Over 100 University of Michigan students and faculty members, as well as Ypsilanti community members, packed the Historical Ypsilanti Freighthouse Thursday evening to attend the public participatory event “Reconnecting Currents: A Healing at the Huron.”
The event was organized by Marsae Lynette, a graduating Music, Theatre & Dance senior who has dedicated the past two years to researching dances and songs about the connection between women of the African diaspora and freshwater. The event was part of a collaborative effort between the University Musical Society and the city of Ypsilanti to provide interactive arts programming for Ypsilanti residents.
Upon entering the Freighthouse, attendees were greeted with a setting meant to introduce them to African Yoruba traditions. It included the aroma of incense, sunflowers, cinnamon and palo santo sticks, which represent the spirit of the Yoruba fertility goddess Oshun. They were also asked to write a wish on a biodegradable piece of paper made of seeds that will eventually be planted.
The event opened with a libation ritual in Yoruba, meant to honor Oshun and the ancestors, as well as wish for a peaceful experience for all the attendees.
Lynette then played a documentary about her participatory research project in Cuba during the summer of 2022. Around 70% of Cubans practice Santería — a syncretic religion largely drawn from Yoruba tradition — or some other religion based in African tradition. She told the audience Cuba provided her with geographical and cultural context that helped advance her understanding of Yoruba heritage.
“I traveled to Cuba in July 2022 to learn more about the traditions, rituals and dances of Santería Lucumí, an Afro-Cuban belief system that is the descendant of the Yoruba spiritual system. ” Lynette said. “I had the opportunity to take classes at both the Havana Middle School for the Arts and the High School for the Arts, and I can tell you these kids were terrific.”
After the documentary, Lynette and other dancers performed a Yoruba dance accompanied by rhythmic African drums. She also led a procession across Frog Island Park from the Freighthouse to the Huron River. After singing the Chant to Oshun, the audience offered sunflowers to the river and watched the streams carry their sunflowers and thoughts for their ancestors away.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily after the event, Lynette said the performance not only highlighted the connection between the human body and water, but also between the U-M and Ypsilanti communities. She credited an Ypsilanti community member with introducing her to Burns-Stokes Preserve, where she was inspired to explore artistic forms in the context of rivers.
“It was (an Ypsilanti resident) who introduced a person who introduced another person who then introduced me to Burns-Stokes Preserve,” Lynette said. “They called it ‘the river church,’ which is a very beautiful and holy space. Without them, my project could not have become what it is today.”
Some of Lynette’s friends from the University also participated in the event. LSA graduating senior Anika Love told The Daily she has visited Burns-Stokes Preserve with Lynette in the past and has since attended her other river-themed performances. She said she could relate to Lynette’s spiritual feelings for the rivers.
“Every time I listen to the river, I feel clarity and serenity,” Love said. “Just watching the water flow allows me to surrender to my emotions and the flow of my mind.”
In an interview with The Daily after the event, Music, Theatre & Dance graduate student Njeri Rutherford, who traveled to Cuba in the same cohort as Lynette, said learning Yoruba dance in a place permeated by Yoruba culture made it a genuinely educational experience.
“I had never done any traditional Yoruba dances prior to coming to the dancing department,” Rutherford said. “They invited a Cuban dancer to come to the dancing department to teach us Yoruba dance and that was my first introduction to it. And (then) we traveled to Cuba last summer … Learning a dance in a geographical region where it was derived from and influenced was very impactful for me.”
Ypsilanti resident Donald Fields told The Daily after the event that he heard about this performance through a family friend and wanted to attend because of how his own religious practices are connected to rivers. He said he felt Lynette’s performance empowered community members regardless of their religious beliefs.
“The river is related to baptism and my religion,” Fields said. “But for me, my biggest takeaway is the self-affirmation of African females in the creation and its spiritual root in our Black community.”
Daily Staff Reporter Chen Lyu can be reached at lyuch@umich.edu.