The Collective Womb

El Jardin del Paraíso, NYC, June 2024
601 Artspace, NYC, July 2024

The Collective Womb is a matriarchal creation story reframing abortion as an ecological redistribution of life-force. Staged on a large mound of dirt, the performance celebrates the macro-scale creative power of our planet and the micro-scale creative power of each individual womb. This existential power has long been a threat to patriarchal control, leaving fertile soils and reproductive bodies subject to similar forms of labor exploitation and micromanagement. In contrast to the long-standing image of a disembodied father-god moralizing human beings from the sky, the mother-goddess offers an alternative image of a terrestrial deity that is simultaneously nurturing, erotic, and deadly. This project taps into a queer mythological realm in which abortion is recognized as a natural part of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is in this space of joyful communal consciousness-raising that the boundaries between fiction and reality can be blurred, and a matriarchal worldview can slip into existence.

Read More in Hyperallergic: An Abortion-Oriented Cosmology Tale Debuts in NYC

Performers: Irisdelia Garcia, Misha Volf, Kiki Milner, Nic Koller, Teshale Nuer, Blaze Hubbell, Amanda Stambrosky, Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia, Federica Cuzzaniti, Raychel Ceciro, Logan gabrielle Schulman, Alexandra Neuman

Costuming by Lagoon New York (Amalya Meira & Logan Blagg). Lighting by Chris Ryan.

This project was made possible with the generous support of the Community Engagement Award and 601 Art Space.
Soil provided by Ciara Sidell of Randall’s Island Urban Farm.