An environmental performance collective · New York City
Site-specific performances at the water’s edge — on seawalls, piers, beaches and rivers across four continents.
The company
We take our inspiration from the trans-Saharan Harmattan wind, whose ochre dust clouds blow across Northern Africa to the Americas as a conduit of dispersal.
Founded by May Joseph, Harmattan Theater is a voluntary company of dancers, actors, composers, architects, designers, poets, scientists, environmentalists, philosophers and artists — committed to site-specific environmental performances addressing the future of water.
38.7067° N · 9.1361° W·Terreiro do Paço, Lisbon·May 6, 2012·at sunrise
Mar Português is a performance of Vasco Da Gama’s feverish dreams, as he lay dying in Cochin, India, longing for Lisbon. Created as a hallucination on the Tagus River, this is a surreal staging of intertwined colonial histories and contemporary modernities.
22 images · film
40.5779° N · 73.8383° W·Rockaway Park, Beach 116·September 14, 2013·2 pm
Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of New York’s coastline. Many communities continue to reel from the after shock of the unprecedented storm surge.
25 images
9.9657° N · 76.2421° E·Vasco Da Gama Square, Fort Cochin·October 30, 2011·at sunrise
In 2004, the Tsunami swept into Cochin as a surge, an ominous portend for the city’s archipelago like structure. Cochin’s many barrier islands are low lying regions facing open water, and hence vulnerable to the scenario of rising ocean levels.
25 images · film
40.7379° N · 73.9973° W·14th Street, between 5th & 7th Avenues·April 3, 2011·7–8 pm, at sunset
A performance marking the 200th anniversary of the 1811 Manhattan Grid. The Commissioners’ Grid began at Fourteenth Street, the first street in the grid to span from the Hudson to the East Rivers.
18 images · film
2009 — 2014 · The log
From the founder
May Joseph’s book describes the many ways New York — a city of islands — has begun to reckon with its aqueous topography, and argues that its future lies in the reclamation of its great water resources. Duke University Press, 2013.
All books by May Joseph →