Sister Sylvester
Constantinopoliad
US premiere
Installation / Audio & Reading Experience / Visual Art
A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, Sister Sylvester’s Constantinopoliad is a handmade book, read collectively by the audience inside of a sound installation. The work is Inspired by the blank and torn-out pages in “Constantinopoliad, an epic,” the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems.
The Dark: PS21’s fearless winter festival of live performance radiating across Columbia County
The Dark is a new annual festival from PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance that celebrates and elevates the depths of winter. Taking place February 16–22, 2026, the festival will unfold at PS21 and across Columbia County—in theatres, restaurants, libraries, saunas, and outdoor public spaces. Featuring more than 60 international artists and over 80 performances, The Dark offers a packed week of world-class contemporary performance, installation, music, dance, and theatre—all exploring winter as a time of community and solitude, fire and ice, darkness and light. A major new attraction for the region, the festival positions Columbia County as a year-round cultural destination—not just a summer one.
It is a light in the dark—and The Dark is the light.
Secure your Festival Pass to The Dark now which includes tickets to every performance along with a complimentary sauna and ice skating session!
Constantinopoliad is a collective reading and audio work. A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, the story is inspired by the blank and torn out pages in “Constantinopoliad, an epic”, the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing queer archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems.
Constantinopoliad is co-produced by Onassis ONX and supported by the British Council. Based on a live performance, “Constantinopoliad”, which was commissioned by the Onassis Foundation, supported by residencies at Onassis Air, and with the support of the Cavafy Archive, Athens.
Special Thanks: Onur Karaoglu, British Council, Marianna Christofi, Angeliki Mousiou, Nefeli Myrodia, Efe Murad, Jazia Hammoudi, Matthew Neiderhauser, John Fitzgerald, Aaron Santiago, Gill Holland.
Director: sister sylvester
Dramaturg: Andrew Kircher
Lighting designer: Cosette (Ettie) Pin
Sound engineer/Score: Nadah El Shazly
Video/projection designer Slides Jeremy Kadetsky based on a design: Tei Blow
Visual artist Illustration and book co-design: efrîn ozyetis
Commissioned by the Onassis Foundation, supported by residencies at Onassis Air, and with the support of the Cavafy Archive, Athens.
sister sylvester is a multimedia artist and amateur microbiologist. Her installation work Constantinopoliad (‘24), premiered at CPH:DOX where it won the INTER:ACTIVE prize and toured to the Venice International Film Festival as part of the Best of Festivals selection. Her work Drinking Brecht: An Automated Laboratory Performance (‘24) premiered at IDFA and continues to tour internationally including to Open City and Thessaloniki Film Festivals. In collaboration with Deniz Tortum she created the VR documentary Shadowtime, (’23) which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and toured to IDFA, GIFF, Thessaloniki Film Festival and SXSW; and the film Our Ark which premiered at IDFA (’21) and has screened at festivals internationally. In her live work she creates visual essays and books that become performances, spatial narratives that play with spoken and written text to create communal reading experiences. Recent works include: Constantinopoliad, with a live-score by Nadah El Shazly, commissioned by the Onassis Foundation, and premiered at National Sawdust in NYC (‘23) as a site specific work in the Onassis Library, Athens, and at the Internationaal Theater of Amsterdam; The Eagle and The Tortoise, which showed as a work-in-progress at National Sawdust NYC, and premiered at Frascati Theater, Amsterdam, as a part of IDFA On Stage (‘22), and in NYC as part of Under The Radar 2024.
She is a 2025 Creative Capital fellow, a current resident at ONX Studio; a 2019 MacDowell Fellow; an alumnus of the Public Theater New Works program and CPH:DOX lab. She co-teaches a bio-art class at Colorado College, and has also taught and lectured at MIT, Princeton, UCCS, Columbia University, and Boğaziçi, Istanbul.
Her work has been called ‘genuinely subversive’ by Time Out NY; ‘imaginative and original’ by New York Times; ‘perplexing’ by Theaterscene, ‘apocalyptic’ by Artforum, and an ‘otherworldly, intimate, off-kilter, queer artistic orgasm’ by Life Magazine, Greece.
Nadah El Shazly Born and raised in Cairo, El Shazly began her musical journey as a member of Sick Gdrch, a Misfits cover band, before venturing into electronic production and composition. Her debut album, 2017’s ‘Ahwar’, earned global praise, and established Nadah as a leading figure in the contemporary music landscape. She appeared on the cover of The Wire in 2018 in an issue announcing “Cairo’s New Wave.” El Shazly’s live performances are equally immersive, combining her enthralling voice with intricate sound manipulation and dynamic collaborations with other musicians. She has worked with a host of innovators including Sam Shalabi, Elvin Brandhi, Maurice Louca, and many more. She’s graced stages at prestigious venues and festivals worldwide, including Irtijal, Le Guess Who?, Rewire, Best Kept Secret, FIMAV, Roskilde, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Nusasonic, and Marfa Myths. Nadah is also known for her soundtrack work. In 2022 she scored the film Les Damnés ne pleurent pas (The Damned Don’t Cry), that follows Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim who move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she’s caught up in. El Shazly won the Best Original Music award at the Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival and at the Dublin International Film Festival. In the last year she’s also scored Last Party in R. Desert! by Mahmoud Sabbagh, and To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel, which premiered at Cannes.
Executive Producer sister sylvester, Co-Produced by Onassis ONX, Associate Producer Julia Solomonoff, Associate Producer/Project Manager Marin Day
Commissioned by Onassis
Residency Support by Onassis Air
The Dark is supported through a Market New York grant, awarded to PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance from Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.
Digital content coverage for The Dark is supported by Bloomberg Connects.
The Dark‘s business sponsors are Millay Arts and The Mountains Media.
Thank you to the many generous individual supporters who helped fund The Dark.
PS21’s programs are made possible in part with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
While this performance does not have reserved seating, we are happy to accommodate any specific accessibility needs.
Please reach out to Adriana at boxoffice@ps21chatham.org, and she will coordinate with our front-of-house team to ensure your experience is comfortable and enjoyable.
