Muscle Memories Revisited (part of FailSafe Festival 2019)

Muscle Memories Revisited is a continued investigation of memory, gesture, and labor performed by early 20th-century sharecroppers in Denmark, Tennessee. This work was inspired by Robertson’s grandmother, Martha Weddle. Her voice and memories will provide part of a narrative score for this piece. Robertson was inspired to interview her grandmother about her experiences with labor in Tennessee during Robertson’s participation in a heritage archaeology field school at University of Massachusetts Amherst. This investigation revealed a shared history of labor in cotton for Africans in New England in the 1700s that continued into the 20th century in the South. This work will also include connections within the diaspora that feature repeated movements resembling forms of labor seen in areas including, but not limited to, Haiti and counties of Africa. This investigation is also connected to Robertson’s work with Brooklyn-based company Kriyol Dance Collective.