We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (after Angela Davis)

We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (after Angela Davis) is a sonic sculpture and performance created from jail debris salvaged from the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago, IL, following a 2021 demolition of Division I. When performed, We Lit the Fire… invites viewers to witness how iron bars reclaimed from a carceral demolition engage in transformation through acts of touch and vibration. Musicians and performers are invited to transfigure what were once materials of confinement into new experiences of liberation. Collaborations and improvisations suggest novel formal and physical configurations, structures of support, care, and release, contrasting with those of submission, restraint, and control. 

Left: Musician and composer Dr. James Gordon Williams performs at El Museo Del Barrio in Gaspar’s exhibition, Force of Things, on June 21, 2023. Video Documentation: Video courtesy of El Museo Del Barrio; Oresti Tsonopoulos and Alex Munro

Right: Musician and composer Dr. James Gordon Williams performs at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences in Gaspar’s exhibition, Compositions, on September 6, 2023. Video Documentation courtesy IAS.

*Other musical collaborators include Elena Pinderhughes, Samora Pinderhughes, The Innocents, Thomas Stanley, Jamal Moore, and Thaddeus Tukes.

2023-Ongoing