Cassandra Cuts: A multidisciplinary arts initiative by a collective of two

Employing art in many of its expressions - the written, visual, and performing arts - Cassandra Cuts explores various themes, including power, erasure, and the culturally and politically constructed concepts of madness through ancient and modern motifs. Dramatic text, drawings, and animation illuminate the theme with emphasis on the experiences of women and members of other minoritized and marginalized populations. 

In Greek mythology, Apollo promised a Trojan Princess, Cassandra, the gift of prophecy if she would court him.  Cassandra accepted the gift but then had a change of heart.  As revenge, Apollo ensured that, despite the many truths Cassandra saw and spoke, nobody would ever believe her. As fate would have it, this was not only Cassandra’s tragedy, but that of all of humanity, as her unheeded warnings led to the fall of Troy itself.

Three thousand years later, Cassandra’s daughters are still being dismissed.

The cuts in Cassandra Cuts are sourced from the lexicon of film and theater, where they refer to editing transitions and commands. Cuts is also pulled from the vernacular, as in cuts like a knife, cut a bitch, a cut of meat, a cut above, cut you down to size, cut off, cut through the crap, etc.

Moreover, the title speaks to the “cuts” to the rights of women and other minoritized and marginalized groups, healthcare, and the economy, which disproportionately impact single mothers. It also refers to hate crimes, including gender-based violence, and to self-harm.

Finally, our project is an opportunity for Cassandra to wield the blade and fight back – to cut through the noise that silences her.

Cassandra Cuts draws from psychology, sociology, geography, and history, including local history. The nearby Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane, which operated from 1869 to 1995, now in ruins, stands as a stark metaphor and backdrop for our project, as the mental health of all citizens suffers in a culture that enforces gender roles. Cassandra Cuts also draws from lived experiences through which even women who maintain their sanity are frequently regarded as “mad” simply for having dissident thoughts.

As women, it sometimes seems as if we are all Cassandra - subjected to a form of cultural lingchi. Cassandra Cuts seeks to “flesh out” Cassandra, her thousand cuts and all, in the hope of healing her and, in turn, humanity itself.

In sum, it is hoped that our project expands its viewers’ conception of mental health and gender to consider the many ways in which the well-being of individuals is shaped by social and political forces informed by history and its erasure. It proposes that art in its many nuances, unbound from popular conceptions, expectations, and limitations of what art can and should be, can present new ways of thinking and healing.