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        SOVA

                                                  

Reclamation Ceremony
2018

Private performance
The Overlook
Chicago, IL




Reclamation Ceremony is a performance that offers one the process of reclaiming oneself from the patriarchy. Reclamation was born from the research and study of Samurai naming ceremonies, Papal inauguration ceremonies, Bar/t Mitzvah candle ceremonies, Wiccan name changing ceremonies, and looking at artists such as Sophie Calle and her work of The Fake Wedding and The Birthday Ceremony. This work will continue until a court of law will legally confirm my reclamation from Fagan to Sova.

Reclamation Ceremony Script:
a gathering of loved ones
a single table to break bread together
array of colorful, sweet, and nourishing foods
a candle for each guest
a matchbox of long wooden matches
—
designate a close friend to be The Usher of the evening. The Usher is responsible for gathering the guests to begin the ceremony. The Usher quiets the room and begins by asking everyone to stand along the left side of a long table with The One on the right side. The Usher then asks everyone to communally breathe in a few moments of silence. The Usher then says a few words about this Reclamation and explains the steps of the ritual.

“By which name do you wish to be called?”
The One says their desired reclaimed name, lights a match and hands it to guest
the guest repeats desired reclaimed name as they light the candle on the table
the next guest repeats the ritual until every guest has lit a candle

“as a legal witness to this Reclamation, I recognize the breaking of the one’s patrimonial line of her birth given name, and now pronounce her as Jennifer Elise Sova.”


Words from my Reclamation Ceremony:

I am starting the tedious and expensive legal process of changing my name by first having a Reclamation Ceremony as a celebratory art/performance affair as a way to make a feminist statement of self-ownership and a rejection of patriarchal assumptions, expectations, and traditions in our culture.

This Reclamation is an act of self-love and a statement that is meant to be the grand gesture to oneself. Our society doesn’t hold self-love and intimacy in the forefront of its values, it falls in line behind money, power, competition, and coupled love.

This Reclamation is also a way for me to honor the women, female, and femme relationships in my life. This is the strongest love I have ever seen. I was raised by all women in a patriarchal world and still to this day surround myself with bold, soft, hilarious, brilliant women. This Reclamation is for them.

At birth I was given my father’s name and today, I unmark myself from him and the assumption of male domination. I chose a new name to honor myself and my own history. Sova.