WAIL by Candice d’Meza

Schedule:

Friday, April 28, 6-8:30pm

Location:

UH at Sugar Land/Sugar Land Instructional Site | Directions

Description:

WAIL is a film and ritual theater performance conceived and organized by multidisciplinary artist Candice D’Meza. This work honors the 95 individuals who labored and died on a state-sanctioned convict leasing camp between 1877-1912 in Sugar Land, Texas. Following the uncovering of unmarked remains in 2018, the film memorializes the individuals through community grief and ritual performance. The performance is informed by Black funerary traditions in the Antebellum South, the Dagara of Burkina Faso, the Bakongo of Angola, the Yoruba of Nigeria, and Haitian Vodou. This event will include a live performance by D’Meza and a screening of the film and will be followed with a panel conversation on the current work of activists and community organizers seeking to preserve the site of memory.

WAIL was commissioned as part of DiverseWorks’ Regenerative Land-Based Sounds and Spaces curatorial programming. This event is presented at the University of Houston at Sugar Land in collaboration with the Blaffer Art Museum and the Diversity Over Division Initiative.

Friday, April 28, 6-8:30pm

UH Sugar Land Campus

Parking validation is available to all event attendees.

6:00pm: Doors open and light refreshments served

6:15pm: Opening remarks and performance by Candice D’Meza

6:30pm: Film screening of WAIL

7:30pm: Panel discussion

8:15pm: Q&A

Image credits: Candice D’Meza, WAIL, film still, 2021. Pictured: Aria Hope, Stacey Allen, Candice D’Meza, Lindsay Gary, Saida Carter.