What We Crave

What We Crave explores the magic of gathering. Presented at the 2024 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art by Jess Dobkin, Laurel Green, Joyce LeeAnn, and Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan, What We Crave celebrates coming together through experiments and rituals in embodied archival practices, emphasizing presence and sensory experience. 

Together and separately, Jess Dobkin, Laurel Green, Joyce LeeAnn, and Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan have been contemplating, dreaming and scheming around the conjuring powers of memory, desire, and transformation.

What possibilities exist at the intersection of gathering, archives, personal and collective histories, and our deepest cravings? What happens when we honour the complexities of our diverse experiences, including discomfort, joy, and vulnerability? How do archives perform, and what alchemy occurs when we connect across difference? How do our layers swirl and blend together?

What We Crave was created in relation to Jess, Joyce, and Shalon’s ongoing collaboration as part of the Hemispheric Encounters’ Performing Archives Stream. Through this process they reimagine traditional approaches to the archive using their bodies, memories, and collective experiences as dynamic vessels for preservation and transformation.

Special thanks to Sasa Rajsic, Panni Ajtony and Van Gonzales from Hart House, Laura Levin and Tracy Tidgwell from Hemispheric Encounters, and student volunteers Sammi Herlich and Michelle Chimeddorj.

What We Crave was co-Presented by 7a*11d, Hart House at University of Toronto, and Hemispheric Encounters. See the 7a*11d website for artist bios and the full festival program.