Freshwater Hymns / Rituals of Becoming by Indira Allegra (02.04 - 03.08.25)

Tributaries are freshwater streams that find their way overland to larger rivers that ultimately make their way to the ocean. Without these humble streams, larger waterways would soon grow quiet. In this way, we can also think of tributaries as questions that allow our imagination of ourselves and our environments to open up into larger perspectives that touch the world like an Atlantic. The fate of water and the fate of people are undoubtedly interwined in a lasting dance.

Black’s Run, often overlooked for its polluted past, weaves its way through the body of Harrisonburg like a weaver’s thread- sometimes visible on the surface and sometimes hidden underneath- but at all times binding the cloth of the city together. In freshwater hymns / rituals of becoming, the voice of this humble stream offers a ritual pathway for us to follow into a brilliant dream of who we are becoming. The creation of a new kind of instrument- an electric weaver’s harp- transforms the historical tensions surrounding this thread of a waterway into music. 

Drawing from a tributary logic, this performance project offers the community of Harrisonburg three questions:

When waterways are uncovered, what music is possible?

How can the clearing of water clarify how we want to be with each other? 

What can the nature of water teach us about interconnectedness and freedom? 

Photography by Tom Cogill, 2024.

Views and positions expressed in exhibitions are those of the artists and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of the university.