Скачать или смотреть The Holy Gasp presents: GRIEF (Full Video)

Grief
Presented by The Holy Gasp

On the evening of July 1st 2020, The Holy Gasp congregated in the basement of the Historic Kiever Synagogue in Toronto’s Kensington Market for a presentation of Grief. The piece was performed from sunset to sunrise without break, and was intended to fabricate a communal mourning ritual for those who have suffered the sorrows of losing a loved one.

The public was invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones in The Holy Gasp’s Database of the Dead. Each name entered into the database was inscribed into a scroll by Rochelle Rubinstein, from which Benjamin Hackman read throughout the evening as The Holy Gasp performed the same endless melody. The performance was considered complete only after every name had been read, and the sun had come up. This video is a documentat of the entire performance.

Grief was Written and Composed by Benjamin Hackman
Produced and Directed by David Mesiha
The Names of the Dead were Inscribed by Rochelle Rubinstein

The Holy Gasp was made up of the following players:

The Recitation of the Names of the Dead by Benjamin Hackman
Pianos by Yunjin Claire Lee and UV Aberman
Percussion by Jaash Singh and Jared Goldman
ASL Performance by Thurga Kanagasekarampillai
Vocals by:
Evan Arbic
Conrad Coates
Nova Emad
Ahmed Moneka
Joelle Peters
Mark Reidl
Holly Timpener
Petergail Williams
Quisha Wint

Opening Remarks by Dr. Adam S. Cohen

THE CREW:

Artistic Director – Benjamin Hackman
Director of Cinematography – David Mesiha
Production Manager – Adam Nobody
Scribe – Rochelle Rubinstein
Brass Sculptor – Leo Krukowski
Web Design and Development for the Database of the Dead – Sandy Feldman
Graphic Design – Yesim Tosuner
Additional Web Support – Eric Holmes
Videography – Luke Sargent and Sandro Pehar
Still Photography – Karol Orzechowski
Publicity – Damien Nelson
Social Media Assistance – Tamar Ilana
ASL Interpretation for the Night of Grief – Amanda Hyde
Additional ASL Interpretation – Jennifer Lees and Kimberly Johnson
Craft Services – Hannah Firsten-Kaufman
Volunteer Coordinator – Serena Purdy
Disability Consultants – Tangled Arts + Disability
Musical Consultants – Pratik Gandhi and Anthony Wallace
The Bringer of Clean – Sasha Ormond

Grief was made possible by the generous financial support of The Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, and The SOCAN Foundation. It was sponsored by Paul Hahn & Co., and the Historic Kiever Synagogue.

For either their encouragement, enthusiasm, and/or problem-solving savvy, many thanks to:
Dr. Adam S. Cohen, David Moyel, Rabbi Eli Cohen, Brent Pearlman, the Board of Directors at the Historic Kiever Synagogue, and Ha Shem.