Presented by CounterPulse and OYSTERKNIFE in partnership with Grace Cathedral, mouf//full will re-wild and reimagine what it means to move as a Mas(s) in a world hellbent. Involving a sprawl of Black miracle workers in dance, song, and visual design, OYSTERKNIFE (Gabriele Christian + Chibueze Crouch) invite you to Grace Cathedral, hands open, moufs full.

Mouf//full is an exploration of faith’s limits through a Black queer interdisciplinary lens. Co-directed by Gabriele Christian and Chibueze Crouch, collectively known as OYSTERKNIFE, this piece interrogates the role of the Church in personal lineage and its influences across Afro-Diasporic cultures. How has the Church been both balm and barrier? Where can we find a similar divinity in secular spaces: in the club, inside our bodies, through song, by gathering, and within our quotidian lives?

This immersive, participatory performance combines dance-theater, ritual masquerade, song, poetry, and video to explore how Black cultures have transformed Church into a uniquely syncretic cultural space. By preserving African traditions and adapting a colonial ideology into one of radical liberation, spiritual catharsis, and creative spectacle, Black people have made the Church reflect our own images. Still, flaws and cracks in the foundation remain: homophobia, sexism, social conservatism and spiritual violence run rampant in many religious spaces. With the help of our many collaborators – including Marvin K. White, the Saint John Coltrane Church – OYSTERKNIFE will create a different kind of Mas(s) that welcomes and celebrates all peoples, while centering a queer Blackness that births expansive new worlds we can thrive and believe in.

Event Details 

Doors open at 7 pm. Please arrive early to help us start the show on time.  All audience members and staff will be expected to wear a N95 mask (which will be provided for free) except for when actively drinking (only water is allowed in the cathedral). Performers may be unmasked while performing.

Tickets $25-$40. counterpulse.org/mouffull 

This event is part of Spacious Grace, the cathedral’s annual free-form arts festival when we remove the pews and fill the space with exciting events. Now in its ninth year, Spacious Grace runs from February 2 to 10. Explore the full lineup. 

About the Artists 

OYSTERKNIFE—a name derived from Zora Neale Hurston’s essay “How It Feels To Be a Colored Me”—was formed in late 2017 out of a longtime creative friendship between Gabriele Christian and Chibueze Crouch. Nourishing a desire to subvert their collegiate theatrical training, which often ignored their complex Afro-Diasporic queer experiences, they found that interdisciplinary, somatic-based, experimental approaches made for fuller work, allowing them to interrogate sociohistorical norms and institutions while freeing their bodies. Both members of OYSTERKNIFE bring a wealth of creative experiences, meshing theater, ritual masquerade, video, extemporaneous movement, song, and text. Central to every work they co-create are: an attention to archives (documenting the voices both seen and unseen), collectivism (who is here and who is missing that we need to invite), and multimedia immersion (seamlessly blending disciplines and breaking the audience/performer divide). They have produced three full-length shows in the Bay: “mouth full of sea” dug into presumptions around complicity in the transatlantic slave trade; “mouth//full” excavated BlaQ testimony and African indigenous spiritual practices in the Christian Church; and the site-specific “Time of Change” narratively reanimated the majority Black Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that was eclipsed by the counterculture movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They have also been commissioned by the University of Santa Cruz, CounterPulse, Campo Santo/Crowded Fire Theatre, Theatre Bay Area, ODC, National Queer Art Festival, and the Black Choreographer’s Festival. 

Photo of Gabriele Christian and Chibueze Crouch (OYSTERKNIFE) by Chani Bockwinkel  

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