Maria Gaspar’s We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (After Angela Davis) is a sonic sculpture with live performance activations by guest musicians Damon Locks, Ben LaMar Gay, and Mauricio López F. Composed of salvaged jail debris found following the 2021 demolition of Division I at the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago, this work stems from the artist’s sustained engagement with the nearly century-old carceral institution located in Little Village, her childhood neighborhood.

The title is drawn from a line in Angela Davis: An Autobiography to highlight how community building and collective action are acts of creativity, trust, and transcendence. This concept is manifested in three distinct sculptures—a demolition bucket, a claw, and a grappler used during the jail’s deconstruction—which integrate cell bars to evoke its carceral history while honoring the lives of the individuals once held within. Woven into the physical soundscape and attunement of these bars, are lyrical components from a workshop series Gaspar facilitated at Walls Turned Sideways with poets and writers impacted by the criminal injustice system. Using the metal from the bars as a conductor, the musical improvisations generate a sonic structure of care, support, and release, standing in contrast to those of submission, restraint, and control.

Kovler Atrium. This performance is included with museum admission.