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1. the archive
This strange quasi-sukkah* structure you are about to engage with is a physical articulation of the processes
and practices I have steeped myself in the last four years: an inquiry through research and lived experience into
the environing** of people and sound within the collective gathering.
As part of my senior thesis as a music major, I spent this year dreaming up and building a structure dedicated
to several of these processes that have both nourished and challenged me. I wanted to pay homage to the many
artists, activists, thinkers, and healers who have guided my own curious wanderings, and also to share a
glimpse into two specific gathering practices that have developed over and through the pandemic: facilitating
a weekly Conduction workshop at 2D and world-building with the creative group intuition that is Who’s
Lily (with dear Isa, Lesley, Eden, and Miranda) at summer and winter residencies. These practices have
fortified my belief in the immense change possible when folks place trust in each other while still holding
space for their own needs and conceptions of beauty. I hope that by welcoming you into my world I offer
moments of resonance or reflection in yours.
This structure serves multiple purposes; it is an archive, a mobile exhibit, a venue, a portal, an altar, a
playspace. It will be home to three events during three Sundays in April: a Quaker Meeting for Worship, a
Butch Morris-style Conduction, and a musical celebration with friends and loved ones.
This thesis is intentionally environed to invite all who take part to reconsider the ways in which we interact:
how can we gather in ways that prioritize bodily/intuitive knowledge, honestly address individual desires and
boundaries within the collective, and reveal that that we all have the tools available to us to connect with
ourselves, others, and the lower frequencies that permeate the universe? It emerges both as an antagonistic
reaction to the systems of power that often determine how we interact with each other within the institution
and as a generative model for how we might interact otherwise.
Above all, this thesis wants to be warm, and playful; it hopes to be thoughtful and clear while not taking itself
too seriously.
* sukkah: a temporary open-air dwelling constructed during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot
** environing: “the organization of surrounding things, conditions or influences” – Butch Morris, “Workbook for Musicians”

2. acknowledgements
This mobile archive and event series synthesizes the reflections gathered from four years of trying out a lot of
different ways of being and paying attention to what rings true. It emerges from hours of conversation: over
home-cooked meals with friends, through the ether of Zoom office hours, during the ecstatic post-gig hangs.
It represents just one moment in a process of learning that I hope to continue as long as I’m here: one try in
the lifelong trying.
Thank you to the many teachers, mentors, and educators from my time at Princeton who continue to direct
me towards legacies of radical environing: Kris Davis, Angelica Sanchez, César Alvarez, Anaïs Maviel, Samita
Sinha, RL Goldberg, Eddie Glaude, Ruha Benjamin, Shelby Sinclair, Kinohi Nishikawa, Reena Goldthree,
Tina Campt, Joshua Guild, Tracy K. Smith, Juri Seo, Jeff Snyder, Gavin Steingo, Pascal Le Boeuf, Anne
Cheng, Beth Lew-Williams, Aynsley Vandenbroucke, Dan Trueman, Danez Smith, and countless others.
Thank you to Inkyung Yi, Deborah Koenigsberg, Jacqueline Appleby, Beth Schupsky, Jana Johnson, and
April Peters for doing the real work that makes this university run.
Thank you to Akiva Jacobs, my fellow Conductor, and anyone who’s come to Tuesday night Conduction:
Azia, Maya R, Thalia, Jo, Riti, Sade, Emily, Evan, Chaya, Soumya, Saorise, Karen, Anson, Stav, Liam, Thiago,
Miguel, Jeff, Ruth, Nick, Jamie, Joyce, Maggie, Nati, Eden, Cammie, Julien, Dan, Tara, Zora, Davis, Raya,
Kyle, Dani, Emmanuel, Brittani, Sammy, and surely others.
Thank you to my dear friends and collaborators of Who’s Lily: Eden Girma, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Lesley
Mok, and Miranda Agnew. You all inspire me endlessly.
A special thank you to Cammie Lee, my first new friend post-Zoom year, whose conversations
birthed the ideas for many of these gathering manifestations.
This project could not have happened without the generosity of the Music and African American Studies
Departments, as well as the Office for Undergraduate Research.
And none of this could not have happened without the rock-solid support system that is Jeffrey Gordon,
Akiva Jacobs, Eden Girma, and Maya Rabinowitz. I love you all so much!
Most of all, thank you to the artists, activists, thinkers, poets, healers, and environers represented in this
project, many of whom embody Black queer visions for the future. We are forever indebted to your words,
sounds, and dreams, for practicing alternative modes of freedom in the face of great violence.
This archive is dedicated to you.
Princeton, NJ // April 11 - 24, 2022