DELIRIOUS Dances, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor, and Creative Producer Lai-Lin Robinson present the World Premiere of WASTELANDIA on Friday and Saturday, September 19, 20, 26 and 27 with Creative Reuse Workshop at 6pm, and performance at 7pm; and Sunday, September 21 and 28 at Creative Reuse Workshop at 2pm and performance at 3pm, in four gallery spaces at the Newhouse Center located in Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden on Staten Island, NY at 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301. Tickets: $20 students/seniors, $30 general, $50 supporters, $75 rockstars. Each ticket supports the work and the community and can be purchased online at https://snug-harbor.org/event/wastelandia-by-edisa-weeks-delirious-dances/.

WASTELANDIA is a performance ritual constructed from recycled plastic that invites the audience to engage in a multi-layered visual and immersive experience. Through theater, dance, discussions, craft-making, and visual art, the audience is taken on an interactive journey that examines our dependency on fossil fuels and asks how we can be better stewards of the earth.

WASTELANDIA is a mash-up between a DIY Haunted house, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and a dance performance. The experience begins in The Greenroom, which is an interactive educational space where the audience can:

Participate in creative reuse workshops such as making beads out of plastic straws or musical instruments out of discarded objects in collaboration with Materials for the Arts.
Color in a chalk mural depicting images and quotes by seven remarkable Black and Hispanic women who are social justice and environmental activists in the Staten Island Community: Debbie Anne Paige, Dorcas Meyers, Heather Butts, Jasi (Jasmine) Robinson, Kelly Vilar, Lori Love, Petula Gay
Listen and/or participate in a discussion on how we can responsibly divest from fossil fuels, viable alternatives to fossil fuel based plastics, as well as the health implications of microplastics accumulating in our brains and internal organs.

From The Greenroom, the audience traverses through an interactive tunnel of plastic (The Birth Canal); meets the spirit guardians and the trash behemoth (Spirit Room); and helps construct an installation (The Wasteland) out of plastic trash. The inhabitants of The Wasteland come together through Afro-Brazilian and Contemporary dance to forge a sense of community and empowerment; and to build The Wastelandia Gameshow, where two audience contestants are invited to answer multiple-choice questions about plastic consumption, recycling and alternatives. The Gameshow includes the presentation of a Green Award to the mural honorees.

WASTELANDIA began in 2015 during creative residencies at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art and Materials for the Arts. The premier in September 2025, will be the completion of a ten year journey. The project was initially titled 3 RITES Life and in 2024 the title was changed to WASTELANDIA to better reflect the intention of the rite. WASTELANDIA was also developed through creative residences at Chashama Space to Create; ChoreoQuest at RestorationART/The Billie Holiday Theatre; a remote pandemic residency with the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; as well as New York State Dance Force residencies at Topaz Arts and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Additional residency support for 3 RITES Liberty and 3 RITES Happiness was provided by BRICLab; Dance in Process at Gibney Dance with funds provided by the Andrew Mellon Foundation; Mabou Mines SUITE/Space program; Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography; Norte Maar @ Socrates Sculpture Park; and Performance Spaces for the 21st Century.

The 3 RITES Trilogy (Life, Liberty, Happiness) humorously and poignantly interrogates why life, liberty and happiness were included as unalienable rights in the United States Declaration of Independence. The trilogy explores what the right to life, liberty, and happiness means today, who has access to these rights, and how they manifest in the body. 3 RITES is a National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by 651 ARTS, Mount Tremper Arts, RestorationART, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, DancePlace and NPN/VAN. 3 RITES is made possible in part through funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council; Creative Capital; Durst Organization; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; MAP Fund; New Music USA; The New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project which is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation; New Music USA; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York; The Puffin Foundation; as well as through the sponsorship of The Field; and the generosity of individuals.

WASTELANDIA

Concept: Edisa Weeks

Choreography: Edisa Weeks in collaboration with the performers

Performers: EmmaGrace Skove-Epes, Javon “Ja’Moon” Jones, J’nae Simmons, Mars Garcia,

Uilalani Marx

Guest Performers: Emil Troy, Idea Reid, Keb Barshack

Text: Edisa Weeks

Costume Design: Sarita Fellows

Associate Costume Designer: Brittani Beresford

Interactive Technology: Enddle

Lighting Design: Tim Cryan

Set Design: You-Shin Chen & Edisa Weeks

Sound Environment: LaFrae Sci

Mural Honorees and Green Award Recipients: Debbie Anne Paige, Dorcas Meyers, Heather Butts, Jasi (Jasmine) Robinson, Kelly Vilar, Lori Love, Petula Gay

Creative Advisor: James Scruggs

Creative Producer: Lai-Lin Robinson (2024-current); Marýa Wethers (2017-2024)

Community Engagement Coordinator: Maya Smith-Gilbert (2025-current), Maya Simone Z. (2021-2023), Rebecca Fitton (2017-2021),

Production Director: Violet Asmara Tafari

Illustration: Leo Jimenez

Performer Bios

Emil Troy (they/them) is a hip-hop performer, dancer, and martial artist based on Staten Island.

EmmaGrace Skove-Epes (she/they) is a Brooklyn-born and based artist, performer, and educator. Her performance work has lived at venues including the Center for Performance Research, the 92nd street Y, TheaterLab, Theater for the New City, Roulette Intermedium, New York Live Arts, AUNTS, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Riverside Park, Triskelion Arts, and Chez Bushwick. She has been an ongoing performer in the work of Edisa Weeks since 2016 and has been a collaborating performer in the works of choreographers marion spencer, Julie Mayo, RoseAnne Spradlin, Jill Sigman, Kathy Westwater, Mariangela Lopez, Jon Kinzel, Dianne McIntyre, Jodi Melnick, Peniel Guerrier, Jesse Phillips-Fein, Jonathan González, Mor Mendel, Nadia Tykulsker, Sondra Loring, Noemie LaFrance, Leslie Boyce, Maria Simpson, and Aileen Passloff. EmmaGrace teaches dance studies at Sarah Lawrence and has taught at schools, studios, and colleges throughout NY state. In addition to dance, they teach somatics and self-facial release in groups and 1-1 sessions and organize with the Manna-hatta Fund’s admin team.

Idea Reid (she/her) is a dancer and activist from Staten Island. She co-founded an environmental justice club at her high school, leading rallies, workshops, and climate justice teach-ins with the former NYC Director of Sustainability. Idea fought for climate policy as an intern at the Climate Museum, served as a member of the Environmental Justice Coalition, and conveys her passion for people and the earth through art as a member of the Young Lordes Collective. Idea graduated from Barnard College in 2025 with a BA in Psychology and Dance.

Javon “Ja’Moon” Jones (he/him) is a New York City-based choreographer, performer, and creator whose work centers on themes of identity, storytelling, and collective healing. As the Resident Choreographer at Ballare Carmel (2024-present), Ja’Moon infuses his innovative vision into a variety of projects while continuing to develop solo works like The Ghetto Shaman: That Which Lurks in the Shadows. His performances have been featured at Institut Français Senegal, Navel.LA, and Arts on Site NYC. Ja’Moon’s unique style blends physical theater and movement, drawing inspiration from recent performances in acclaimed productions like Sleep No More NYC and collaborations with artists such as Robert Moses and Kyle Abraham. His accolades include the Max Mara Young Visionary Award, a YoungArts Modern Dance Gold Medal, and a prestigious residency at École Des Sables, Sénégal. With an education from The Juilliard School and years of international performance experience, Ja’Moon continues to push the boundaries of contemporary movement and storytelling.

J’nae Simmons (she/her) is a Queens native, dancer and choreographer. Obtaining her BFA with honors in Dance from Long Island University, Brooklyn, she trained under Dana Hash-Campbell, Donna Uchizono and Alenka Cizmesija. Simmons has worked with and performed works by Ron K. Brown, Wally Cardona, Davalois Fearon, Emily Berry, Aviva Geismar, Ori Flomin, Andre Tyson, Suku Dance Lab, Nathaniel Hunt and Netta Yerushalmy. Simmons believes giving back to specifically the youth in her community through dance and creative movement is a part of her purpose in life.

Keb Barshack (he/him) is a queer trans Vietnamese-Jewish multidisciplinary artist from the Bay Area, California. These identities are vital to his art and being. He explores through movement, sound, and crochet/knitwear, all infused with transgender based theology – digesting their intersections through dance. Keb recently graduated from The New School with a BA in Contemporary Dance with a secondary focus in religious studies. All of Keb’s mediums come together in his performance art. He is committed to a lifelong exploration of the intersections of queerness, transness, prayer, and performance and how the queer can be the most sacred thing in the world.

Mars Garcia (they/them) is a Mexican-American dancer, movement director and teacher based in Lenapehoking. Through improvisation, worldbuilding, drawing and rasquachismo, Mars explores queerness, embodiment, failure, and social/spatial patternings. With a Bachelor in Fine Arts from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Mars has performed in NYC, Los Angeles, Barcelona, France and Berlin, and has collaborated with many talented playwrights, filmmakers, musicians, choreographers, dancers and actors. Mars co-founded/produced Harvesting (2020–2022), an outdoor performance festival featuring artists in the pandemic. A certified GYROTONIC® trainer, Mars cherishes helping others and working as a Project Manager for 7NMS|Marjani Forté-Saunders + Everett Saunders, and coordinator for PracticeProgress | Kai Hazelwood + Sarah Ashkin. Mars is creating a performance installation (and Gender Archive zine!) surrounding gender, perspective and the body.

Uila Marx (they/she/her) is a nonbinary movement artist from O’ahu, Hawai’i. Their movement work is informed by a lifelong education in hula and traditional practices of land and body care. Uila is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University in Harlem, NY. They have performed works by Okwui Okpokwasili, David Thomson, Mark Morris, David Dorfman, Colleen Thomas, and Davalois Fearon, among others. Uila creates, performs, and engages in research with interdisciplinary movement artists including Edisa Weeks (DELIRIOUS Dances) and Will A. Ervin Jr, and formerly The Why Collective and Lucia Gagliardone. As a dance maker, Uila’s work centers tenderness, community care, play, and silliness via improvisation and collaborative physical theater. Uila is also a Community Actionist in Gibney’s Hands Are for Holding program, which uses dance to have conversations with youth in New York City public schools about health.

About the Mural Honoree & Green Award Recipients

Debbie-Ann Paige is an accomplished public historian and professional genealogist with a focus on African American community-based history. She is a co-founder of the Staten Island Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) and serves as an adjunct lecturer at the College of Staten Island. Debbie-Ann actively organizes and facilitates public history forums that examine topics related to race, racial history, and race relations. Her committee work includes contributions to organizations such as AAHGS, the NY & NJ Middle Passage Port Markers Project, the Staten Island Museum (SIM), and Historic Richmond Town (HRT).

Dorcas Meyers is the Founder and C.E.O of Roc-A-Natural, LLC, which is dedicated to educating, empowering, and inspiring communities in health and wellness, arts, and culture. She has worked for the National Park Service for over 13 years connecting underserved communities to the 23 beautiful national parks in the New York and New Jersey harbor. She has partnered with the JCC Beacon Program at I.S. 49, Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden and other local organizations to educate and empower through annual Black History, Kwanzaa, and Juneteenth programs. In 2021, Dorcas collaborated with the National Lighthouse Museum for the annual summer program, On The Waterfront…Taking It To The Streets: Free Friday Night Films.

Heather Butts brings a wealth of expertise as an engaged community advocate. Her participation in various community initiatives on Staten Island, including projects like Little Free Libraries and Skyline Community Garden, fosters green spaces and aims to bring community well-being. She is chair of the Staten Island Hunger Task Force, and also the co-founder of H.E.A.L.T.H for Youths, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to youth empowerment and addressing community challenges through education, healthcare and life skills education. Butts is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Healthcare and Public Administration and Public Health Law and Bioethics at LIU Post. She is also the Director of the LIU Post Honors College. In addition, she has held appointments as an Adjunct Professor in Health Law and Bioethics at St. John’s School of Law and Columbia University School of Public Health. Butts received her B.A. from Princeton University, where she was a history major, concentrating in American and African-American Studies. She received her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law, her Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University, and her Master’s in Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Butts is a published author who has written three books: African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era; Healing Civil War Veterans in New York and Washington, D.C.; and in collaboration with Lori R. Weintrob, Discovering Staten Island Treasures and Untold Stories, an engaging activity-storybook celebrating Staten Island’s rich history of immigration, diversity, and community.

Jasmine “Jasi” Robinson was born in the Bronx and grew-up in Staten Island where she attended Port Richmond High School. Jasi attended the College of Staten Island and graduated with a degree in Political Science, following which she became a legal secretary for a law firm. Her interest in local politics and activism grew when she joined the Staten Island Democratic Association (SIDA) in 2004. Through SIDA, Jasi participated in rallies and protests for national and local social causes. Jasi became the first Afro-Cuban woman to be elected to the executive membership committee of SIDA. Jasi is a founding member of the Staten Island Women of Color Forum, which provides a voice and platform to women of color running for political office. Jasi is also a member of Staten Island Women Who March (SIWWM) which organizes for the rights of all women. In 2021 and again in 2025, was elected to be District Leader, for District 61 which represents North Shore of Staten Island, Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

Kelly Vilar, founder and CEO of the Staten Island Urban Center–a community development through community involvement organization has pursued cultural equity, thrivability, self determination and independence for marginalized and vulnerable communities. Her work centers youth development and community activism. Kelly was named Top 100 Most Powerful People on Staten Island in City & State Magazine in 2023 and was honored in 2022 as the All In For NYC Awardee by Citizens Committee NYC. She was appointed to the 2019 NYC Council Waterfront Management Advisory Board helping to author NYC’s Waterfront Plan and in 2025 was appointed to the NYC Offshore Wind Advisory Council. Kelly served as the Chair of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, a multidisciplinary center for global afro descendent culture integrating arts, education and activism through 2020. Kelly is a former member of Community Board No. 1 where she chaired the Youth Committee helping to move forward a budget agenda for Staten Island’s youth that led to more funding for Staten Island youth programming. In 2015, Kelly formed Let’s Rebuild Cromwell Coalition and authored the proposal to develop a Maritime Education, Recreation & Cultural Corridor ( MERC) on Staten Island’s waterfront and produced a short documentary about Staten Island North Shore Waterfront called Our Urban Town. Today she leads the Environmental Justice Coalition of Staten Island and is a member of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Kelly earned her Master’s Degree in Urban Policy from New School for Social Research and has over 30 years of experience in youth leadership, urban development and community organizing.

Lori Love Medina is a powerhouse of purpose, rooted in family, faith, and community. As a devoted wife, homeschooling mother, entrepreneur, and creative force, she blends leadership with love in every space she touches. Lori is the Co-Founder of 5 Borough Clean Up, a family-owned fire and flood restoration business she started with her husband, helping home and building owners navigate sudden disasters with care and compassion. Beyond business, Lori champions neighborhood revitalization and environmental awareness through grassroots initiatives that unite residents and local businesses. She’s also a talented visual artist, curator, and proud board member of both Hub17 and Build A Dream Incubator, where her eye for detail and heart for service shine. Whether behind the scenes coordinating powerful community collaborations or curating art experiences that inspire, Lori’s presence is unmistakable. Her work is fueled by community support and a deep commitment to uplifting others. Through strong partnerships with local leaders, she builds bridges across neighborhoods to spark real, lasting change. Balancing motherhood, marriage, and mission with grace, Lori is a living testament to what it means to lead with heart, rooted, real, and radically full of love.

About DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks

Founded by multi-disciplinary artist Edisa Weeks, DELIRIOUS Dances seeks to erase the barriers between art and life, between performance space and audience space, and between mediums. We are interested in finding ways for the audience to interact with and influence the experience of a work. We believe that art revitalizes the everyday to reveal something new about ourselves, and the revelation is an energy, a spark that has the power to change the world. www.deliriousdances.com

Edisa Weeks creates multimedia interactive work that merges theater with dance to explore our deepest desires, darkest fears and sweetest dreams. She grew up in Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Brooklyn, NY; teaches choreography, improvisation, modern technique, and mentors emerging artists at Queens College, CUNY; and is a Scholar-in-Residence at The New School.

About the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor

The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art is Staten Island’s leading incubator for bold and innovative art. Through exhibitions, residencies, performances, public art, and related public programming, we activate historical, architectural, and environmental connections throughout Snug Harbor’s 83-acre cultural campus in conversation with our contemporary culture. The Newhouse Center encompasses 15,000 square feet of space including the Main Hall Gallery, the oldest landmarked building on campus. The Newhouse Center promotes inquiry and advances scholarship through contemporary art subjects. The Newhouse Center was the flagship program when Snug Harbor opened as a cultural institution in 1977, and has served as a vibrant space for creativity, connection, and community for over 45 years. https://www.instagram.com/thenewhousecenter/

About Snug Harbor

Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden is where art, history and nature converge. We offer dynamic programming in the arts, horticulture and agriculture for diverse communities and all ages, on our historic 83-acre campus. We envision being a locally impactful, globally renowned destination, true to our values of artistic vibrancy and community, inclusion and discovery, stewardship and conservation.

Snug Harbor is the result of more than four decades of restoration and development to convert a 19th-century charitable rest home for sailors into a regional arts center, botanical gardens and public park. One of the largest ongoing adaptive reuse projects in America, Snug Harbor encompasses 26 historic structures, 14 botanical gardens, a 2.5-acre urban farm, wetlands, forests and park land on a free, open campus. Snug Harbor is a proud Smithsonian Affiliate organization. Learn more at snug-harbor.org.

About Creative Producer Lai-Lin Robinson

Lai-Lin Ting Robinson is a New York City–based Producer, Curator, and Performance Artist originally from Washington, DC. Rooted in anti-racist values, she champions visionary works that reimagine how we exist, prioritizing Black and Women+ of Color. For over a decade, Lai-Lin has collaborated with artists and organizations to bring bold ideas to life—always with deep care, integrity, and intention. Her collaborators include Blood Orange (Dev Hynes), Paloma McGregor, Misty Copeland, Pyeng Threadgill, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks. She has worked with Urban Bush Women, Angela’s Pulse, American Modern Opera Company, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Théâtre XIV. Most recently, she co-produced When Black Women+ Speak for Urban Bush Women’s 40th Anniversary. Lai-Lin holds a BA in Communications from Fordham University, and is an alum of The Alvin Ailey School, Broadway Dance Center’s professional program, and a 2016 NY Community Trust Fellow. www.lai-linrobinson.com

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