Critical Correspondence

MRPJ#6/Heroes and Histories: Extras

There are only a few performances, less than a handful really, that have aroused in me a sense of fullness and spirit that Edith Piaf’s did. She gave me the sense that she and I were meeting in a clearing that was beyond either of our personalities, even beyond our person. Piaf was the song singing. She wasn’t trying to affect me, reach out to me, or teach me anything. She had in a sense disappeared. So, I too, could disappear. We met with what was left. –from Cornerstones by Ruth Zaporah

In celebration of Movement Research’s 30th Anniversary, Critical Correspondence is reprinting monthly excerpts from each of the first 30 Performance Journals. We will be featuring representative and relevant articles as well as each of the issues’ editorial note. It is both enervating and challenging to look at the historical map that precedes our time – the continuity of mission, the diverse attempts to “word” a practice, the voices that have gone and the ones that keep returning, the ongoing development of discourse alongside political struggles.

Performance Journal #6 steps away for a moment from the core of politics it tackled directly in previous issues and invites people, many people, to talk about influential experiences, people, work. It gathers personal histories of the moment that encompass the past, but also the very current and projections for the future. Enjoy a taste of the wide array of vectors into what has been seen, heard, touched, with John Kelly’s I Want Your Myth. You can also read the Editors’ Note and the full table of contents.

Many of these Journal issues are available for purchase at Movement Research. As always, we welcome your comments at the end of each reprinted article, or at cc@movementresearch.org. We are also posting table of contents for each issue for your reference.