I came here to weep

2023

An audience lounges on a platform covered with Puerto Rican beach towels and strewn with black and white lawn chairs. Photo by Maria Baranova.

A performer is standing with her legs widespread on a concrete platform. She pulls her pants up and has a pained expression on her face. The audience is in the background. Photo by Maria Baranova.

An audience member wearing a yellow papier-mache mask with multiple eyes drawn on it, places their palm on their chest. Photo by Maria Baranova.

An audience member dressed in revolutionary flags holds up both arms triumphantly. In one hand they brandish a flag. Photo by Maria Baranova.

A performer dressed in red from head-to-toe and wearing a red mask with sharp points, stands in front of a billowing pink curtain outisde of a large rolling gate. Photo by Brian Rogers.

A group of people are gathered around two long communal tables. String lights hang above them and the tables are set for supper. Photo by Brian Rogers.

Two people at the end of a communal table are speaking. One is holding a microphone and gesticulates and the other listens. An audience is seated around them. Photo by Brian Rogers.

Thirty-two yellow papier-mache masks with black eyes drawn on them are hung on a white brick wall. They are lit by fluorescent lights radiating around them. Photo by Yanira Castro.

Photo during Open Hours. A person dressed in the revolutionary flags of the project holds up a white paper cone to speak into it. Photo by Yanira Castro.

Photo during Open Hours. A person wearing a yellow papier-mache mask with black eyes drawn on it is seated on a concrete platform speaking into a microphone. Photo by Yanira Castro.

A performer dressed in red and wearing a large, red mask with sharp points covering the front with long tentacles at top, raises their arms and moves through a pink curtain. Photo by Brian Rogers.

Four teens stand outside on the sidewalk. A pink curtain floats in front of them. Photo by Ariel Lembeck.

Two visitors sit across from two Boricua teens of Girl Scouts Troop 6000 at a small table. They are engaged in conversation and shared gestures. Photo by Ariel Lembeck.

“a canary torsi’s I came here to weep, a collective awakening, the meeting of a performance cult, a shelter-building exercise for strangers, leaves the closing night audience for ODC Theater’s State of Play Festival 2023 in a stunned silence.”

— Jen Norris for Jen Norris Dance Reviews, “State of Play 2023, Yanira Castro/a canary torsi: I came here to weep, ODC Theater, Aug 13”

“…one is left to grapple with how assemblages brought together in the span of live performance do relate to a broader context. We readily agree to confront, embody, and undo, but the enormity of historical meaning hovers melancholically out of reach.”

— Sariel Golomb in Medium, “A Revenge Score for Americans in Yanira Castro’s ‘I came here to weep’”

I came here to weep is a multimodal, interactive project enacted by the public. It is made up of participatory scores with corresponding materials and environments that examine U.S. territorial possession through the redaction, deconstruction and performance of absurdist colonial texts.

We are developing this project as an iterative platform that investigates the complex relations of citizenship vis-à-vis Borikén (Puerto Rico) and the United States. In 2023, we premiered the first iteration that focuses on The Treaty of Paris 1898 via which the U.S. took possession of Spanish colonies including Puerto Rico.

I came here to weep proposes audience assembly, transmission, and revenge and invites the public into multiple forms of witnessing and activating the work. Those modes are: Open Hours dedicated to the public’s independent exploration of the project’s scores and environments; Group Activations/collective performances with Yanira Castro; Communal Meals with invited local Puerto Rican artists/activists/thinkers; and a Tea Ritual developed with local Puerto Rican teens.

This visual PDF describes the project in further detail.

Team

Created by Yanira Castro Negroni in collaboration with:

Creative Producer: Ariel Lembeck

Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch

Live & Interactive Sound Designer: Stephan Moore

Audio Score Designer: Erica Ricketts

Soloists (Clearing Practice): Martita Abril, devynn emory

Audio Performers: Martita Abril, Yanira Castro, Marielys Burgos Meléndez

Rehearsal Director for Yanira: Marielys Burgos Meléndez

Doris Reyes Archives: Styling for Yanira

Graphic Designer: Katie Dean

Stage Manager: LD DeArmon

Communal Meal Curator: Marielys Burgos Meléndez

Communal Meal Guests: Gabo Tomassini (Percussionist); Yarisa Colón Torres (Poet & PHD Student, Puerto Rican & Caribbean Literature); and José Troche (M.A. Puerto Rican Studies)

Girl Scouts Troop 6000*: Creators and Facilitators of Tea Ritual

* Troop 6000 is a Girl Scout program specially designed to serve girls in the New York City Shelter System. Each week, Troop 6000 meets in shelters across the city. Troop meetings are facilitated by trained troop leaders—women also living in the shelter system paired with community-based volunteers—and give girls the opportunity to make new friends, earn badges, and see themselves as leaders in their communities.

Premiere

The Chocolate Factory Theater, Queens, NY, June 4–11, 2023

Presentations

SUNY Old Westbury, Campus Center Atrium, Old Westbury, NY, November 30, 2023

ODC Theater’s State of Play Festival, San Francisco, CA, August 12–13, 2023

Emily Johnson & Karyn Recollet’s Kinstillatory Mappings in Light & Dark Matter at Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY, July 20, 2023

Press

Interview with Ivan Talijančić in Imagining: A Gibney Journal, Issue 13, “I came here to weep: a conversation with Yanira Castro”

Jen Norris for Jen Norris Dance Reviews, “State of Play 2023, Yanira Castro/a canary torsi: I came here to weep, ODC Theater, Aug 13”

Sariel Golomb in Medium, “A Revenge Score for Americans in Yanira Castro’s ‘I came here to weep’”

Funding

The creation of I came here to weep was made possible, in part, by a commission from The Chocolate Factory Theater.

I came here to weep was also made possible by the generous support of Creative Capital; a NYSCA Individual Artists’ Interdisciplinary Artist Commission made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

The development of I came here to weep was made possible, in part, with artist residencies at MacDowell, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Temescal Art Center, and multiple rehearsal and production residencies at The Chocolate Factory Theater.

Video

Works