteration of finding a sense of belonging by honoring memory and identity.

Jennifer Harge: a clearing

a clearing is an experimental fable honoring Black women’s self-sovereignty. It is an interwoven tale of two characters, Nyeusi and Elder. Nyeusi, a Sankofa bird from The River and Elder’s child from another lifetime, returns to Elder in a dream to teach her how to release shame from her body in order to fly. Spanning all four seasons across Detroit landscapes, Nyeusi’s journey lingers inside the mundane to declare a world in which Black women can be. Her slow, unbothered pacing becomes a blueprint for asserting peace in the body — also known as flying. 

Emerson Granillo: Ni aqui, nor there, are you bound?

Ni aqui, nor there, are you bound? delves into the duality of existence as a queer immigrant. Emerson combines footage from their travels in Guatemala with a physical struggle to move a box filled with items from their life in the United States. This symbolizes the constant navigation required of an immigrant — exploring new terrains while carrying the weight of their past on a quest for belonging.

Emerson navigates life as a queer individual, constantly moving and adapting in the United States. In Guatemala, they are the child of a religious household, facing different expectations and constraints. Through the interplay of video and performance, Emerson reflects on the lessons learned throughout their journey: questioning, seeking help, and finding their place in both worlds.