HURRICANE SEASON [text version]




a two womyn show about unnatural disaster
and a great shift in universal consciousness


From the acclaimed arts duo Climbing PoeTree (Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman), Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages in Water, is a multi-media performance that interweaves spoken word poetry, sound collage, shadow art, dance, film and animation to explore critical issues facing humanity through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

New Orleans emerged from the floodwaters as a microcosm of the intersecting forces at play across America and even the world:
- global warming and environmental injustice
- extreme poverty amidst affluence and over-consumption
- gentrification and forced relocation of poor people and people of color
- the police, prison, and military industrial complex
- corporate control over public policy
- lack of local ownership and self-determination
- gross disparity of access and power along gender, sexuality, class,
and color lines

A powerful tale of unthinkable tragedy and undeniable promise, Hurricane Season will draw vital connections between shared struggles and common solutions in a critical moment in human history. As residents of a nation leading the world in carbon emissions, consumption, military spending, and incarceration, Alixa and Naima are impassioned to use their art as a medium to rally communities across the country to take action for a more just and livable world. Armed with an arsenal or artistry, Alixa and Naima arouse the power of our creative consciousness to transform destruction into solutions that already live amongst us.

Hurricane Season will transform spaces into sanctuaries of infinite imagination with vessels of water and calabash lanterns. The only source of light throughout the show apart from candle flame, is the illumination of video and slides that expose both the horror and wonder of life, projected through a lens of rising water. The footage, snapshots, and animation cast on the screen behind Alixa and Naima interact with stunning shadow puppetry whose whimsical silhouettes metamorphose alongside the plot. The spoken word is at once visceral and ethereal, mind-opening and emotive, and is entwined with a sound collage of news reports, personal testimonies, and the vivid progression of a storm evolving from a single drip.

Rhythmic and uplifting, raw and deeply moving, Hurricane Season seeks not to captivate audiences, but to liberate them.

“The role of the poet,” June Jordan said, “is to make revolution irresistible.” Alixa and Naima hope to make it attainable.

The objective of Hurricane Season is not only to stir in people the fervor of transformation, but also to channel that energy into immediate, meaningful, and tangible action. Group discussions will follow each performance where Alixa and Naima will cross-pollinate solutions, strategies, and success stories from communities they've visited worldwide, each battling their own "hurricane seasons." Representatives from local grassroots organizations will be invited to contribute to the dialogs and table at the events to garner support for local movements and initiatives. And audience participants will have the opportunity to contribute their personal manifestos to S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D, a growing tapestry of Stories, Testimonies, Intentions, Confessions, Truths, Healing Expressions, and Dreams collected by Alixa and Naima from audiences nationwide since the wake of Hurricane Katrina. People will walk away from Hurricane Season impassioned and empowered, with tools to put their highest visions and most daring dreams into practice.

Hurricane Season will premier in the Northeast in the spring of 2008. The national tour will begin on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2008) and gain momentum throughout the Atlantic hurricane season, ending in Decemeber 2008. Alixa and Naima will travel throughout the country in a vehicle converted to run on vegetable oil recycled from America’s fast food addiction.

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Booking and other inquiries can be directed to water@climbingpoetree.com.