Aquí/Here – Zip Code Memory Project

María José Contreras

In Aquí/Here workshop participants have the opportunity to reflect and work collectively on their experiences during the pandemic through performance and mapping practices. Participants are invited to craft different types of maps to reflect on their individual and collective experience of the pandemic and then to embody these maps through movements, gestures and theatrical games.

We start by crafting our individual body map to identify and locate memories of the pandemic. Our body map allows us to think about the traces the pandemic has left on our bodies, and what our bodies “hold” that may be not in our conscious mind. The body map is a great exercise to allow the emerging of complex, ambivalent and often contradictory memories. We explore and discover ways to re-embody our memories and share them in the common space of the workshop through movement, gestures and poetic language. We then proceed to work on maps of the ZCMP neighborhoods, tracing sensorial maps, imagining trajectories of losses and grief, and envisioning paths to hope. Through theatrical games, the group works through these maps devising ritual embodied gestures for repair and healing.

Workshop participants work both individually and collectively exploring ways to creatively work through the pandemic experience. Our main tools are mapping practices, embodied exercises, theatrical games and collective conversations intended to ground the workshop experience.

A close-up of two participants looking at each other as the one on the left, in jeans and pink hoodie, holds a lit match as they speak while the participant to the right with a gray sweater listens. Other participants in the semi-lit church space look on.

A black-and-white map of New York City is being drown upon by participants with an assortment of color markers, drawing shining red hearts, green paths in parks, bridges, and other placemarkers. Some hands point while others trace.

A circle of ZCMP participants speak and sit cross-legged on a dimly lit church space. In the back wall hang a row of colorful life-size body maps drawn on brown paper.

Six ZCMP participants in a dimly lit church space extend all four limbs in unison.

Two groups of ZCMP participants in a dimly lit church space engage in body movement exercises. In the foreground, the participants stand legs shoulder width apart, arms and fingers outstretched in a unified gesture.

Some ten ZCMP participants face the back wall towards a row of colorful life-sized body maps. With backs towards the camera, some participants stand legs shoulder-length apart and arms raised, others jog in place, while some stare in concentration.

Some ZCMP participants react to a row of colorful life-sized body maps that hang on the back wall of a dimly lit church space. One participant in black sweatpants and a white-red-gray plaid shirt hunches forward, head raised, with their left hand reaching towards their lower back.

Seven ZCMP participants stand in a dimly lit church space in front of a row of colorful life-sized body maps that hang in the back wall. Most of them look towards the left-hand side, hands in their jacket pockets.

A row of colorful life-sized body maps hang in the back wall of a dimly lit church space.

A participant with a red tracksuit and black vest works one on of the life-sized body maps that hang on the back wall of a dimly lit church space. They write the word FEAR in the space of the body's head surrounded by red squiggly lines and pompoms.

Four ZCMP help hang up colorful life-sized body maps on the back wall of a dimly lit church space.

A ZCMP participant with wavy black hair covering their face hunches over their life-sized body map which they have decorated with glittered glue, red pompoms and the word BRACE in thick black script being repeated across the body map's lower half.

A close-up of a ZCMP participant's hands as they decorate their body map with colorful pompoms. The words FEAR, TIGHT, HELPLESS, and KINDNESS in thick black script are surrounded by red squiggly lines.

A close-up of a life-sized body map's feet traced in blue lines and decorated with a variety of weeds and lavender flowers. A brown, light green and uncapped orange marker lay over the brown paper figure.

A ZCMP wearing a silver ring, various bangles, black pants and dark red-purple hoodie lay on top of a large brown rectangle of paper as their silhouette is being traced with a purple marker.

A ZCMP with glasses, hair in a high bun, and green scarf lay on their back over a large rectangle of brown paper as their silhouette is being traced with a purple marker.

A hand holds up a match as it sparks out and releases a puff of smoke.

Two ZCMP participants face each other in a dimly lit church space. The participant facing the camera, with long wavy dark hair, black sleeveless top, and blue jeans holds up a lit match in their right hand as they speak.

Z huddled group of ZCMP participants in a dimly lit church space. One participants in a red tee shirt faces another participant with pink hair and lavender sweater; the former holds up a lit match as they stare into the fire, a puff of smoke over their face, while the latter waits.

Two ZCMP participants face each other in a dimly lit church space. The participant to the right, in dark clothes and beanie, holds up a lit match in their right hand as they look intently at the other participant in a red-blue-gray plaid shirt.

ZCMP workshop leader María José, with their purple shoulder-length hair, black long-sleeve sweater and jeans, and brown belt holds up a lit match in their right hand and the box close to their chest in the other. They convey a longing expression to the person hearing their story out of frame.

ZCMP workshop leader María José, their back towards the camera, participates in the workshop. They hold their hands up to their head, only their fingers grazing their purple hair, as other participants in the background imitate the gesture.

Header and slideshow images by Desiree Rios