The Body Room

Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision

Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision was a "living museum" honoring the lives & visionary futures of Black, Indigenous & Immigrant Women of Color in America (BIWOC), set inside a historic former Women's Club in Western Massachusetts.
Throughout its  27 "Rooms of Cure", 20/20 Vision reclaimed BIWOC's experiences of initiation using ritual theatre & multimedia art shared over 10 live performances from August 13-17, 2021.
20/20 Vision was created in collaboration with over 65 Women of Color artists ages 3 to 75, and was witnessed by nearly 1000 audience members. Together we created a temporary living village of belonging, and embodied a more fertile, resilient & just future for all.

The Body Room

The Body Room is filled with figures who serve as ancestral women/mothers/caretakers who live within the walls of the spaces we occupy, giving us permission to fully be present and seen in the vast ways we have presented and cared for ourselves over time. “At home” in the body is represented in a couple of ways — one being the largeness of the bodies occupying space in positions that are open and exposed rather than closed. In addition, through representations of various body types and types of grooming, we celebrate both comfort in the body as is and as we shape it to be. In performance, the communion between occupant and ancestors comes to life in a ritual of self-care, an “exhale” and expression of love for the bodies that hold us.

Co-created by Tiandra Ray, Vivian Ho
Performed by Devyn Harris