VWAYAJ
The Story
In Haitian Kreyòl the word “Lakou” carries multiple meanings: It is the backyard, the land passed down through generations, the gathering place for shared meals, for dancing, singing, worship or passionate debate. “Lakou” can also mean home, or the idea of home, the place that calls us back not just to sacred ground, but to a sense of belonging without which we are not whole.
The forces that drive Haiti’s reality – of neighboring countries in conflict, of sprouting tent cities and uprooted diasporas, of enforced borders and unforgiving natural disaster – echo and ricochet around the world. Across the European and African continents, along Turkish waters and stretches of Mexican desert, we are bearing witness to the experience to the loss of “lakou,” and treacherous journeys in which many are swallowed, and those who slip through face not only economic survival but a psychic void that is both collective and deeply personal.
VWAYAJ is an interdisciplinary production that meditates on the “lakou” and its loss in the Haitian imagination in a way that also speaks to a universal condition. Where can we find belonging? Where is home? Does it exist in the rhythms of Rara music and the undulating arms of Yanvalou?
The lead artists in VWAYAJ worked with MacArthur Genius Fellow and award-winning Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat as a collaborator and advisor to create the narrative that underpins and drives the production. Danticat worked with the artists to knit together stories of migration, immigration and home as recordings that are a part of the production’s soundscape created by electronic music artist Val Jeanty. An important touchstone in the production’s narrative is Jean Appolon’s own immigration story, as well as those of Haitian immigrants living in Boston. VWAYAJ’s development included a community outreach component with Boston social service organizations serving Haitian immigrants. These community members participated in master classes and conversations with Jean Appolon, and were invited to production rehearsals and performances.
“To me, Vwayaj felt like poetry in motion, bringing back and soothing the memories of adversities and victories in my biography as a Haitian immigrant to the U.S. Vwayaj also felt like a spiritual journey on wings of love, courage and beauty. I think it’s a must-see for each of us who has experienced migration — and who, as such, is often seen as “other.” In the midst of today’s virulent anti-immigrant campaigns, Vwayaj welcomes us in our new country — our new homes — and invites us to dissolve boundaries, so we can build and share community together.”
“Vwayaj speaks compellingly of our many journeys, both internal and external, many difficult—while simultaneously addressing the ways we are grounded, connected, and ultimately transnational. The type of tensions and questions explored in Vwayaj are ones that exist in real-time, making this piece of choreography an art of witness, as well as a catalyst for the important conversations we all need to have. Through its brilliant braiding of new music, new media, and contemporary and traditional dance in performance, JAE is doing the vital work of propelling Haitian dance into the future—and into the world.”
Gallery photography by Matt McKay. Header photography by Wayne Lake.