"Fabric Softener"
“Fabric Softener” is an hour-long ritual - a cross between a blood-strewn baptism and funeral. The performance is punctuated by outbursts of spirituals and excerpts from a 1977 archival recording of Toni Morrison reading her novel, Song of Solomon. Morrison’s reading describes the special wisdom that circulates between three characters: Pilate, her daughter Reba, and granddaughter Hagar. They form a family much like the one Asia Stewart grew up in where “women produce[d] women who produce[d] women [without] men.” Throughout the performance, Stewart’s gestures, movement, and voice become intertwined with Pilate, Reba, and Hagar’s story and enact the “litany of growing up” as a Black woman in the United States. In this performance, Stewart is joined by violinist Yaz Lancaster. Lancaster's musicality and sound design ground the work and provide the energy and dynamism necessary to push Fabric Softener forward.
Poster Image by Jasiel Lampkin