Tierra

2022

A pair of hands hold out an open notebook to a page filled with handwriting titled, "My Story." Photo by Malcolm X. Betts and KAJE

Photo by Malcolm X. Betts and KAJE

An elder sits at a desk in front of a microphone, while a teen looks on.Photo by Malcolm X. Betts and KAJE

A teen and a visitor sit at a table together doing hand gestures. Photo by Malcolm X. Betts and KAJE

Four teens stand in front of a pink see-through curtain at the entrance of The Chocolate Factory Theater. Photo by Malcolm X. Betts and KAJE

TIERRA is a tea ritual and oral history project on land, embodiment, and self-determination. Collaborating with four teens from Girl Scout Troop 6000, a girl scout program specially designed to serve girls in the New York City Shelter system, Castro developed a care ceremony to enact the ingestion of land as an intimate ritual for two, a visitor and a teen.

Team

Created by Yanira Castro in collaboration with:

Girl Scouts Troop 6000: Creators and Facilitators of Tea Ritual

Creative Producer: Ariel Lembeck

Lighting Designer: Kathy Couch

Live & Interactive Sound Designer: Stephan Moore

Troop 6000 is a Girl Scout program specially designed to serve girls in the New York City Shelter System. Each week, Troop 6000 meets in shelters across the city. Troop meetings are facilitated by trained troop leaders—women also living in the shelter system paired with community-based volunteers—and give girls the opportunity to make new friends, earn badges, and see themselves as leaders in their communities.

Premiere

The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY, July 14, 2022

Presentations

The Chocolate Factory Theater, Queens, NY, June 4–11, 2023

Funding

TIERRA was made possible by a NYSCA Individual Artists’ Interdisciplinary Artist Commission made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Works