The Nature of Us – TRAction (Kevin Jesuino)

Featured as part of Nanaimo PRIDE week, 2026

THE NATURE OF US
featuring
Voices of Nanaimo’s LGBTQIA2S+ community

Directed by Kevin Jesuino. (TRAction), Sound mix by Cassette Bessette (Artio Choir)
Drummer & vocalist, Chantal Changnon, (Métis, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewen),
Support by: Dave Spirit Wolf Bodaly, Snuneymuxw, and vocalists from 

The Nature Of Us is an immersive sound installation that takes place in various communities.  The sound score, created in the project residency (April 19-20), is installed through a section of landscape at Bowen Park.  Audiences arrive to experience a surround-sound composition as they choose stillness, grounding, breath, or gentle movement invited by this  moment and the installation’s natural surroundings.

The project residency has recorded voices from Nanaimo’s LGBTQIA2S+ community that are integrated and combined by Cassette Bessette, to create soundscapes, monologues, and choral music that fosters a deep empathic connection with the natural world.  This unique work invites audiences to listen beyond human-centric perspectives. With this invitation, we are encouraged to engage with the ‘more than human’ elements we coexist with on a daily basis – such as birds, trees, waters, wind and humans.

Set in Bowen Park, the audience takes in an installation that blends the pre-recorded voices of a choir with the ambient sounds of nature. In weaving together these elements, the piece creates an acoustic portal for listeners to expand their awareness, building a kind of ‘living archive’ of the area’s unique biota. The Nature of Us offers a reflective and emotional journey into the interdependence of all living things. By partnering with a local queer choir of six individuals at each of the project’s stops, the soundscapes build in an archive of the diversity of this region that is carried with each evolution and new location.  It fosters a deep, community-rooted connection to the environment, actively celebrating the region’s cultural contributions.  

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