3 RITES: Life, Liberty, Happiness by DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks is a trilogy featuring three interactive performance rituals that integrate dance, live music, text, visual installations, community discussions and shared meals to humorously and poignantly interrogate why life, liberty and happiness were included as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence. 3 RITES explores what the right to life, liberty, and happiness means today, who has access to these rights, and how they manifest in the body.

The Liberty rite begins with an installation of roots made out of paper and twine that hang from the ceiling to floor. The audience moves through the maze of roots to eventually meet the Liberty character (Weeks), whose hair is braided to resemble the Statue of Liberty’s crown. Each spoke of the hair crown is connected via tie-lines and pulleys to specific objects, (Bible, black dick, blonde wig, gun, lightbulb, sneakers, watermelon) that represent the Black experience in America. In this rite, Weeks alternates between black face, white face, storytelling and visceral dance to dig into the pathologizing of African-Americans and the foundations of Liberty in America.

This performance contains mature themes and potentially triggering content about psychological and sexual violence. Not appropriate for children under the age of 13.

We invite you to join a town-hall style conversation with Restorative Justice Facilitator Nicole Lavonne Smith-Johnson after the performance in the theater to provide a moment of communal digestion. What is resonating with you after experiencing the Liberty rite? What are ways to enact change in your communities? Learn more about the facilitator.