Every Ocean Hughes: Help The Dead

“What is dead?” A simple question becomes a riddle, catalyst, and prompt for imagination in Help the Dead (2019), a combined theater and concert performance by Every Ocean Hughes (b. 1977). Inspired by her death doula training, the artist mimes the workshop format to approach death from a queer perspective. Weaving together song, script, movement, and audience participation, performers Colin Self and Geo Wyex help stage possibilities of mutual aid and self-determination. Help the Dead is at once an inquiry and an imperative. By contending with the politics of dying and living in our time, it renders their calls for social responsibility and communal stakes anew.

Support for Every Ocean Hughes: Alive Side is provided by the Consulate General of Sweden.

Special thanks to local performers Destiny Brundidge, Joy Norton, Aarron Ricks, Amanda Wallace, and Kate Williams.