NW MI Arts & Culture Network

For the Love of Water received a minigrant for a unique video performance video, I am Invisible.  Anne-Marie Oomen and Ari Mokdad, artists who have worked with FLOW in the past on FLOW’s “Art Meets Water” program, completed a nine-minute video-performance video, “When Water Moves,” centered on an original water tale that incorporates water rights and water justice issues. As Michigan-born artists with deep ties to water culturally, their work coalesced around both the movement of water, represented by regional water sites, through traditional Anishinaabe dance, and new contemporary choreography by Ari Mokdad. “When Water Moves” is a video-performance dance and poem about a water-loving woman seeking to help the waters. Narrated by multiple voices from Northern Michigan activists and the indigenous community, the story describes how the water woman faces what happens when we ignore water rights and fail to respect this ultimately life-giving resource. The story is inspired by Anishinaabe stories and tales from Ari Mokdad’s Lebanese heritage. Incorporating multiple speakers from our diverse communities, the project videotaped new choreography, incorporated the Anishinaabe jingle dress dance for healing, layered in the poetry as text, and ultimately created a multi-modal cinematographic project. The project was showcased on September 12, 2021, on a virtual event which attracted over a hundred viewers.

To view I am Invisible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omFqyFJ2q8w
More about FLOW & Art Meets Water: https://forloveofwater.org/art-meets-water/