In a celebratory year for the “birth” of the United States and in an era of great global uprootedness, what does “birthplace” mean?
Love Abide With You is a performance and quilting project that asks questions about the meaning of home places today. Participants will collaborate to create a series of performative quilts. This process will culminate in an airing of the quilts, as well as a story-sharing event where audience members can contribute to the final quilts.
Coinciding with the celebrations of the United States’ 250th Anniversary, Love Abide With You takes inspiration from our location in Philadelphia (the “birthplace” of the nation) to consider the concept of birthplace most broadly. Each participant will make a square symbolic of the concept of “birthplace” and what it means to them. Participants will be invited to share stories, memories, hopes, and dreams for their real or ideal birthplace and about Philadelphia as the place where we gather. Those for whom “birthplace” is a troubled topic are invited to this project, which seeks to hold open a space that is inclusive and compassionate. This is a project that is grounded, all hand-sewn, process-driven, building of community, while also encouraging imagination about the future.
mike durkin (he/him/y’all) is a nomadic multidisciplinary social practice performance artist. The intersection between art and the everyday guides mike. He has created site-responsive social practice productions exploring urban foodways, community mending, sports, houselessness, food access, place, and the Americana. mike works in communities and college campuses across the country. His work combines a variety of styles and mediums to embrace time, place, and the Americana. He aims to bring dissimilar bodies together to challenge and dismantle hate and stigmas, putting effort into the ideas that bring us together rather than push us away.
mike most recently led a series of community-based food justice activations with the Cadillac Urban Gardens in the Mexicantown community in Detroit which culminated to a collaborative cookbook. mike has taught and led artistic projects at the Future Fresh Farm at West Chester University; UNC-Asheville; University of Pennsylvania; University of Rochester; LSU in Baton Rouge, LA; Reed College in Portland, OR; Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, University of Arkansas; Broad Art Museum and Department of Theatre at Michigan State University; Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center at the University of Houston' the Performance Studies program at Texas A&M University; with the College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences at the University of Central Arkansas; Mural Arts Philadelphia; the Color Me Back Studio; Brandywine River Museum; Barnes Foundation; Mt. Moriah Cemetery; Life Do Grow Farm; Charleston, SC; parks; churches; fields; diners; and virtually. mike has held residencies with Revolve Art Gallery in Asheville, NC, Space at Ryder Farm, Drop Forge and Tool, the Hambidge Arts Center in Rabun Gap, GA, and the Greenhouse Lab with The Orchard Project. mike is part of the 2017 MFA in Devised Performance class with Pig Iron Theatre Company/University of the Arts.
