The Wild Papers

THE WILD PAPERS – 2015

THE WILD PAPERS is my latest project and initiative, bringing together theatrical/site-specific performance, audience engagement, speaking/writing exercises, and safe spaces to explore our dreams and memories.

It is FOR everyone, and ABOUT everyone, and will occur in different ways- centered around giving us back to ourselves, culling memories from childhood/nostalgia, and rediscovering the wildness within us all.

The first site-specific performance of THE WILD PAPERS, with the theme of HOME, was held at the Lewis H. Latimer House in Flushing on 5/9/15.

flyer by GiAnna Ligammari // art

“The Wild Papers” is Audrey Dimola’s latest project and initiative, a series of performances and workshops centered around sparking memories and dreams, diving headfirst into the stories that make up our lives, and rediscovering – and reclaiming – the limitless spark of wildness within us all. On May 9th, the Latimer House will be home to the very first incarnation of “The Wild Papers” as a performance – a unique, site-specific experience in the house and its grounds, conceived with Latimer’s spirit of the unconquerable, of innovation and creativity. You will be led through a seamless presentation of vignettes of dreams and memories, told through music, dance, poetry, and theatrical elements both specific and universal, playful and haunting. “The Wild Papers” is an exploration of the joy and poignancy of nostalgia, what we bring with us as we go forward, and what makes us who we are.

Conceived by & featuring:
Audrey Dimola
Tyler Rivenbark
Jacob Horstmeier
Kate Vander Velden
with Diana Benigno

Saturday, May 9th – 6pm
at the Lewis H. Latimer House Museum (#museumanarchy!)
BBQ PARTY (with veg options) after! Facebook invite is here.

Reactions from Latimer House & Historic House Trust on Twitter:

Photos from the 1st WILD PAPERS performance:

*Special encore performance of THE WILD PAPERS happened on 6/20/15, 6pm at Latimer House!

The first workshop related to THE WILD PAPERS was held at Queens Council on the Arts in Astoria on 3/6/15, as the event “Queens Lit in Action! with Audrey Dimola.”

It featured open discussion about childhood and when it ends, glittery bouncy balls, bubbles, compass rings, and writing/sharing exercises (visual, sensory, and meditative/visualization).

Audrey Dimola is redefining “wild.” No longer a word to be applied to outlaws and girls on spring break, she has reclaimed it as brave, vulnerable, daring, whole, loving. Her integrative work is like a mix of Brené Brown and the storytelling of The Moth, punctuated by her soaring poetry and bouncy balls and bubbles – literally. When I left, the people in the room with me were no longer strangers and I felt like I had permission to see the world as new again. How that all happened in an hour is exactly the kind of magic that Audrey Dimola delivers, every time. -valerie g. keane (workshop participant!)

I was able to discuss THE WILD PAPERS performance and process at the 2016 Visitor Experience Conference in Philadelphia, PA as a featured speaker on the “How to Let Visitors Create Their Own Experience” panel.

How to Let Visitors Create Their Own Experience
Ran Yan, Deputy Director, LatimerNOW
Caroline Drabik, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Historic House Trust of New York City
Maya Pindyck, Poet, Artist, and Educator
Audrey Dimola, Author and Artist

Presentation can be found here.

One often under-represented group in the process of designing visitor experience are visitors themselves, who are really the core in experiencing cultural institutions. This session explores ways to involve visitors in creating their own experience through unconventional partnerships across cultural institutions, multidisciplinary artists, and community groups. Two projects being discussed here are Light On Sound art installation and Wild Papers theatre, both of which happened at Lewis H. Latimer House. The former incorporates the voice of local residents into an interactive installation, through community poetry workshops. The latter invited the audience to reinterpret the institutional space through a site-specific performance. The session will serve as a trigger for open conversations and collaboration proposals on more innovative ways to engage visitors to create their own cultural experience, either prior to or during their visit, and make a lasting impact on the institution through their experience.