Escape from the House of Mercy - backstory 
Always chasing the next funding opportunity, we applied for funds being granted to artists by NYC Parks and Recreation and the Partnership for Parks for projects related to a specific park, Inwood Hill Park, in Upper Manhattan, NYC. I imagined a choreographic response to an aspect of the park's history. In research, before writing the grant proposal I learned about buildings that existed in the park around the end of the 19th and into the early 20th century. Workhouses, asylums, and hospitals, mainly for women, were perched high on the hills overlooking the Hudson River. One building in particular struck a nerve, The House of Mercy, a home for "wayward" girls. There were beautiful vistas of the river but without hope for most who gazed out from the bar-covered windows. This history led us to the troubling legacy of the Magdeline Laundries in Ireland expanding our understanding of the deep connections to the abuse of women's rights in other parts of the world. We were awarded the grant and began working on Escape from the House of Mercy in the Fall of 2017. Our April 2020 season at Danspace/St. Marks (Community Access) supported in part with funds from Creative Engagement/LMCC was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. We eventually managed to keep working in small ways to maintain the work in outdoor and studio settings and as dance for the camera. In May of 2021 we created a 5 minute livestream video of the work called At the Gate which took place near the 100 year old iron gate at Westbeth Artists Housing as part of the Westfest Festival. In December of 2021 we finally were ready to present the work indoors in an old gymnasium space at St. Michael's Church in Upper Manhattan however, it was the beginning of the Omicron surge just at the moment when many shows were closing. Somehow the cast remained healthy and we went on with the performances but to a very, very small audience. As of September 2024 the full work has not had a performance in a legitimate theater space.

Inspirations and resources:
Books/Articles/Websites/Museums:

My Inwood - website archive maintained by local Inwood historian, Cole Thompson since 2008
Lost Inwood - photo history book by Cole Thompson and Don Rice (2019)
Inwood’s old Magdalene Asylum - Cole Thompson
Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad and Criminal in 19th Century New York, Algonquin Books (2018)
Ten Days in a Madhouse - Nellie Bly (1887) , Wildside Press
American Prison - Shane Bauer, 2018 Penquin Press
 
(A)dressing Our Hidden Truths - Alison Lowry, National Museum of Ireland Decorative Arts and History
An artistic response to the legacy of mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries by glass artist Alison Lowry

Justice for Magdalenes Research: Magdalene Oral History Project
A RESOURCE FOR PEOPLE AFFECTED BY AND INTERESTED IN IRELAND'S MAGDALENE INSTITUTIONS

Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice by McGettrick, O’Donnell, O’Rourke, Smith and Steed. (IB Taurus/Bloomsbury, 2021)

Resources for Teaching Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries

Irish Workhouse Center-Portumna, Ireland (Catherine Gallant/DANCE in residence August, 2022)

Dublin Live 7-4-2022
Dublin's last Magdalene laundry set to be turned into memorial centre

NY Times 4-17-2019
Ireland’s Church Homes Gave Children’s Bodies to Medical Schools for Dissection

NY Times  The Lost Children of Tuam
NY Times articles on Magdalene Laundries

NY Times 6-6-2019  ‘Our Crimes Are Not Who We Are’

NY Times 6-17-2020
Vanee Sykes, Ex-Prisoner Who Helped Others Rejoin Society, Dies at 53

Breaking the Rule of Silence - website by Evelyn Glynn, Limerick

Khaleegi Dance



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