Lilith is a solo performance by Wendy Jehlen, presented by ANIKAYA.
Lilith is a study of the storied first woman, created as Adam’s equal, who rebelled against Adam and fled Eden. This character is explored as a figure from ancient texts who has been re-envisioned and reclaimed in modern feminist thought.
The performance views Lilith as an observer of history, dwelling outside of linear time, who constantly relives her own creation, her fall/escape from Adam and Eden, her punishment (to have one hundred of her children die every day) and the injustice that led to it. At times she appears as a creatrix, a serpent, a winged creature, embodying the many ways that literature and art has viewed her through the ages, but reinterpreting these disparate images into one whole, complex being.
Originally inspired Kiki Smith’s sculpture “Lilith” and created in collaboration with a series of poems by Keith Tornheim, “Lilith, Dancer on the Wind”.