Lashing Skies

Lashing Skies investigates the tension between individual and collective memory, through five (5) individual’s stories during the events of September 11, 2001. Although these attacks are still deeply rooted in our collective memory, it is not the only tragic common experience in our recent human history. The Paris attacks at the Bataclan, the explosions at the port of Beirut, and of course the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, are still felt to this day.

We all have particular moments in time throughout our lives when tragedy hits, and marks us for time eternal. We pose the same questions: Where were you that day, that morning? These stories, anchored in time, space, and bodies, affect us all in different ways. Our collective conscience cannot be denied. Rather than avoiding it, we say explore it.

Your journey will take you through a large, dark room filled with ashes and paper scattered throughout the space. As you wander, so to does your mind. What happened here? Where do I begin?

Each poem investigates a human story on the fringe of disaster and the collective narrative that ties them together. You will confront each, without ever meeting their physical or psychological portraits. The soundscapes will envelope you, allowing you to recreate each character and their environment from your own imagination.

Based on the poem series, Ciel à outrances, written by Madeleine Monette and published by Hexagone Editions.

Poems translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott and published under the title Lashing Skies by Ekstasis Editions.