What We Crave

As part of the 7a11d International Performance Art Festival, Jess Dobkin, Joyce LeeAnn, Laurel Green and Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan host What We Crave, where we explore the magic of gathering. We celebrate coming together through experiments and rituals in embodied archival practices, emphasizing presence and sensory experience. Together and separately, Jess, Joyce, and Shalon have been contemplating, dreaming and scheming around the conjuring powers of memory, desire, and transformation. 

What possibilities exist at the intersection of gathering, archives, personal and collective histories, and our deepest cravings? What happens when we honor the complexities of our diverse experiences, including discomfort, joy, and vulnerability? How do archives perform, and what alchemy occurs when we connect across difference? How do our layers swirl and blend together?

All images by: Henry Chan

BIOS

Jess Dobkin (Canada/USA) has been an artist, curator, community activist, teacher and mentor for more than 30 years. Her practice extends across theatres and galleries, art fairs and subway stations, international festivals and museums, universities and public archives.  

Joyce LeeAnn (USA) is an interdisciplinary artist, a certified archivist, and the founder of Archival Alchemy®, a small business that supports self-determined individuals and inquisitive visionaries to creatively revisit the past in order to map their way forward.

Laurel Green (Canada) is an artist, researcher, and interdisciplinary collaborator who creates invitations to participate and provocations for change. She is a nationally-recognized dramaturg and producer with over a decade of practice in the creation of new performance.

Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan (Canada) is a writer, artist, curator, and performance art scholar. She is a member of the Toronto Performance Art Collective. Her writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, Performance Research, Comparative Media Arts Journal, C Magazine, and other publications.