2022 another audience artist-in-residence

iele paloumpis is a dance artist, herbalist, astrologer and end of life doula living in Canarsie/Munsee territory in Lenapehoking.

iele’s work is rooted in kinesthetic awareness, trauma-informed griefwork, and ancestral re-membrance practices that reflect fragmented lineages across queer, trans and crip aural histories, alongside their Greek, Anatolian and Irish-American diasporic bloodlines. Most recently, iele has been exploring intergenerational trauma and resilience related to centuries of occupation, forced displacement, and eventually the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, known to Greeks as “The Catastrophe.”

iele comes from a long line of mystics, and is grateful to have studied with many teachers who have influenced their path. Under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield and Jeffery Bullock, iele received a BA in Dance from Hollins University in 2006.

As an end of life doula, they have received certifications from Valley Hospice, Mount Sinai’s Palliative Care Institute, and Deanna Flores Cochran’s Accompanying the Dying program between 2014-16.

iele has practiced Tarot since 1995, most recently with the mentorship of Eva Yaa Asantewaa. In summer 2014, iele studied herbology with Rosemary Gladstar, and more recently iele has deepened their connection to ancestral plant medicine across the Mediterranean & SWANA regions with guidance from Layla K. Feghali & SWANA Ancestral.

Following in the footsteps of their Anatolian ancestors, iele is mostly a self-taught astrologer, though studying the teachings of Demetra George on Traditional Astrology has been particularly impactful.

iele will always be a student of the more-than-human world, and is in endless gratitude to the forests, mountains, rivers, stars and animal-kin who offer so much wisdom. As a disabled, trans, queer survivor from a working class background, iele empathizes across multiple axes of oppression and brings this awareness to their work as an artist, educator, doula and intuitive healer.

Sunrise Gathering: Anatolian Songs for Wabanaki Lands

July 16 5am-6am

You’re invited to join iele paloumpis and Adrien Lorenzo Weibgen as they engage in and share a Sunrise practice developed during their time in residence at Black Hole Hollow. Drawing from iele’s ancestral Anatolian vocal traditions, we will share and offer songs to the Abenaki land where Black Hole Hollow is situated.

Further context: Anatolia is historic land colonially known as present-day Türkiye; the place-name “Anatolia” translates to “Sunrise” or “East.” The Abenaki are one of the five nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy; similarly, the word Wabanaki translates to “People of the Dawn” or “Easterner.” 

iele looks forward to listening to and learning from Wabanaki land, feeling into a kinship that moves with and through somatic memories of forced displacement, an ocean apart between Anatolia and N’dakinna (Abenaki for “our land”), and yet connected to a shared origin of the Sun rising at Dawn in the East. Come listen, learn, and sing with us. 

Afternoon Gathering: Talking and Dancing with Trees 

July 16 2pm-3pm

In this time of ongoing pandemic and ecological crises, our collective survival relies on a shared understanding of our connectivity and interdependence. Grounded in this awareness, iele feels there is much to learn from the care networks of trees. Trees communicate to one another through an intricate underground system of mycelium and roots, known as the mycorrhizal network. Through this sprawling, entangled system, trees share nutrients and send warning signals about drought and disease. Join iele for a walk amongst the trees at Black Hole Hollow. Through intuitive listening and somatic practices developed during iele’s residency period, we will ask the trees to share some of their wisdom with us related to sustaining networks of care.