Following a residency at Brighton’s Marlborough Theatre, ONCA is delighted to welcome Javier Stell-Frésquez – one of the artists behind Mother the Verb – to the gallery to share video extracts of the piece and discuss the themes of the work.

Mother The Verb is a performance with an air of ritual, fed by dance, text and video. Within a queer perspective, Javier and creative collaborator Ivy Monteiro propose a tender and complex study of the term and concept of motherhood. Denouncing the toxicity of post-colonial systems towards human relationships as well as towards the Earth, Mother The Verb expresses the possibility of a transfigured and redeeming relationship to motherhood.

“Because our nursing infants are at the top of the food chain, they inherit a body burden of industrial contaminants from our blood by way of our milk; thus are we part of the landfill, colonized.”
– Katsi Cook, Mohawk Native American Scholar and Midwife

You can see Mother The Verb at EcoFutures festival (4-19 April 2019), organized by CUNTemporary / Arts Feminism Queer. More info on http://www.cuntemporary.org

About Javier
Javier Stell-Frésquez (Piru & Tigua Native American from El Paso, Texas) is a performance artist and choreographer working with a variety of dance forms including flamenco and vogue. She produces Two-Spirit performance festivals and community events in SF Bay Area and holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Stanford University. Javier also facilitates discussions and workshops on decolonial equity frameworks and Indigenous Land Acknowledgments.

#MotherTheVerb #EcoFutures
IG: @hellatropikahl and @jfresquez