I slowed the bells down until they sounded like a warning. I watched the footage, the men, the noise, the parades of the rituals, again and again. I wanted to know why so I got in a car with strangers. I called it research. I called it trust. I thought about belonging and shame, I sang about beauty. Some things get passed down from hand to hand. Some things get taught by fear. Someone carries the memory of how, someone enters it for the first time and follows along. “May Day” is a multi-media performance about fertility traditions from rural regions of Switzerland and Germany, their violence, their contested heritage, and the desire for mythology and belonging in our time.