the dead teach me how to die by letting me wildly live

November 2  Saturday 3-9PM

An invitation to remember how we return our bodies to Earth. Kei Soares Cobb and Laura Brown-Lavoie call you to bring forward your knowledges of times before, flirtations with times beyond, and grief of the present toward a healing vision of death and burial. This two-day gathering features a performance-ritual by Laura Brown-Lavoie and Kei Soares Cobb, a gallery installation curated by Becci Davis, a conversation-circle of green burial practitioners and Earth-workers, and a night of ecstatic performances on the prompt “how to die” –– let us release our fear of turning to soil. Until then, let us wildly live.

Emergent Forest is a new non-profit organization based in Rhode Island, founded by Kei Soares Cobb and Laura Brown-Lavoie for the vision of planting sanctuary orchards, where people can return their own and their loved ones’ bodies to earth in a way that is ritually supported, ecologically intimate, and nourishing of future generations.

November 1 Schedule

5pm: Opening Reception and Gallery Show
Location: Lobby, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
Join us for the commencement of this multi-day gathering with a reception and opening of the gallery show, curated by Becci Davis (Department of Visual Art), featuring works by Jordan Seaberry, Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, and Brooke Erin Goldstein, Kei Soares-Cobb, and Laure Brown-Lavoie

7pm: THE DEAD
Location: Lobby, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
A ritual performance led by Kei Soares Cobb and Laura Brown-Lavoie, which will begin in the Lobby and process down to The Lindemann’s Performance Lab.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

3pm – 5pm: HOW TO DIE
Location: Lobby, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
A conversation circle on the topics of death, ritual, and green burial, with April Brown, Laura Brown-Lavoie, Andraly Horn, Viennia Lopes Booth, and Kei Soares Cobb. The conversation will be followed by a shared meal.

7pm: WILDLY LIVE — Performances from Providence’s most deadly artists
Location: Performance Lab, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
Performances of music and poetry by Providence’s most deadly artists, featuring Ceci Pineda, Early Shinada, Vatic Kuumba, Charlotte Abotsi, Justice Ameer, Franny Choi, and Lilly Manycolors. DJ set and dancing will follow to close out the gathering.

Registration is highly encouraged.