Earlier this month, the biennial Cohen New Works Festival kicked off in the Winship Building. Every two years, the department suspends all classes so that students and faculty can attend more than 30 new productions in this student-run, student-produced festival.

Along with Associate Dean Raquel Monroe, I had the great pleasure of seeing three new works that used the language of performance to explore historical events.

In La Liga de la Decencia, creator Jessica Peña Torres utilized comedy and cabaret aesthetics to talk about a complicated moment in Mexican political and cultural history in the period after World War II. Torres, a graduate student in Performance as Public Practice, explored this period in history with empathy, depth of analysis and so much humor.

In ZAZ: The Big Easy, M.F.A. in Dance candidate Ryan K. Johnson used dance and performance to explore the experiences of dispersed communities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The work also highlights the ways in which the resources of a nightclub, music and dancing become genuine fuel for the possibilities of community in the city after the hurricane.

And in ReSourced: Portals of Possibility, M.F.A. in Dance candidate Love Muwwakkil created a gorgeous, body-based work for the festival. The performance starts with a story about dolphins, only for the audience to realize the work is also addressing relationships between people and the ways in which bodies can reflect relationships in dance. The work demonstrates a powerful expansiveness of what small gestures can advance narratively.

I was also fortunate to attend the opening ceremonies, which included a keynote by Idris Goodwin, a playwright, breakbeat poet, content creator and arts champion. In his invitation to jump into the threshold of the theatrical experiment, to boldly explore the possible, he rehearsed the worldmaking power of the arts. Though I know I only scratched the surface of the rich diversity of programs offered throughout the week, I left each of these performances so inspired and excited to see what these creators and performers do next. These experiences reaffirmed the ways the arts advance possibilities, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Sincerely,