The Ancestors Project

The Looking for Lilith ensemble will share their two-year exploration of stories, collected as part of their evolving community arts initiative - The Ancestors Project. This culminating event will take guests on an interactive journey that allows them to immerse themselves in the life stories and lessons of the many ancestors whose journeys have informed our lives and communities. Live music, drawings, performance art, theatre and ritual come together in a celebration of heritage.

The Ancestors Project has been a series of workshops that we started during the winter of 2023, where we used the past to create in the present. In this evolving community arts project, LFL has collaborated with multiple different Community Partners throughout the Commonwealth to host workshops in which LFL artists led participants in activities exploring stories of their personal ancestors who have inspired and guided them, and transforming these stories into pieces of visual and performance art that were then shared with fellow participants.

LFL defines "ancestor" as anyone who has come before you who has informed in some way the person that you are.

Come join us to honor and celebrate stories of passing the torch from one generation to the next, women overcoming oppressive systems and leaving a more just world for their daughters and granddaughters, and stories of families parted by world events, and others parted by private actions. Experience how people feel their ancestors living on in them, as a transformation of energy. Witness people’s pride of the past and hopes for the future, as we reflect together on both in the present.

The Ancestors Project workshops were fully supported by the Kentucky Foundation for Women and Louisville Metro External Agency Fund so that each workshop was completely free for participants and Community Partners. The creations from last season's and this season's workshops have led to the devising of this culminating event, thanks to support from a National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant! Participants and/or their stories may be featured in this performance.

We want to advise our audiences that the stories we will share at this event include among them accounts of immigration from Central America and Eastern Europe, as well as stories of ancestors facing hardships including domestic violence, addiction, and neglect.