Green Eyed Monster

Lighting the Dark was an annual celebration organized by Chuckanut Transition, a community resilience group dedicated to reconnecting community life with the seasonal rhythms of place through art, learning, ritual, and gathering. Drawing inspiration from fire-centered traditions found throughout the world, the event honored the role of communal bonfires as spaces for purification, storytelling, intention-setting, and renewal.

For the 2019 Lighting the Dark celebration, I worked with members of Chuckanut Transition to create The Green-Eyed Monster, a large burn sculpture installed at the Alger Community Hall. Together with a diverse cast of performers, we guided participants through an evening of song, poetry, theater, and ritual.

The performance explored the transformative potential of confronting jealousy, greed, and feelings of scarcity. Through storytelling, symbolic action, and the communal burning of the sculpture, participants were invited to release limiting emotions and cultivate gratitude, generosity, abundance, and renewal. Like the fire itself, the event served as a reminder that transformation often begins by bringing our shadows into the light.