"YOUR HONOR, a care procession" at MASS MoCA

Pictured: Emily Johnson / Catalyst, Quilt Being Star, worn by Ty Fierce Metteba, photo by Two Hawks Young.

April 11 | North Adams, MA | 4pm | Free with museum admission

On Saturday, April 11, Yup'ik choreographer and performance artist Emily Johnson brings "YOUR HONOR, a care procession" to MASS MoCA, a performance and gathering held inside Jeffrey Gibson's monumental Building 5 exhibition "POWER FULL BECAUSE WE'RE DIFFERENT."

Gibson's commission is an immersive installation filling MASS MoCA's football field-sized Building 5, featuring oversized garments adorned with beads and found materials in kaleidoscopic patterns. From the beginning, Gibson's intent was a true collaboration, bringing in Indigenous artists and thinkers to shape the programming.

Born in Soldotna, Alaska, and of Yup'ik descent, Johnson founded her performance company Catalyst in Minneapolis in 1998 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. Her work blends family stories, modern dance, electronic music, and community participation into her own distinct vision. She is a Bessie Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, and has presented work at Jacob's Pillow, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and festivals across the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

"YOUR HONOR" draws on a long-running thread in Johnson's practice: the 84 hand-stitched quilts that have traveled with her work since their premiere on Randall's Island in 2017. Designed by Ojibwe artist Maggie Thompson and made over the past decade by hundreds of volunteers across multiple regions, the quilts hold records of historic actions, personal histories, migrations, and collective dreams.

Participants will move through the Gibson exhibition together, taking in transmissions from artists across First Nations territories and sounds from Lower East Side DJ Dat Gurl Curly, eventually gathering on the quilts themselves. Visitors will be invited to contribute — responding to questions like: what are your non-negotiable care actions? How do we defend land in a city?

The event is free with museum admission. "POWER FULL BECAUSE WE'RE DIFFERENT" remains on view through September 2026.

MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA. massmoca.org