hand written note(s): before and beyond A month has passed since hand written note(s) . . . A month of massacre and memorial circles, Ramadan prayers for Orlando, Queers against Islamophobia, new vigils in Charleston for the church dead, shapeshifting, Brexit, a high yellow prettyboy spitting truth to power—who knew?—on BET, color drama, stars and
2 addressing / enveloping/ enclosing
In La MaMa Great Jones Studio 6, I take 3 workshops one after the other: Marissa Perel’s “Rename and Unbody: Somatic Awareness and Language for Who and What We Are,” Ni’Ja Whitson’s “Being a Body Out Loud: Trans-Indigenous and Political Practices for Artists and Activists seeking radical moves in their work, art, lives,” and mayfield
3 rewiring / forwarding
My friend Purvi comes with me to Enclosures at The Chocolate Factory. We have our marked-up copies of Sylvia Federici, Fred Moten, and badass Audre Lorde. My festival experience so far has been extraordinary and to use Ni’Ja Whitson’s word, I feel armored, prepared, and what in Detroit we used to call “geeked!” I can’t
glittering healing arcs
On Sunday we all woke up to the largest, but by no means the only, hate-fueled mass murder this year, and the largest mass shooting in this country since Wounded Knee. I need some time to be alone with grief, but, as this festival helped me remember, I also need community to heal. This festival structured the
tryna get into it
here are the mornings after. speed has collapsed and anxiety chuckles with retrospect. Saturday’s 8p evening of works tumble into one another — a whirlwind encircling the exterior of the thing at hand… “Thoughts scribbled in the margins, notes passed on the sly, the indominant culture hidden just below the surface structure. This festival will hold space
in the shadow of the american dream…
history/mystery/periphery/party + revel : June 11, 2016 On Saturday night we came together for an evening of performance that celebrated queer knowledges and practices. Two hours after we left JACK, fifty queer people, mostly Latinx, who had also gathered together to celebrate each other, to move together in a space of their making, were killed
Action for Healing: Loud, Ruptured and Well
Anxious. Tired. Weary. Wary. The last words in my notebook prior to Ni’Ja Whitson’s Being A Body Out Loud: Trans-Indigenous and Political Practices for Artists and Activists Seeking Radical Moves in Their Work, Art, Lives workshop at La Mama’s Great Jones studios during the Healing Action day of the 2016 Spring Festival. We begin by announcing our names and preferred
a closing, a confirmation, an affirmation, a home.
The festival comes to a close tonight, but something in me is permanently open. Dreaming and crafting and claiming space with Aretha, Tara, and Eleanor has been so powerful and supportive. In the past year, i have been working very hard to live in my body in a way i’ve never experienced before. Sobriety, Love,
Pre-car(e)-ity: a few restless notes on ‘Enclosures for Reading and Responding’
The title “Pre-car(e)-ity” has been drawn from mayfield brooks’s performance. Space is made and held. And then it undoes itself, slow fade. When we hold, we hold it for others. We hold each other. Somewhere, Fred Moten says something like: “you’re already doing the thing (that calls you? that you need to do?) when you
What do you need today?
What does is it mean to rename yourself, to claim yourself? This is an opening question in Marissa Perel’s workshop at 10am on Thursday as a part of Healing Action, a day of healing that is meant for “rest, wellness, and rest through hands-on bodywork, workshops, classes, and a communal/performance talk.” Although I believe the