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.
Samora Pinderhughes and Elena Pinderhughes performing We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (after Angela Davis) at the Institite for the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, February 2024.
Starting from the top:
Performance still and video of Elena Pinderhughes and Samora Pinderhughes’ performance at the Institute for the Arts and Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, 2024.
Musician and composer Dr. James Gordon Williams performs at the Institute for the Arts and Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, 2023. Video by IAS.
Musician and composer Dr. James Gordon Williams’ performance at El Museo Del Barrio in Gaspar’s exhibition, Force of Things, on June 21, 2023. Video by El Museo Del Barrio; Oresti Tsonopoulos and Alex Munro.
Vibraphonist Thaddeus Tukes performance at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 2025. Video by Truth & Documentary.
*Other musical collaborators include The Innocents, Thomas Stanley, and Jamal Moore.
2023-Ongoing