Acknowledgments 2022 (revelations of life) is a performance and participatory practice that illuminates works in the installation Acknowledgments 2022. The artist uses a historical frame of reference to engage parallel narratives within the present, more specifically calling attention to the current epidemic of missing and murdered BIPOC women, girls, trans + GNC beings. The performance will consist of a brief introduction to the works, a breathwork practice, live sound, and a guided meditation. Guests are invited to contemplate the root causes of how the missing go missing, and through collective gathering co-create a space that holds shared connections and intentions for a more liberated and integrated now.

*Breathwork is the practice of conscious and controlled breathing that supports the nervous system and is used for therapeutic, relaxation and meditation purposes. The 4/4/4 breathwork practice is used as a tool to de-escalate heightened and polarized emotions, easing feelings of panic, anxiety and overwhelm.

Participation is encouraged. Seats and cushions for comfort will be provided. The space is also ADA accessible. Come as you are.

This performance and participatory practice coincides with the 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition blossom soup, blossom salad, and is co-organized by Yani aviles, Macie Stewart, the Department of Art Theory and Practice and the Block Museum at Northwestern University.
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Yani aviles (b. Canarsie Territory, Lenapehoking | Brooklyn, NY) is a transdisciplinary artist whose practice is a form of medicine making. They research and write to interrogate notions of freedom, identity and crisis, and create contemplative installations and conceptual works that decolonize the production and dissemination of knowledge. Born into a working poor/working class Borikua | Puerto Rican family of Indigenous (Taíno), African and Iberian descent, their practice confronts issues of belonging and seeks to integrate complex trauma of oppressed subjectivities. They engage non-western spiritual epistemologies, ritual methodologies, embodied awareness and storytelling as a reflexive strategy to present possibilities of healing and liberation for all beings. Yani’s work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York and Berlin, at venues including Adds Donna and New Capital Projects, The Institut für Alles Mögliche, among others.

Macie Stewart (she/they) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer/arranger, songwriter, and improviser based in Chicago, IL who Downbeat Magazine calls “a master of equilibrium.” Stewart began her musical career at the age of 3. Learning piano while she learned to talk, she discovered two foundational modes of communication at once. As the daughter of a career musician (pianist Sami Scot), Stewart was encouraged to explore the piano and violin, and she became proficient on both instruments. After helping to found the Chicago bands Kids These Days and Marrow, Stewart broadened her interests and spent time in the avant-garde jazz scene, performing regularly at Chicago institutions Constellation and The Hungry Brain. It was in that scene Stewart distinguished herself as a go-to collaborator, co-founding the band OHMME (with Sima Cunningham) and performing and improvising with Ken Vandermark’s Marker ensemble, the improvised act The Few (with guitar player Steve Marquette and bassist Charlie Kirchen) and the violin/cello duo Macie Stewart & Lia Kohl. Stewart has toured as a multi-instrumentalist with bands such as Japanese Breakfast, The Weather Station, and Tweedy. Stewart has also spent years working as a string arranger, drawing on her varied background in classical, jazz, and Irish folk music to create unique arrangements for artists such as the band Whitney, SZA, V.V. Lightbody, Knox Fortune, and many others.

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Tags: Acknowledgments 2022 (revelations of life), Block Museum, blossom soup blossom salad, Evansston, MACIE STEWART, Yani Aviles