"A Hekate Supper, Part 2 (Ecstasy/Return)"
Kay Turner activates the Grove by performing with invited artists and audience participants.
Sunday November 6, 3-5pm
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 (with Elizabeth Insogna) "Healing Persephone's Wounds" performance at the National Art Gallery in March 2021.
Participating artists:
Sirens: Moe Angelos, Liz Collins, Rebecca Goyette, Marie Honan, Liz Snyder
Medusas: Elizabeth Insogna, Sheila Pepe, Sue Schaffner
Tantric expressions: Katie Cercone
Gatekeeper: Melissa Estro
The setting for both performances, "Meeting at Trivium," was created by Leigh Klonsky, with Kay Turner.
The screen print "Hekate Was Here" was made by Candy Halikas, with concept and graphic signature by Kay Turner.
Kay Turner is an artist and scholar working across disciplines including performance, writing, music, and folklore. Since 2012 Turner's performance works and writing 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.
Candy Halikas, founder and co-creative director of Apocalypso 2, Salvaging Society’s Excess. A Mindful Forager of Surplus and Visual Provisions, she draws, designs and makes art in kolaj and in linoleum and screen printing.
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
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 welcoming audience participation.
Sunday Nov. 20, 3-5pm: Closing Reception. The artists offer a brief ritual at 5pm to close the Grove.