Emerging from DE’s research and the subject of Willkie’s doctoral research-creation project Dramaturgy of a Diasporic Body: Blackness as a Praxis of Performance (UQÀM, 2023), Willkie explores her own Black diasporic embodiment as a methodological anchor for performance and dramaturgical studies. This overall research trajectory culminated in the award-winning solo Confession Publique (Prix Interprète, Meilleure oeuvre, Prix de la danse de Montréal, 2022). The project’s conceptual moorings move through the iterative acts of performance as both the tool for, and the outcome of her research. Grounded in the collaborative practices through which the performer generates the material for performance, the full-evening solo work, choreographed by Mélanie Demers (MAYDAY Danse), is based entirely on material drawn from personal anecdotes. The piece becomes a dramaturgical praxis of Blackness that is activated in and through performance. 

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Since premiering at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines in November 2021, it has been performed over 60 times for audiences totaling more than 3,000 and continues to tour both nationally and internationally.