Come join us for an evening of poetry, song, and incantation to celebrate the exhibition Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge. Live performance will animate secret magical rites, songs and other considerations of early modern magic and witchcraft.

We will open the evening with a series of polyphonic vocal performances accompanied by harp by The Living Working Ensemble, a group of Los Angeles-based musicians that includes Leslie Lancaster Allison and collaborators Tamzin Elliott and Freya Berkhout. Their set will include early modern witch ballads, a contemporary interpretation of an eighteenth-century grimoire or magic scroll from southern Germany or Austria that will be included in the exhibition, and songs originally written for the 2019 play Covenant, by Francis Weiss Rabkin, set in 17th century England as the emergence of capitalism fomented a criminalization of traditional healing practices.

The evening will close with a reading by poet Ariana Reines. Originally from Salem, Massachusetts and based in New York, Reines will read from her recent book The Rose (2025, Graywolf Press). Reines’ writing in her fifth full-length collection draws on references that span time periods, evoking myth and fiction and power dynamics of the now and the distant past (before, during, and after the early modern period that is the focal point of Cunning Folk): “I did manage to forget: healing / Potions, songs, & secret sounds / The rose with its mouth like a child’s, asleep / Minaret, thorn, spire, steeple.” Outside of her poems she has written that “Ancient medicine always involved language and incantation, and I have always preferred to teach poetry as magic than as literature.” A book signing and sale will follow the reading.

Bios:

Ariana Reines

Named a ‘crucial voice of her generation’ by KCRW’s Michael Silverblatt, Ariana Reines is an award-winning poet, Obie-winning playwright, performer and translator. Her recent books include The Rose (2025) and Wave of Blood (UK, 2024). Other works include A Sand Book (2020 Kingsley Tufts Prize), The Cow (2006 Alberta Prize), Coeur De Lion, Mercury, and The Origin of the World. Her 2009 play, Telephone, was the recipient of two Obie Awards. She has created performances for The Guggenheim Museum, Stuart Shave Modern Art, Swiss Institute, Performance Space New York, and many others, and since 2020 has led Invisible College, a hub for the study of poetry and sacred texts.

The Living Working Ensemble:

Leslie Allison

Leslie Allison is a queer interdisciplinary composer. Leslie’s live and recorded music has been presented in plays, dance performances, composer showcases, and art films in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Cologne. For decades they have led un-genred ensembles, and their current group, The Living Working Ensemble (Los Angeles), has performed for the FemSynthLab Showcase and the Backyard Ballet Concert Series. Leslie has appeared as a musician for Matmos, Miguel Gutierrez, Cassils, lucky dragons, Weirdo Night, and Carolyn Riggs. Through their music studio Resonant Body, Leslie teaches somatic vocal and compositional practice to adults in private lessons, group workshops, and choral ensembles, with a focus on trans voices. Leslie has published their writings about music and dance for the Chicago Reader and Brooklyn Rail, and their chapbook of poetry "Martha" was put out by Ugly Duckling Presse. Their solo album "Touch Wood" will be released in November 2025.

Tamzin Elliott 

Tamzin Elliott is a composer and harpist based in Los Angeles. Tamzin’s music stems from their love of immersive, world-building experiences and the process of learning music by rote, often incorporating elements of early European music and living folk music such as polyphony from the Republic of Georgia. As a harpist they specialize in historical performance practice, performing European Renaissance repertoire as well as 17th- to 18th-century Irish and Scottish repertory on the wire-strung cláirseach. The work, reconstructing this repertory from Ireland and Scotland, with the tutelage of harpist and scholar Siobhán Armstrong, has played a major role in the development of Tamzin’s current composition project, Meidelant: an opera on the Maidenhood of Morgan le Fay. Tamzin holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Southern California, studying under Ted Hearne, Don Crockett, and Sean Friar.

Freya Berkhout

Freya Berkhout is a Sydney-born multi-award winning composer and creative technologist based in Los Angeles. She began her professional music career as half of experimental pop duo kyü, releasing two records to critical acclaim and winning a slew of awards. Since then, Freya has been scoring films, television, podcasts and interactive media, notably The Greenhouse (Netflix) and Pillow Talk (Audible). Her scores have been heard at festivals around the globe, including Cannes, SxSW, Warsaw, Tribeca and BFI. She is a graduate of Sydney University, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and has a Masters in Computational Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Freya returned to the world of music in 2023, releasing her debut solo album Fruit. She is a 2024 Women in Film Music Fellow and a 2025 recipient of the Reel Change Grant from New Music USA for queer feature Ride or Die, which premiered at Tribeca Festival in 2025. Freya’s passion is to manifest profound, emotional, thought-provoking experiences, creating sonic worlds that span the dark and enigmatic to the delicate, exquisite and transcendental. She revels in bold, celebratory intersectional feminist and queer narratives and perspectives.

All public programs at the Cantor Arts Center are always free! Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended. Those who have registered will have priority for seating. This program includes strong language and is recommended for attendees 13 years or older.

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Accessibility Information or Requests

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is committed to ensuring our programs are accessible to everyone. To request access information and/or accommodations for this event, please complete this form at least one week prior to the event: museum.stanford.edu/access. 

For questions, please contact disability.access@stanford.edu or Kwang-Mi Ro, kwangmi8@stanford.edu, (650) 723-3469.
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