THE CHAWIJI
ARCHIVE
My first and longest practice has been live performance in music ranging from opera, folk, soul to musical theatre. With my work in investigating and expanding the ways we think of the “Archive”, I’ve shifted the use of performance to one of a tool to preserve and share histories and legacies. This bringing me to the naming of my practice as The Chawiji Archive — a Lunda word for “in these times or the time of now.”
The longer into my time as a vocalist and composer, the more I am dedicated to connecting the embodied practice of performance to collective memory and cultural safeguarding. This work is one of entertainment, engagement and education through the art of gathering and spectacle in chawiji.
RAGTIME BROADWAY
Revival Concert
Werklund Centre & Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, 2022
Seen with: Jessica Eckstadt
The archive as I have known presents itself to me as a death sentence — stories, objects and practices petrified behind glass and frozen in the removed and anthropological text of the wandering, onlooking outsider. I seek to explore and expand an alternative archive; one that is performed, embodied and lived with in real time. For me, this is best articulated through creating, facilitating, directing and executing performance.
Strawberry and Peaches Cabaret
Werklund Centre (formerly Arts Commons), 2021
dancers: Sabrina Comanescu and Natasha Korney
“Have You Seen My Friends?” Performance Installation
Frameless Gallery, 2025
actors: Justice Eze
“Maybe” Play Reading
Woeza Theatre and Dance Company , 2021
actors: Keesha Cheesman, Cindy Ansah, Obaro Eze, Omatta Odalor
Whitney Houston Tribute Concert
LAKISHA JONES & CALGARY PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Seen with Tehillah Chiwele
