Cry You One

CryYouOne.com

Cry You One is an interdisciplinary project of the New Orleans-based companies ArtSpot Productions and Mondo Bizarro that uses the stories, music, dances and traditions of Southeast Louisiana to respond to our region’s interconnected struggles against coastal land loss, cultural loss, environmental racism and displacement.  It is a site-responsive performance and an online storytelling experience/platform that gives physical, oral and musical shape to the themes of our home: converging cultures, creativity in all its forms, human error, forced evacuation, living with water and the desire for permanence. 

Cry You One’s live, site-responsive performance premiered October 2013 in St. Bernard, LA to a sold-out five-week run. Jayeesha Dutta, then lead organizer for the Gulf Future Coalition, witnessed this 2.5 mile processional through the disappearing wetlands of St. Bernard, LA and was moved to envision a deep partnership with CRY YOU ONE. For 5 weeks during the Spring of 2014, CRY YOU ONE and the Gulf Future Coalition brought their unique strengths in grassroots community organizing and artistic visioning into concert across the 5 Gulf Coast states (TX, LA, MS, AL and FL).  The result was a series of cultural organizing salons that featured short performances of CRY YOU ONE, arts-based facilitation, story sharing, food and policy information sessions.  The salons created meaningful democratic engagement that integrated lived experience, scientific methodologies and policy responses. We witnessed in the salons a clear way in which, through arts-based facilitation, we could catalyze emotional engagement in the pressing environmental issues of our region, creating space for transformative action across race, class and sector. We used an art-centered approach to gather stories and information from frontline communities concerning what should happen with the the civil penalties paid (18.9 billion and growing) under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  These salons culminated in an event called the Gulf Gathering, where all five states shared their “Unified Action Plan for A Healthy Gulf” with community stakeholders, policy advocates and federal government officials.    

For more detailed information about the history of the project, including tour locations and stories from our community, please visit CryYouOne.com.

Collaborators

Director: Kathy Randels
Performers: Monique Verdin, Will Bowling, Rebecca Mwase, Joan Greene, Hannah Pepper-Cunningham, Pam Roberts, Lisa Shattuck, Zohar Isreal & Nick Slie
Music Director: Sean LaRocca
Designers: Jeff Becker & Melisa Cardona
Writers: Raymond “Moose” Jackson & Joanna Russo
Choreographer: Millicent Johnnie
Costumes: Bear Hebert & Laura Sirkin Brown
Culture Bearer: Monique Verdin
Stage-Manager: Rebecca McLaughlin
Digital Stories: Claire Bangser & Bruce France
Production Managers: Tracy Broyles & Alysia Savoy