Help Us Transform A Racist National Monument

THE HAUS

OF GLITTER

PUBLIC STATEMENT: NOVEMBER 2022

With mixed emotions, we want to publicly announce that on Nov 1, 2022 we ended our residency + occupation in the former home of Esek Hopkins, commander of the slavery ship “Sally.” This sacrifice felt necessary to disentangle our housing from our activism and ensure that the conversation around the Esek Hopkins Homestead + Park would stay focused on the new plaque + next steps to transform this racist national historic site.

While moving out of the park has been overwhelming, vulnerable, painful and full of grief, we remain grateful for our community for showering us with love, generosity, and creativity during our three years living in the park. We don’t know who we would be without the beautiful art we created together over the last three years and we could not be more proud. The park’s history and trajectory has been changed forever by our community’s creative historic intervention and we have been changed forever by this experience.

It feels liberating to no longer be living in the park and at the same time, we still feel incomplete. We plan to hold ceremony + ritual in early 2023 so that we can feel grounded in this transition and invite our community to step into a new chapter of advocacy, accountability, healing, creation and transformation with us. Until then, we intend to rest, reflect, recuperate, and focus on finding new housing + a safe space for our costumes, instruments, set pieces, technology, art supplies and of course, all of our glitter. As we put ourselves back together and figure out our next steps during this time of displacement, we ask for your thoughts, prayers, deep loving breaths and support.

We have launched a platform to support The Haus of Glitter at patreon.com/thehausofglitter. When you sign up to make a monthly donation to our patreon, you are supporting our transition out of the park; our housing search; our Heal Esek Hopkins initiative; our activist dance opera; as well as our new chapter of creative justice practice. We need all the help we can get!

Here are some other ways you can support our glitter family during this time of need:

SEND OUR PATREON to folks in your network who believe in creative justice
EMAIL US if you know of an empty house or free/subsidized housing this winter
BUY OUR MERCH as gifts for friends and family at www.hausofglitter.org/support
SIGN OUR PETITION at www.HealEsekHopkins.com + wear our shirt + spread the word
CONNECT US with folks across the nation + globe who might be interested in bringing The Haus of Glitter to host a workshop, artist talk, retreat, residency or performance

We know that this is a moment for us to break open; and we are more determined than ever to fight for this racist national monument, as well as the middle school and statue in Hopkins’ name, to be transformed. As artists, we are living and creating beyond what we could have dreamed of and we couldn’t be more grateful. We can’t wait to dance with you again.

With Love & Justice,

The Haus of Glitter

OUR HISTORIC INTERVENTION

From Dec 2019 - Nov 2022, The Haus of Glitter was living in + healing with + reimagining the former home Esek Hopkins, commander of the slavery ship "Sally" (built in 1756). During this time, we worked to heal + transform the space to create work that investigates lineage; and restores the energetic center of its layered history towards Queer/Feminist BIPoC Wisdom, Healing, & Liberation. Everything we have created + will create here is a protest-demonstration against the system that tells us that Esek Hopkins’ home, a symbol of his legacy of white supremacy, is worth preserving.

This residency was made possible thanks to a 2-year PARKIST Artist Residency with The City of Providence Department of Art + Culture + Tourism & Parks Department.

THE HISTORIC HAUS OF GLITTER PERFORMANCE LAB (2019)

THE ESEK HOPKINS HOMESTEAD (1756)

NARRAGANSETT + WAMPANOAG (Forever)

"BOUNDARIES"

Photos: Rey Londres

(above) this plaque, on the front exterior of the homestead, is missing some information
(below) this depiction of colonization, attached to a granite boulder in front of the homestead, shows two indigenous figures presumably standing on the coast of present day RI. Seemingly approaching the coast, are some colonists - one appears to be reaching out their hand while the indigenous figure holds their palm face out.

OUR PARKIST RESIDENCY

When we say “historic restoration”, whose restoration are we referring to? This research-to-performance project is part of a two-year “PARKIST” Artist Residency with the Providence Parks Department & The Department of Arts + Culture + Tourism at the Historic Esek Hopkins Homestead (built in 1754) and Park. In solidarity and collaboration with our community, we are creating work investigates lineage; and to heal and shift the energetic center of this space and land’s layered history toward Queer Feminist PoC Wisdom, Healing, & Collective Liberation.

Since Dec. 2019, our Queer BIPOC family is living and working in the former home of ESEK HOPKINS, widely known as the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. ESEK HOPKINS (1718-1802) tortured British prisoners of war during the American Revolution. He acted selfishly, consistently disobeying George Washington’s orders, in order to profit off the transatlantic slave trade route. He’s the reason we have a Whistleblowing Policy in the U.S. After the Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled 60-90 percent of the trading of African humans in AMERICA. Esek was hired to command the slave ship “Sally” to purchase kidnapped humans from the coast of Africa and bring them to America, land of the free, to be sold into slavery.

Why is there a middle school named after him full of brilliant Black & Brown children? Why is his house, a symbol of white supremacy, worth preserving as its been, when it could be returned into a space that feels free for all humans? What does it mean for our Queer PoC Glitter Dance Family to be living, creating, liberating, fighting, feeling, & healing here? What does it mean for our community to grow here?

"6.27.20"

Photos: Rey Londres

"6.27.20"

Photos: Rey Londres

Artists in RESTidence:

Chase Hiller (Winter 2020) + Karina Faial (January 2020) + Noel Puello (current - since Jan 2020) + Allam Mella (current - since Jan 2020) + Ben Freeman (current - since Jan 2020) + Jess Brown (current - since Jan 2020) + Rey Londres (Jan 2020 -Summer 2020) + Kenya Wright (Feb 2020) + Sam Zimmer (March - June 2020) + Aline Kovacs & Cherie Tay (June 2020) + Nasirah Duponte "NYX" @siinyx (current - since Spring 2020) + Jay Veras, Jr. (Summer 2020) + Natalie Olaya (Summer 2020) + Abigail Paige (current - since Summer 2020) + Christine Antoine (Summer 2020) + Diana Olmos-Gonzalez (Summer 2020) + Alexx "X" Temena (September 2020)

Community Partners:

Seydou Coulibaly & Michelle Bach-Coulibaly - Yeredon Center for the Malian Arts + The Clam Jam Brass Band + Joann Ayuso - MEO: Movement Education Outdoors + Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading + TAPA: Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts + TAPA Dance Company + AS220 + AS220 Youth + blackearth lab, PRONK: Providence Honk Fest + Pushed Learning & Media + the Partnership for Providence Parks + The Providence Dept of Arts Culture Tourism + Providence Parks Dept. + Providence Community Library + Rhode Island Training School + PASA: Providence After School Alliance + RISCA: RI State Council for the Arts + New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Dr. Dannie Ritchie, MD, MPH - Community Health Innovations of Rhode Island, Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, Rhode Island State Conservation Committee, Northern Rhode Island Conservation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services, and RIEEA: Rhode Island Environmental Education Association,

2020: OUR FIRST YEAR IN THE PARQ

HIGHLIGHTS + YEAR-AT-A-GLANCE

We premiered our first workshop / preview of a scene from THE HISTORICAL FANTASY OF ESEK HOPKINS: An Historical Intervention + Multimedia Performance + Community Ritual + Protest + Graphic Novel + Coloring Book + Curriculum. This piece shares an original intergalactic mermaid blueprint for celebrating culture, community and decolonization. What if we imagined the missing stories from the past as fully realized humans?
We taught our original curriculum and built programming in Decolonization, Yoga/Mindfulness, & Afro-Latinx Diasporic Dance+Culture+History for TAPA: Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts + AS220 Youth + RI Training School + Blackstone Academy + PASA: Providence After School Alliance
We taught 200+ free and donation-based community yoga + meditation + dance classes (both virtual + physical distance) for over 12,000 participants and continued our 7th year of free weekly Community Yoga + Meditation offerings virtually at www.theglittergoddesscollective.org/yoga
As a beautification project, we launched The Liberation Garden + GreenHaus Project, an outdoor community Earthspace for intergenerational art-making, teaching + learning, and environmental justice organizing at The Haus of Glitter Performance Lab + Parq (currently in residence at the the Esek Hopkins Homestead + Park), cooperatively run and maintained by The Haus of Glitter Dance Company + the neighborhood + AS220 Youth + Movement Education Outdoors + Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading + Sandy Beach Farm + Tooth & Nail Collective + blackearth collective. We are encouraging safe outdoor programming and a COVID-safe space for Youth to be in community, to learn creative survival skills, and to build and maintain a Youth-led greenhouse.
We created a Glitter Goddess (virtual) Curriculum on CONNECTION and coordinated mutual aid of over $10,000 in direct covid-19 relief and created youth, elder and community stipends for community service and other community healing programming. We also distributed teas, herbs and produce from The Liberation Garden to our neighborhood and community.
We co-hosted PRONK’s first physically distant + first 100% BIPOC run Providence Honk Festival (13th Annual PRONK Fest) featuring 100% BIPOC art + activism to raise over $5,000 for local BIPOC-run community organizations:
- BLACKOUT YOUTH FESTIVAL curated by AS220 Youth
- HUES POETRY PICNIC curated by The.Park.Studios.PVD
- CLIMATE JUSTICE CELEBRATION curated by The Clam Jam Brass Band (at Esek Hopkins Homestead + Chad Brown Courtyard + Statehouse Steps + The VOTE Mural)
- THIS IS MY HAUS curated by the Haus of Glitter Dance Company
We released our 8th original album / music project, YOU LEFT TRASH FOR DEAD (performed by TRASH, produced and engineered by AM.), and created an independent record label.
We co-produced LET GO // REOPEN // BE HERE: a virtual dance concert in cooperation with the 2020 Senior Dance Company at TAPA: Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts
Matt Garza was awarded the 2020 RISCA Merit Fellowship in Choreography for their work with the TAPA Dance Company + Haus of Glitter Dance Company
We were featured in the Providence Monthly's "Who To Watch in 2021", The Public's Radio, Motif RI & The Providence Journal

BLACK + BROWN FRIDAY (NOV 2020)

For un-thanksgiving, the Haus of Glitter Performance Lab (PARKISTS In RESIDENCE at the Historic Esek Hopkins Homestead fasted. We rested. We prayed. We meditated in silence. We had difficult conversations - bringing the social justice work to the people living under one roof together. Because decolonization pushes us to look at land, institutions, culture, community and relationships (with “self” and others).

This year, our glitter fam created our own holiday: BLACK + BROWN FRIDAY: a day of justice + family + feasting + artistic practice to pray for ancestral intervention. We spent the day making this visual meditation piece and poem to share our breathe, movement and voice.

View the piece + read the poem HERE!

"6.27.20"

Photos: Rey Londres

CLEANSING + PROTECTION (DEC - JAN 2020)

Performed CLEANSING + PROTECTION: A Protection Spell (a scene from the Historical Fantasy of Esek Hopkins)
Moved in to the Esek Hopkins Homestead + Park
Hosted a donation-based DECOLONIZING PURPOSE RETREAT with 25 attendees on residency at the Dragon's Egg in Ledyard, CT
Brought THIS IS WHO I AM NOW: A Participatory Installation to "GLOW UP, GROWN UP" at the RISD Museum

"CLEANSING & PROTECTION"

Photos: Allam Mella

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