“A Hekate Supper”, Part 1 (Abjection/Separation)
Sunday, Oct. 30, 3-5pm
Kay Turner activates the Grove, performing with invited artists and welcoming audience participation.
In ancient Greece, so-called "Hekate Suppers" were held at crossroads where altars were made to Hekate and food offerings were made. With the help of audience participants, Kay Turner's task is activation of the grove through a participatory Hekate Supper ritual and performance, giving audience initiates a sense of Hekate’s singular vitality and energizing liminality. Her symbol-filled toolkit of epithets, torches, crossroads, keys, detritus, rot, ghosts, gold, fire, and food offerings is employed to provide access to the threshold of opposition and resolution where she sits in queer defiance of restrictive binaries and normative assumptions. Turner's " A Hekate Supper" follows from her "Healing Persephone's Wounds" performance (with Elizabeth Insogna) at the National Art Gallery in March 2021.
"Meeting at Trivium," the setting for today’s ritual performance, was created by Leigh Klonsky, with Kay Turner.
Hekate's Daimons (daimon, a supernatural power expressing the activity of the goddess) are portrayed by dance artists Danielle Kipnis, Emily LaRochelle, and Sarazina Stein. The choreography is based on certain of Hekate's epithets. Choreography by Danielle Kipnis, with Emily LaRochelle and Sarazina Stein. Concept and dramaturgy by Kay Turner.
Hekate’s epithets (names) are derived from scholarship on ancient Greek texts and were compiled by Rue Larkin, a Hekate follower based in Austin, Texas.
About the artists:
Kay Turner (Hekate’s Hierophant) is an artist and scholar working across disciplines including performance, writing, music, and folklore. Since 2012, in a series called What a Witch, Turner's performance works have revolved around an exploration of the witch figure in folklore and history. Her books include What a Witch: Before and After, with Zini Lardieri (2021); Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms, with Pauline Greenhill (2012) and Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women's Altars (1999). She taught for 20 years in the Performance Studies Department at NYU and is a past president of the American Folklore Society. Turner lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Austin, TX.
Danielle Kipnis (Hekate's Daimon) is a New York native and founder of Nazmo Dance Collective. When not choreographing and dancing, she teaches yoga and is earning her PhD in kinesiology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She and Kay collaborated on Grimm, fairy-tale themed dance works made by Kipnis and her collective in 2018-2019. www.nazmodancecollective.com
Emily “Emla” LaRochelle (Hekate's Daimon) is an NYC-based dancer and choreographer. Most recently she has performed with Nazmo Dance Collective, Sarazina Stein, Mindy Toro and Dancers, Kathleen Clark, KAKE Dance, and Fogo Azul, in venues around NYC, including Theater for the New City, PS122, Tada Theater, Triskelion Arts, Gibney Dance, Spoke the Hub, the Wild Project, CPR, and Arts on Site.
Sarazina Stein (Hekate's Daimon) is a queer dancer and choreographer from the Lower East Side. Her art focuses on themes of indulgence, beauty, and the embodiment of societal norms. Sarazina has performed throughout the city in works by Keigwin +Co., Ellen Kornfield, Bryan Strimpel, Delfos Danza, Mindy Toro, and Emily LaRochelle, and in two music videos. She has been presented at venues including LaMama, Abrons Arts, PS122, Skirball, 92nd StreetY, Triskelion, and Dixon Place.
Leigh Klonsky is an artist and art teacher living in Brooklyn. She has taught art & photography in the NYC public schools for 16 years. Her art practice is grounded in collage, using photographs, textiles, trash & natural materials to understand our relationship to nature.
More details on Hekate’s Grove here
Exhibition program schedule:
Saturday, Oct. 22, 6-8pm: Opening Reception. The artists offer a brief ritual at 7pm to open the Grove.
Sunday October 30, 3-5pm: "A Hekate Supper," Part 1 (Abjection/Separation). Kay Turner activates the Grove, performing with invited artists and welcoming audience participation.
Thursday, Nov. 3, 6:30-8:30pm: "Goddess Help Us: Why Art and the Goddess Matter Now". A panel discussion and Q&A with audience engagement. Panelists include Leah DeVun, Amy Hale, Elizabeth Insogna, Karen Heagle, and Kay Turner.
Sunday Nov. 6, 3-5pm: "A Hekate Supper," Part 2 (Ecstasy/Return). Kay Turner celebrates the Grove by performing with invited artists and welcomes audience participation.
Sunday Nov. 20, 3-5pm: Closing Reception. The artists offer a brief ritual at 5pm to close the Grove.