Nia Witherspoon’s new work, Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Star Temple + Wisdom School is a ritual-opera and a temple that merges African traditional religious approaches to healing and Black feminist theologies to both envision and enact a more evolved world through embodied experiences. By centering all radical forms of Black femme agency across time, including dreamwork, coming to voice, creative expression, sacred sexuality and gender affirmation, Priestess of Twerk takes witness-participants on a journey populated with glorious music, spell-casting choreography and their own personally tailored guidance throughout the piece, teaching the inter-relationship between Black Femme health and the health of our planet.
Priestess of Twerk is a ritual re-telling of ancient Egyptian goddess Isis’ journey to the underworld, told through the lens of contemporary Black feminist text, The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, and narrated by The Mothermind, the collective consciousness.
Commissioned, developed and produced by HERE Artist Residency Program.
Priestess of Twerk can be experienced in two ways:
After a unique divination experience during their ticket purchase, audiences on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will be guided into a functional temple to participate in a 4-hour long ritual opera event that places them in one of the temple’s seven chambers. Here, they will take part in intimate experiences with the priestesses of the temple that include twerk meditations, radical runway processions, sonic journeying, sacred partying and an array of cleansing, grieving and praying rituals. The temple’s seven chambers are: Death, Birth, Erotica/Warrior, Inner Child, Voice/Naming, Dream and Love. All of these elements are woven into the larger ritual-opera that journeys along with Isis, her twin sister Neb-Het, Queen of the Underworld and The Mothermind.
Audiences on Wednesdays and Thursdays will experience a two-hour Song Circle of Priestess of Twerk that highlights music from the ritual-opera inside participatory communal ceremony. Song Circles call us to use our voices in community as a way to heal, to ask and answer questions and to remember our gifts and collective power. They also allow us to step into joy, embodiment, praise and a little twerk!
