On March 18, 2023 we breathed in a new Spring. We joined the San Anto: Un Taller for Dreaming cohort as they offered seven ways to acknowledge, give thanks to the Land, before we shared a meal and conversation together. We were invited to spend the first 45 minutes of our evening, in a silent walking meditation with Confluence Park, to listen to the Birds, the River, the Water running, the sound of our own Breath and Heart. We were invited to reflect on what we needed to let go of, release, to make space for Growth?
We share with you the 7 Land Acknowledgements and invite you to join us as we honor the Land.
Land Acknowledgements:
Touch the Earth. Walk on dirt with feet bare, or... Put your hand on the Earth or... Put your forehead to the Earth or... Put your ear to the Earth. However you choose to, touch the ground, connect with the Earth, Body, Tierra, Breath, for at least three seconds before you do anything else tonight. And Listen.
Listen to the Birds. There are several benches in the Pollinator Garden. Take at least five minutes to sit with intention and attention to the Birds singing.
Listen to the Water. The parabolas in the park’s pavilion were designed to magnify the sound of the Water. Walk around the space, follow the lines in the concrete, until you find a place marked with an X where you can most clearly hear the River down below. Take at least five minutes to Stand with the River.
Send a Message to the Water. Built in collaboration with Nature, the concrete structures shaped like umbrellas and calla lilies are actually Water catchments that collect Rain Water like a Flower in Nature. There is a model that shows how the Water flows into a huge underground cistern below us. Go to that model. We will pour Water in your hands. Call the River by its original name Yanaguana. Hold the Water until you have a message to send with it. Yanaguana. Whisper it in your hands. Yanaguana. Then release it.
Sing with the Water. One of the cohort participants shared that her tia was always singing to the Water. Walk down to the river, stand next to it, or listen to it from the top of the stairs, its rhythm, its movement, its song. Add your voice to it, with it, sing to the River out loud.
Trust the Earth will hold you. We are walking a camino together, this journey, Life. Lydia Li has offered to teach people how to massage their own feet. Thank your body, thank the Earth, for carrying you here today.
Plant Seeds. Think about what Seeds you are planting and what you will plant this Season, the ways you will nurture those Seeds, imagine the Root Systems taking shape, the labor it takes to grow, the harvest and its bounty. There is a Seed Library near the Pollinator Garden. Take some Seeds home with you. Plant your own Garden.
San Anto: Un Taller for Dreaming is a performance lab that explores artistic and creative processes driven by the insurgent possibility of collective dreaming. The 5 month taller included guest workshops by innovative artists whose work is deeply rooted in radical imagination and convivial practice, including LA based set designer Tanya Orellana, artivist Karla Kopalli, theatre maker Virginia Grise and world renowned ceramist and cultural worker Veronica Castillo. The taller focused on the study of land, ecology and autonomy through facilitated conversations, curated gatherings, and art-making workshops that honor the lived realities, daily practices, rooted wisdoms and embodied knowledge of local communities, culminating in a celebration of the 2023 Spring Equinox.
A project of a todo dar productions, created in collaboration with Books in the Barrio, Galeria E.V.A and Terra Advocati, and funded in part by an individual artist grant from City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Urban Bird Project, San Antonio River Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons.