#really love being an artist i am beholden to no one but my most base instincts to draw nonsense

[mistresslynndramione]

Lynn’s FAQ’s

Bookbinding/Translations/Podfics: 

I’m fine with all non-profit endeavors. 

And there is a podfic of From Wiltshire, With Love up on spotify by the amazingly talented AutumnFoxWrites! Somehow she manages to do different voices/accents for all the characters and keep it up throughout the story.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/autumn-fox2

Where is the title of From Wiltshire, With Love from? 

It’s a play on words from the James Bond spy movie, From Russia, With Love. Malfoy Manor is located in Wiltshire.

Do you have any recs? 

Absolutely! My tumblr is chock full of recommendations and mini-reviews of underrated writers and their stories. Feel free to peruse. The Dramione subreddit also has the What Are You Reading? thread, Self-rec Sunday, the WIP Wednesday thread and the Underrated Fanfic Friday thread which are goldmines.

Where do I post? 

Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net, although lately I haven’t posted on ff.net. I posted FWWL on Wattpad, I don’t know if I’ll post anything else there.

What are you working on now? 

I’m finishing up an extremely niche birthday fic for Bek. I may or may not post that third epilogue to Blackmailed. I’d like to continue Draco’s Body, for another chapter. Long fic: I’m also working on Butterfly, my evil author’s day submission.

Are you writing any original fiction? 

No. I love my day job and fanfiction is purely an escapist outlet for my creativity where I am beholden to no one but myself. Writing original fiction would defeat the purpose.

Hey! You make art! 

Yes, sometimes! I post here on tumblr, and I post my art on AO3 and instagram.

Your parents really read your smut? 

Yes. Yes they did. It was a very wholesome experience and I live blogged it! My kids also know that I write fanfiction, everyone is very supportive. It feels good not to hide my hobby! (that being said, no one at my work knows, that’s a bridge too far)

Why don’t I see you on the Room of Requirement discord? 

When I was new to fandom and social media and still figuring things out, I got cyberbullied by those authors and a couple of the admins, artists and podficcers highlighted there. After taking my words from (what I thought were) interesting, friendly conversations out of context, one of the soon-to-be RoR admins incited a cybermob with those authors. They targeted me on the Dragon Heart String discord server and ostracized me in the few weeks following in an attempt to push me out of fandom. But I didn’t leave, I stood up for myself and explained how my words were misconstrued. 

After the initial shock, the mods and those that unwittingly participated in the cyber mob apologized. The one that instigated it all was a DHS mod at the time. She never apologized and her mod status was removed. In an attempt to understand server dynamics, the other DHS mods surveyed the community, and it quickly became apparent that bullying was a rampant problem. Many server members were targeted before me, there and on other platforms. To try and stop it, the DHS mods closed down the author-based channels since the bullying stemmed from those authors and their friends and fans. 

Many disagreed with the decision, and the RoR discord opened up a month later with those very same author-based channels that you see today. If you’re wondering why there isn’t much overlap between DHS and RoR, this is why. When I spoke up about my experience on reddit before, I didn’t want to name specific people and I still don’t. But I do think there’s value in warning folks off in a general sense. It’s truly appalling when adult women use their internet clout and lack of consequences to recreate the worst of middle school behavior. Like most moderated spaces, RoR has an anti-bullying policy, but the popular members behave as they choose. None of them have apologized to me or anyone else for their behavior.

Even to this day, they gossip about readers, writers, artists and each other. They bully people on RoR and other platforms. Their behavior has caused many artists, writers and readers to delete their accounts or leave the fandom. Some of the folks bullied by that group reached out to thank me for posting about my experience. 

On to the happy stuff:

A Guide to My Fics 

Innovation, E, WIP, 2/3 chapters posted, a short story written for Bek’s birthday full of snark, banter, sexual tension and hate sex

Summary: Draco and Hermione make each other miserable. But they come to an arrangement eventually.

Escape From Malfoy Manor, E, 70-100K, Choose Your Own Adventure, war AU.

Summary: Hermione wakes up in a prison cell with no memory of how she got there. Will she make it out alive? A fic/art collab with some friends designed to make you laugh, shriek in terror, bite your nails, cringe, and ponder your life choices. With over 35 delightfully gruesome ways for our favorite protagonists to die, this is a great Halloween read.

From Wiltshire, With Love, E, 350K, spy/handler war AU

Summary: Hermione convinces Draco to spy for the Order and she becomes his handler. But what are his true motivations? Hard to say when he's still figuring that out himself.

WINNER: 2022 Top Dramione Fics on Reddit 4th Place Wartime 2nd Place BAMF!Hermione

Shivering With Antici - SAY IT! - pation, E, 20K, smut and snark, an AU in the FWWL universe

Summary: Spying for the Order is taking its toll on Draco. To cheer him up, Hermione brings him to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show to participate in the virgin induction ceremony. 

Draco is not amused.

Blackmailed, E, 48K, smut and snark, 7th year, a surprising plot and gut punch at the end

Summary: Draco finds out something pertaining to the war that Hermione would do anything to prevent from getting out. How far is she willing to go to protect her secret?

WINNER: 2022 Top Dramione Fics on Reddit 2nd Place Dom!Draco (but he's totally a switch here, as is Hermione)

Draco’s Body, E, 11K, demon!Draco, war AU, co-created with art from the amazing @doodleladi 

Summary: The war rages on and changed Draco into something evil.

They All Taste the Same, E, 77K vampire war AU, this one has two endings, based on Hermione’s decision to become a vampire or not. One is MCD, one is HEA. Written in 2010, finished during the pandemic.

Summary: Draco has always wanted Hermione, but a recent change has him wanting her even more.

A Dish Best Served Cold, E, 56K, 8th year, smutty, trope-busting whodunnit, my first ever fanfiction, written in 2010. 

Summary: Somebody is out to get Hermione. Draco gets caught in the middle, and doesn't mind at all!

The Gods Must Be Crazy, drabble collection for the Last Drabble Writer Standing Competition, Greek God prompts, each drabble has a different theme, plot, topic, genre. I highly recommend this competition. It’s good for meeting new friends, and improving your writing!

#dramione #dramione fanfiction #dramione art #draco x hermione #dhr #dhr fandom #dhr fanfic #dhr fanart #Dramione fanfic #dramione fandom #dramione fanart #dhr fanfiction #faq

[humming-fly]

Fun at Costco

#lord help me I am having fun at costco again #there they go #anyways sorry i haven't done art in a while grad school is fun like that #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fma #fmab #ling yao #edward elric #so i forgot what modern designs i had made for them in the past and ended up pulling up the old immortals ref sheets so i guess just for fun #immortals!au #which by this point is my stand in for Any modern au hahaha #really love being an artist i am beholden to no one but my most base instincts to draw nonsense #my art #doodles

[hazzabeeforlou]

Really long ramble about music. If anyone wants inside my brain right now :) 

I kept dreaming of flying, after the surgery. I would get these beautiful wings and I’d fly out my back door and across the field and forest, and it was a beautiful world, like a little garden, myriad colors and flowers, pastel yet brilliant in a way only dreams can be. But then I’d soar near the blue sky and realize it was solid, a dome, a ceiling, and I couldn’t break through. 

I’ve been struggling recently not only with the question of where I fit in the classical music world (that’s been an ongoing issue) but the very nature of my career in general. The classism and elitism have always marked me as an outsider, and I’ve suffered my fair share of imposter syndrome, but I’ve also studied at the most elite schools and with the most elite teachers and played with one of the most elite orchestras, and seen just how my career is funded; namely, by very wealthy (endowment wealthy) white people. We say eat the rich all the time, and often I think those that are offended by that don’t quite realize how the rich get their money, the blood and genocide and slavery that are the base of all capitalistic gains. If only the richest of the rich fund the arts with their (excuse the overused term) blood money, then perhaps this is why I’ve always felt such a disconnect with the outreach efforts that so many symphonies and organizations do with minority groups, why that has always felt so icky, so like trying to foist the ‘right culture’ upon them as if the music of the colonizer was so much better than their own. 

Of course music, like the art produced by shitty artists, can also be universal, and can’t wholly bear the responsibility of its makers or producers. I still don’t know why I begged my mom to play my instrument at age three, but I do know that, like in my fic Flawless, there’s something magical that has always happened to me while performing, something that is musical, not cultural, not performative, but raw and real, and as the harp is one of the most ancient instruments in the world, that magic resonates with the part of me searching for meaning in classical music beyond what its gatekeepers have preordained.  Right now I find myself in the middle of a competition. It’s been years since I’ve competed, and as I got older, contrary to what everyone told me, my stage fright just increased. After my surgery it was nearly unbearable, as was the pain I dealt with while playing. The anti-anxiety drugs helped a bit. And five years later, acupuncture has helped with my pain. Yet there’s a doubt within my bones, and I know where it comes from, from the last recital I did before my surgery when my brain couldn’t breathe, when my organs were falling asleep, crushed to death like that lady-in-waiting of Queen Victoria’s. I just found this quote by Dr. Mariel Buque today: 

At the root of trauma is the belief that you can’t trust again. That belief serves a purpose: to protect your wounded soul from any future pain. But it also keeps you from every experiencing the fullness of joy. 

In my case, trauma makes me not trust myself. It’s an odd thing to mistrust your body, or to hate it, or constantly tell it to stop, to work better, to quit being in pain. As I work on trying to practice radical self love, I’m forced to realize the abuse that I shower on my body and brain constantly. While accepting that I’ll likely always deal with chronic pain, I’ve failed to forgive myself for being in pain. The guilt is compounded by the demands of capitalism, of personal pride, of status; it was expected that I would be successful, and look at me now. If I had enemies in the music world, they would gloat.

My brain has split into two, and on one side I tell myself that life could be so much worse, I am privileged and educated, I have security and food and a job; on the other I compare myself to my elite friends and their careers and houses and status, their runnings within the circles of power players, their posts posing with the famous and rich. Do I want that? Am I so shallow? So petty, so proud? Why did I even do this to start with. Why am I competing? Why am I driving my mental sanity and strength to its limits to impress a jury and win a prize in a world where nothing I could ever do in this career would ever actually MATTER?

I don’t think I could accurately describe it to you, but playing the harp can feel like flying. There’s a euphoria that takes you over at certain points in a piece, and you can fall into it like diving off a cliff, and sometimes it pulls you down, but god, when your fingers hit the right strings and your brain keeps up with your feet, you fucking soar. And this thing, this magic washes from your chest down your arms and up to your cheeks and it’s like kicking off from the pavement and finding you’re no longer bound by gravity. I’m standing under a cold shower tonight and I thought, it really is the closest I’ll ever get to being able to fly. 

It hit me then, one of those realizations that makes your eyes water for no apparent reason; perhaps that’s why I do this, why I still want to, need to, perhaps it’s not to break through that ceiling/sky, perhaps it’s just to fly. Maybe I was never meant to leave that dome, and maybe that shouldn’t be my focus or goal. After all, it is beautiful there, and I can fly, and how many people can say that? What a gift, after all. A gift that no one owns, that no one culture or class can claim from me, a gift that is so magical and so mine. 

Fear of failure holds us back from so many things. But why should I be beholden to their judgements when the seas are rising and they don’t give a shit? The future pain I would experience from failure is quite literally my own wounded pride, the idea of who I am in the eyes of my peers. But what if I forgave my body for imperfection? What would it look like to compete and not beat myself up over an outcome? What would it look like to not give a damn. 

I know it’s a famous quote, and I can’t even think of what it’s from, but this evening it’s been echoing around in my brain: what if I fall? Oh but darling, what if you fly. 

#personal

[rockofeye]

Bonswa Houngan!! I had a question...how do you spot a trained, initiated priest who is trying to swindle you/take advantage of you financially through the religion? I know that this religion can have heavy costs and services just generally cost something but beyond outright fakers or scammers, how do you spot people who are licensed to do the spiritual work of this tradition, but try to take advantage of you or profit off of you? Thanks

Hi there,

This is a good question. One of the unfortunate realities is that there are priests who were made correctly who make bad choices that harm others. Additionally, there are people who believe they were made correctly who are perpetuating that fraud that was inflicted upon them. It’s a crap thing that this is the reality, but the internet has provided a platform for the spread of information and there are unethical folks who take advantage of that and the relative ignorance of folks who are seekers. It’s even worse when they don’t even realize that what they are doing is based in fraud, because that’s what they were given.

I am of the mind that if someone is out there swindling folks or perpetuating fraud, they are not a legitimate priest. It’s a betrayal of the oaths we take as part of our initiation and so when they begin cashing in on people, they lose what makes them a legit priest. You can come out of an ethical djevo and turn out to be a terrible person. Kanzo gives us tools and opportunities, but it can’t force us to be good people or ethical priests.

It can definitely be hard to tell. Because learning and information in Haitian Vodou is passed teacher to student, it can be a challenge to discern what is accurate and what might look pretty but is broken. There’s no one way to figure it out, but there can be a lot of signs and symptoms of stuff that is not so great and/or downright harmful. I’ll write about a bunch of them below, but of course nothing is exhaustive...sadly there is always more.

Here’s some big red flashing warning signs:

They say they have the only ‘real Vodou’. It often is spelled out as that they are the only ones who have ‘real Vodou’. This plays on someone’s desire for spiritual authenticity and the search for a spiritual home, and seeks to create a dynamic where they are the only source of information. After all, who would want something that’s not real? The truth is that Haitian Vodou varies throughout the country. There are definitely some things that are absolutes in the religion, but there’s a lot that depends on location, lineage, style of initiation, and other factors. Insisting that they are the ones who can pass on what Vodou really is boils down to either miseducation (they were conned themselves) or deliberate manipulation (they are being con artists.

Don’t go talk to other people. This often goes hand-in-hand with the ‘real Vodou’ thing. Folks get told that they should not (or outright cannot) talk to other vodouizan. This is often couched as that no one else can help you or that this specific group is made up of bad people or whatever. This is an isolation technique that is setting you up to be beholden to one person or one group. In any other religious tradition, this would be labeled cult-like behavior, but folks seem willing to accept that in Haitian Vodou for whatever reason. 

As a priest, it’s not my job to dissuade you from speaking to other priests or tell you that you should not seek out what Vodou looks like anywhere else. Part of the discernment process SHOULD be seeing as much Vodou as is possible before making commitments, if indeed commitments are what is being asked for by the lwa. It’s not the place of a priest to try and limit your access to the religion even if you it leads you away from them because it is not the job of a priest to limit you. If the lwa want you with someone, they will make that clear if you listen.

(More behind the cut...this got really long)

All the shit talk. Everyone in the religion has their own feelings about regleman and what other people do, and it’s not uncommon for people to instruct their ti fey/children born from ceremony in why what someone else does would not be acceptable in their house. It’s not uncommon for people to be gossipy (because we are all human). What is kinda out of hand is for folks to be outright denigrating someone to a seeker or a client. It’s poor form. We can say that we do things differently, we can say that we were taught differently or that we are not sure why someone would do xyz that way, we can even say that something was not done correctly or that you were misled without going in on some character assassination. This kind of thing is born from jealousy and insecurity, and it’s super transparent. 

Exorbitant prices. Like you identified, things cost money. Neither people nor the lwa work without being paid, and part of the sacrifice of kanzo is the work and time it takes to come up with the financial sacrifice. That being said, there is unreasonable cost. With my airfare/transportation, special clothing, and all my personal shopping included, I paid about $10,000USD for my kanzo. The base fee was $8500, and I was given a complete accounting of what was purchased in my name. I came out of it telling my spiritual mother she should charge more based on the work I saw, but it’s hard to do because it’s already a lot of money for most folks and there’s no reason to ask anyone to pay more, really, since everyone can get paid out of that and all things can be purchased with that amount. No one who is ethical is making money off of ceremonies--it all goes into materials and making sure that everyone who shows up to work is paid fairly for their time and labor.

So, for an asogwe kanzo, it’s reasonable to be asked for anywhere really between $8,000USD and $10,000USD. I could see someone going a little lower than that, but I would side eye someone really hard who is asking for much more. I’ve heard stories of people being asked for $25,000USD for a kanzo, and that’s ridiculous and absolutely out of hand. Also, if you are paying in the $8,000 to $10,000 range, that should include all materials. You should not be being asked to ship barrels of supplies to be used in your ceremonies or be bringing suitcases full of stuff to be used on top of your fee. If someone is going to say that you need to provide all supplies (and a complete asogwe kanzo requires a LOT of supplies...the list I was given as an accounting of what was being purchased for me was three pages long single spaced), the price should reflect that. 

Minimal pricing. On the other end, there are people who ask for so little money that it is not possible to even purchase all the supplies nevermind appropriately compensate everyone who is working on your behalf. I’ve heard of ceremonies supposedly being done for under $1000USD, and that’s just not possible. You are not getting a complete ceremony for that. If someone is trying to tell you that you can get a cheap kanzo, what are they cheaping out on? Do you really want to put your head in the hands of someone who is not going to do the work completely or is being tight with money and perhaps buying substandard supplies or leaving things out?

That goes for free kanzo, too. There *are* situations where kanzo can be done for no money; that is often the biological children of a priest or for someone who is working for the priest long-term. That is how many Haitians in Haiti pay for their kanzo: they live or live close to the temple and work for their initiatory parent to earn their way in. Also, a priest may choose to do the work gratis for someone who is facing imminent death (like, any day now) and the lwa have indicated the djevo will save them. It’s not free, as it will be paid off later, but I have seen priests work completely out of pocket when it is clear that this is the only option to save their life.

But...being offered free kanzo as just a regular person who needs the work is not a thing. It was offered to me before I went in with my spiritual mother, and I remember thinking about what they would actually be taking payment to do that, i.e. how much of my soul would I be leaving behind with them, however unknowingly. There is absolutely no free lunch.

Buy 1 Get 1 Free. Also known as ‘if you bring a couple friends, you won’t have to pay as much’. Packing a djevo with whomever can be compelled into it doesn’t make anything cheaper, it’s just that they want to collect as much money as possible and they know that people in the US love to think they’re getting a deal. There is no bulk discount on labor, in that the priests working your ceremonies are not going to be happy being paid less to do more, and the machann is not going to give a bulk discount on chickens and other things. That’s just no how it goes. Beware the person who wants to sell you a good deal.

Changing prices. The price you are given should be the price, period. There should be no last minute asks for more cash because of some crisis or some other thing that suddenly needs to be done. I hear this more and more often: someone gets to Haiti and suddenly the person who is going to be doing ceremony for them asks them for more money for things that were previously unaccounted for or, even worse, someone says mid-ceremony that more money is needed for something they didn’t outline before. This is taking advantage of your vulnerability in the situation, and it’s super gross. Prices of supplies can change and things can come up, but covering that is what the priest commits to when you are paying your fee. This is serious enough that, in the lineage I was initiated in, there is a contract that outlines how much kanzo costs, what the expected costs are for us outside of the fee, and a suggested outline of how to divide up payments (if necessary). This is not only a guideline and commitment for the person who signs it, but for the priest as well.

Asking for money for unrelated things. Asking you to invest in their businesses, pay for personal services like hair/nails/clothing, asking for expensive gifts in the name of spiritual devotion, etc is outside of anything that should happen. It’s not uncommon for children of a house to contribute to ceremonies being mounted (bringing a bottle of liquor, flowers for the table, contributing cash towards expenses if they are able, etc) but it’s never okay for someone to ask you to give money so they can get a massage or for you to buy them an iPhone or for you to invest in the start-up costs for their business (all real examples I have seen). Deciding of your own volition to give a gift is perfectly fine, but them asking for those things or holding them as necessary for you to undergo ceremony is not okay.

Heavy recruitment. Posts on social media recruiting for kanzo, people inboxing trying to get you interested, holding multi-level marketing lectures or group meetings couched as informational sessions (often goes hand-in-hand with the buy 1 get 1 approach)  if you’re interested in kanzo, etc. A healthy djevo and sosyete does not need to recruit; the djevo fills itself because the lwa send the right people who need to be there.

They hold no other ceremonies for you to attend. Anyone who has not grown up inside the religion should be able to attend other ceremonies in the lineage they are interested in being a part of. The lack of other ceremonies being held is a big red flag; our spirits are fed through our fetes and spiritual feedings, and none of those are really secret (some aspects may be, but all have large public ceremonies). If they are not feeding their spirits in the ways the religion does, then they are feeding you to their spirits (I’ve literally seen people marked as sacrifices are).

And, if you cannot attend their ceremonies, how can you get to know their spirits, their other children, and the community that supports them? It is the first thing I tell people who are interested in serving the lwa: come to a fete and see what the religion is all about. How can you fully commit to something you’ve never seen? Those things should be accessible to you.

The first time you meet them should not be at the airport. That speaks for itself. Initiation and other ceremonies are forged via relationships and the religion is taught in person. If you cannot have a relationship with someone who you can see occasionally, you’re not really getting the benefit of the religion. This can mean sacrifices of time/money (many people travel for their Vodou), but it is worth it. You should not be expected or asked to undergo ceremony sight unseen. This is also why a house holding other ceremonies is important; seeing how the priest works and how they interact with spirits is key.

They have an empty temple. Healthy sosyetes have a community around them beyond the children of the house. Temples are full for ceremonies and are PACKED for kanzo and kanzo-related ceremonies. People travel from all over for fets and ceremonies that are done correctly and completely. The community also has an important function: their presence is endorsing the work the priest is doing, ESPECIALLY around kanzo. If there is no one there or it is only members of the house, there’s a big problem. 

Related: if they are undertaking ceremonies alone, that’s also a red flag. If they have no priests who are willing to come work with them and they are doing all the work on their own, there is a problem.

They are rigid and immovable. This is often pushed off on the lwa being super pejorative. You have to do this thing, or the lwa will be mad. You can’t kanzo at any other time but this, the lwa said so. If you don’t do kanzo with me, the lwa will kill you. If you talk to this person, the lwa will be angry. 

All of those things are real things really frightened people have brought to me personally. This is inappropriate power and control. The lwa understand we have lives and understand that sometimes things cannot happen in the timeline we had hoped. Sometimes there are consequences to not doing a thing, but there are DEFINITELY ways to manage that without things going totally sideways. 

When folks make statements like that, it is really about them and not the lwa. Changing your mind on doing a ceremony can be a let down for the priest who has prepared to do it, but that’s not about you. How you work through that is between you and your spirits.

They cause or seek to cause outright harm. I’ve heard stories and seen the fallout from priest physically assaulting their children for genuine mistakes, smashing sacred items as punishment, coercing folks into sexual activity, calling and threatening family members when they decide they no longer want to deal with abusive behavior and tactics, and all sorts of horrific stuff. I’ve heard these things be passed off as traditional, and that’s a lie. While there can certainly be cultural differences and it can take time to learn to navigate those, assault, threats of violence, and outright abuse is not a part of the religion.

They rush you. While it’s certainly normal for a priest to need to know if you are going to be a part of a ceremony or not and to expect you to pay on time or as you agreed to, there’s no rushing someone into the djevo. I might tell you that the spirits are indicating that kanzo is necessary or that it might be a good idea to do it sooner rather than later, but there is no flurry of chaotic activity that demands you part with a whole lot of money and get pushed right into the djevo. The lwa are patient and if there is an emergent need things can be done to either address that need temporarily or to encourage the lwa to give more time. 

They have no elders. If someone cannot name their initiator and their initiator’s initiator and on, there’s a problem. In Haitian Vodou, that’s not secret information; we are very proud of where we come from (or we should be). If they say they have no elders or don’t need them or have no contact with them, there is a deep problem. Our initiatory parent is our foundation; they even outrank the lwa in that the lwa place us in their hands to follow the expectations that our parent lays out.

If their initiatory parent has passed away, there are systems of checks and balances that still leave them with supports (godparents, priests who oversaw their ceremonies, elder siblings, etc).

If their relationship with their initiatory parent has degraded to the point that their parent won’t show up to the ceremonies they are holding or won’t help, there’s also big problems.

They cannot provide any proof of their initiation. In this day and age, there are ALWAYS pictures and video of our leve kanzo and baptem. Those things are not secret and we looooove our photos and video. They also serve as important proof that we were where we said we were and underwent what we said we did.

If no pictures were taken, they should be able to provide contacts who can verify that they were in the djevo and can verify the ceremonies were done completely and correctly (another reason community and other priests are important). Even if their parent has passed away, there still should be priests who can vouch for them. 

Additionally, there are also other ways that priests can be called out in public to prove that they are who they say there are. There is a whole ritual battle that can happen with the asson/sacred tool priests use, there are specific gestures and language that can be used, and other things that are only taught to people who make it through kanzo. If they can’t do those things or can’t account for them, there’s a big problem.

They mix things in. Haitian Vodou is Haitian Vodou and it’s a complete religion on it’s own. Folks who are selling ‘spells’ for the lwa, who are utilizing rootwork/conjure/hoodoo and presenting it as travay/spiritual work in the religion, who divine with Tarot cards or shells or runes or whatever else, who bring in outside spirits like Orisa or Santisima Muerte or whatever else and claim it belongs are missing the boat. People can certainly have multiple spiritual commitments, but those should be held clearly separate.

Haitian Vodou has it’s own system of spiritual work that is pretty distinct, and the same with divination, prayers, construction of a table for the lwa, and how ceremonies are laid out. For someone who has been taught well, it’s easy to spot but in general passing off all those other things as Vodou is not accurate.

And...sometimes it’s not that they are trying to mislead you. Sometimes they have not been taught how to do traditional work and so are leaning on what they knew previously because it has not been communicated to them that there are traditional ways to do spiritual work or to divine. See above with not knowing that someone has done wrong by them.

They exploit vulnerability. This often rides along with ‘I have the real Vodou’ and it focuses on addressing parts of identities and lived realities that carry weight in our day-to-day and that could be sensitive areas for us. The most common way that this plays out is claiming that they have real Vodou because they only make Black folks in the religion because it is a Black religion. This is super, SUPER insidious and requires some teasing out of threads to really get at what is being said.

It is certainly true that Haitian Vodou is a Black religion, in that it is born out the Black Atlantic, slavery, and colonialism, and that it has deep roots in Africa. There is no reframing or reinterpretation of Vodou that can subtract or nullify that, and any attempt to do so is a deeply racist wrong.

What this presentation of Vodou fails to take into account is it’s Haitian-ness; it divorces the culture from the religion and leaves it as a reinterpretation that isn’t rooted in the actual religion. This is a really carefully crafted whitewashing (really) of a HAITIAN religion aimed at exploiting the deep and true and valid desire that many Black folks have for a spiritual space without white folks and turns it into a cash cow. It’s gross.

If someone really wants to go down the road of ‘real Vodou’ and strip it down to it’s utter bare roots, no one who is not Haitian is getting in the door. That’s what the sales pitch is leaving out; it plays on the want for a space of folks from similar backgrounds and similar experiences and turns it away from the actual reality of the religion. There are many very legitimate lineages and sosyete who do not admit white folks, but they also only admit Haitians. It’s couching a grift under a veil of very true and real things.

It also doesn’t communicate the reality of going to Haiti as a non-Haitian: it can be hard, and it can be doubly hard for someone who might look majority Haitian (darker skinned) but who does not speak the language or understand how to navigate the culture, religious and otherwise. The word for someone who is an outsider no matter their skin color is the same across the board: blan. That can understandably be hard to swallow, and it’s a disservice to present the idea to someone that they are getting the real deal because it will only be Black folks only to be put in an environment where they are unprepared to be a cultural outsider.

This happens to other folks, too. I’ve seen situations where someone is told that they are the only white person that the priest has made, so they are getting the real thing, or that they are the only house that will make a trans person or someone who is queer or gay or whatever. Manipulating people through using core pieces of their Self is pretty heinous.

There are no Haitians. Tying into the above, you cannot do Haitian Vodou without the presence of the culture bearers. It’s simply not possible.

They will not give you what is yours. Someone who is made a manbo or houngan asogwe should have their own pot tet, asson, a kolye, a set of govi, and a set of paket kongo. All of those items should be made for you as part of your kanzo. The specific number of paket and govi can vary a little, but they are yours and you should be able to take them home with you if you want. Many houses give folks the option of keeping their govi and paket in Haiti, but the choice should be yours. Additionally, many sosyetes give asogwe the choice of whether to take their pot tet home or keep in in the Haiti temple. There should absolutely be no discussion about your asson and kolye; if they are not going to give them to you, they are essentially holding you hostage and disallowing you from acting on the initiation you went through with good intentions.

They do not do kanzo in Haiti. This has somehow become controversial, but it’s straightforward: kanzo is only valid when done in Haiti. I see it as presented as opinion or with qualifiers (only asogwe needs to be done in Haiti, etc), but that’s just simply not true. Beyond the outright impossibility to build a complete djevo in the US/outside of Haiti (throwing a little dirt under the floor ain’t it), there are things that must be done when your feet are literally on the dirt and there are parts of ceremonies and preparation for ceremonies that cannot be done in the US or outside of Haiti (chache fey, lalye, a full bat ge etc).

Further, an important part of all kanzo whether it is hounsi kanzo/senp, sou pwen, or asogwe is meeting the lwa in their home. The lwa are rooted in Haiti and how can we profess to want to serve them if we either won’t go there or won’t bring people there? When you go through ceremony in Haiti, you are profoundly changed and it is easy to see why it is so important to make the sacrifice to go there. Trying to find a workaround for that says a lot about what folks are really trying to do.

And, for people who are meant to be manbos and houngans, a ‘kanzo’ that is undertaken in the US is not recognized, meaning that no legitimately made priest can or will greet you as a peer. You can’t be passed an asson to salute spirits in ceremony, you cannot take part in what spiritual work is done outside of Haiti, and you have essentially taken your money and burned it up.

Folks don’t think it’s that serious, but I’ve seen Haitians literally turn their backs on people who profess an American ‘kanzo’ and be disinvited to attend ceremonies until they get right with the religion, and assons snatched out of hands that have not been made to hold them. It’s a real thing that has real world consequences, and that doesn’t even touch the spiritual repurcussions.

Ceremonies that can be done outside of Haiti include lave tet, aksyon de gras, spiritual feedings (if you’re feeling hefty and have lots of people to help), maryaj lwa, and all sorts of fets. Nothing can compare to having them done in Haiti, but they are absolutely valid done elsewhere. Some folks have asked what happens if going to Haiti is not immediately viable (especially with the reality of COVID19), and the answer is that we wait or do other things in the mean time.

So...that’s the big stuff that I can think of off the top of my head. It’s a lot, but that’s the stuff I see and hear about regularly (really). The biggest and best tool that Joe Vodouizan has to discern whether or not what they are seeing is common sense:

Would I accept this as true and valid in any other setting?

How can I verify that this is true/accurate?

Do I feel like I am getting away with something, versus working through a difficult process?

What happens when I ask questions or (politely) challenge what I am seeing/hearing?

Does this make sense?

How do I feel about this?

These are the things that will save you from being taken advantage of. Move slowly and thoughtfully, and listen to your inner voice...that’s your guardian angel trying to guide you.

I hope this is helpful...I know this is probably more than you asked for. Let me know if you have more questions.

#vodou #haitian vodou #real vodou #kanzo #Anonymous

[exploringsocialinformatics]

Blog #6: The Internet Could Empower Women If People Would Just Be Cool For Once

I wrote this based on the article Young Women’s Blogs as Ethical Spaces by Mia Lovheim, which I chose because I was interested by how constructive the Internet was framed and because, as a woman who has strong opinions on the internet, I know that isn’t necessarily always the case.

I have been a woman on the Internet for roughly seventeen years and it has opened up so many opportunities for me to express myself, to meet and engage with people I could’ve never connected to in real life and to collaborate with similarly-minded writers and artists. I’ve made lifelong friends online, fallen in love online (I wouldn’t recommend this but it’s fun while it lasts!) and developed so many aspects of my identity.

The only reason that I have been able to do these things is because I have done them in woman-dominated spaces and queer-dominated spaces.

Because while I’ve shared my opinions on Tumblr as a curated, personal space, I’ve shared the same opinions on Twitter and had someone threaten to rape me.

The internet is amazing! It’s also a toxic cesspool that limits my ability to express myself and open up my ideas to a wider audience! Both things are simultaneously true even though it’s sometimes difficult to rectify them.

There’s an encouraging amount of literature surrounding gender-based harassment online. Many of them give strong examples of the kind of harassment that women and female-presenting people face when they do things like say words and have emotions where people can see them online. Most women won’t need to dig into that literature because they see this in their daily lives; men experience online harassment at dissimilar rates and of a dissimilar nature (harassment aimed toward men is typically homophobic or belittling their masculinity; gendered but not nearly as violent [Jane 533]), but if they’d like to see examples of the vitriol that women face, all they need to do is read replies to tweets by women who talk about politics or sports or video games or television or music or movies or. . .you get the picture.

The point of this is not that the internet is irredeemable—although I am going to share enough of that literature that it may appear that we absolutely should burn it down and start over—but that it needs to be redeemed. We’ll get there, though.

Amnesty International has done a lot of work studying the issue of online harassment of women. In response to the #WomenBoycottTwitter day, they commissioned a poll that included women between the ages of 18 and 55 in Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and USA. They found that 33% of women in the United States had experienced online harassment or abuse—and it’s important to remember the context that these are not all necessarily people who are actively using social media, especially considering the age range (”Amnesty Reveals Alarming [. . .]”).

TIME reports that the United Nations did a study that said that 73% of women have experienced online harassment—I would lean toward accepting theirs as it seems Amnesty’s sample size was limited (Alter 2015).

I’m going to toss out a list of statistics that came from the Amnesty poll that are genuinely upsetting to consider:

41% of women who had experienced harassment were made to feel physically unsafe

26% were doxxed by their harassers

46% said the harassment was rooted in misogyny specifically

25% were threatened with physical or sexual violence  (Amnesty International 2017)

Remembering again that this was a poll targeting women and not just women who are regular social media users, these numbers are staggering. And these aren’t just individual occurrences or one-off attacks. The nature of Twitter in particular means that messages spread rapidly—and so do attacks. According to studies of Twitter’s abuse reports, at least 29% of the reports filed by women were addressing ongoing attacks (Women, Action & Media) and according to an additional poll from Amnesty: the more visible and vocal a woman in, the more frequent harassment she’ll endure. A study of 778 female politicians and journalists (disproportionately women of color) found that they received abusive tweets every 30 seconds—1.1 million a year between them.

I couldn’t possibly get into #GamerGate here and give it the attention it deserves but, if you managed to avoid that nightmare in 2014, it’s something to look up that will really cement this problem for you.

And it is a problem—but it’s not just a problem because women feel threatened, because allowing a culture of harassment and degradation like this is inherently wrong, because this is something that impacts our lives on a semi-regular basis even if we’re not public figures. It’s also a problem because women are being silenced.

Even back in the early 90s before the insane access that we all have to each other online, women were “found to introduce fewer topics of discussion and receive fewer public responses than men” (Megarry 29). It’s no different than women speaking less in a classroom or meeting (Tannen 2017)—just a different venue. That form of silence seems more rooted in social norms, though, and in the early 2000s, according to Rodriguez-Darias and Aguilera-Avila, “the expansion of the online world was hailed as a catalyst for the development of democracy, equality and women’s empowerment by enabling access to information and social support” (63).

All of that is still true in 2020 and has made an incalculable difference to women all across the world. It’s just that now they’re statistically far more likely to receive hundreds of threats of violence and rape and have their address shared all across social media platforms because they said something about a video game.

Those threats and that atmosphere that makes women feel unsafe and like they can’t truly express themselves creates a framework that holds women back. When I said that I formed my identity on the Internet, it’s some of the most tender important parts of me—if I had been faced with this kind of harassment when I was younger, it would have been detrimental and I would have lost one of the few safe spaces I felt I had. People use the internet to convey their identities in so many ways that can be taken away from women: hashtags “convey attitudes and social identity” (Fox, Cruz, Lee) but also makes it easier for harassers to target you, “gendered avatars and usernames” (Assuncao) allow for gender expression that. . .makes it easier for harassers to target you, and all of these things tie into self-esteem that women could be building if they had access to positive, empowering communities. And it is unquestionably impacting their self-esteem: according to Amnesty International’s report, 61% of women experienced lower self-esteem and Emma A. Jane compiled information about how women described their experiences with online harassment, with words like “distress, pain, shock, fear, terror, devastation and violation” (536).

Because of that distress, that fear, that terror—women self-censor themselves. According to the same Amnesty report, 76% changed the way they used Twitter after facing attacks and 32% stopped talking about certain topics altogether. By being forced to endure the same gendered violence and discrimination that we face in the real world in a virtual setting, it’s like there’s no escape.

There’s one issue that can be brought up to complicate this: freedom of speech. This argument doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny on a base level. Social media networks aren’t actually entirely beholden to the First Amendment—which prevents the government from silencing you, although its reach has differed—and Twitter has a conduct policy that prohibits threats, slurs, degrading people, wishing ill on people, etc (Hateful Conduct Policy). The Internet often exists as a lawless, Wild West-type place, though (your Reddits when poorly monitored, your 4Chans, for example), and there will always be people on it that will believe that the freedom to speak their minds supersedes everything else. Freedom of speech is important and these are useful conversations to have to make sure that the platforms that we’re using are operating equitably.

A platform that allows women to be shamed or threatened into silence is not operating equitably, though. We should have the freedom to speak openly without worrying about our safety. Twitter is already addressing this issue but it hasn’t been enough—according to the survey of their abuse reports, only 55% of reports led to suspended accounts, 67% of women who reported said they’d done so at least twice and, mostly notably—Twitter’s staff at the time of their study (2014) was 79% men (Women, Action & Media).

Let’s loop back around to my ultimate point here: redeeming the Internet. Focusing on Twitter, there are plenty of plans of actions they could take to do better, including hiring more women and actively listening to their feedback, training their employees more thoroughly to recognize and address forms of harassment, and being more open about condemning both misogyny and other systemic issues like the spread of White Supremacy. These are all relatively small steps that could start to change the wider culture and start the inevitably unbearably slow process of detoxifying the Internet so it’s accessible for everyone.

Resources

Alter, C. (2015, September 24). UN: Cyber Violence is Equivalent to Physical Violence. Retrieved from https://time.com/4049106/un-cyber-violence-physical-violence/

Amnesty and Element AI release largest ever study into abuse against women on Twitter. (2018, December 18). Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/crowdsourced-twitter-study-reveals-shocking-scale-of-online-abuse-against-women/ 

Amnesty reveals alarming impact of online abuse against women. (2017, November 20). Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/amnesty-reveals-alarming-impact-of-online-abuse-against-women/

Assuncao, Carina. (2016). “No girls on the internet”: The experience of female gamers in the masculine space of violent gaming.” Press Start, 3(1).

Fox, J., Cruz, C., & Lee, J. Y. (2015). Perpetuating online sexism offline: Anonymity, interactivity, and the effects of sexist hashtags on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 436–442.

Jane, E. A. (2012). “Your a Ugly, Whorish, Slut.” Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), 531–546.

Megarry, J. (2014). Online incivility or sexual harassment? Conceptualizing women’s experiences in the digital age. Women’s Studies International Forum, 47, 46–55. 

Rodríguez-Darias, A. J., & Aguilera-Ávila, L. (2018). Gender-based harassment in cyberspace. The case of Pikara magazine. Womens Studies International Forum, 66, 63–69.

Tannen, D. (2017, June 28). Do Women Really Talk More Than Men? Retrieved from https://time.com/4837536/do-women-really-talk-more/

Twitter. (2020). Hateful conduct policy. Retrieved from https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/hateful-conduct-policy

Women, Action & Media. (2015, May 15). Reporting, Reviewing, and Responding to Harassment on Twitter.

[grim-on-the-darkside]

Star Wars Quotes regarding the Expanded Universe and it’s place in things under Lucas. -------------------------------------

I’ve shared quotes on this subject in the past, I don’t believe I have shared these ones, some I have only found recently, and other’s I had but I’m not the most organized person, so I found them again. I apologize if some of these are repeats, I tried to avoid that as much as possible. All of these quotes are verified, but you should never take anyone’s word for that on the internet. Feel free to verify them yourselves.

Anyone who would like to use these quotes and include in some of their works, by all means. It isn’t always easy to get to the truth of things, there is a great deal of misinformation on the Internet. It is only my wish to see George Lucas’ legacy remembered for what it was in truth. He gave us such a wonderful gift, that has touched the lives of so many, in so many ways. Wherever our interests may lie, I feel we own him something in return. - This is a decisive subject, and its been so for many years. This is in no way intended to speak to the artistic value found in the EU, that is a totally subjective consideration. There are no right or wrong opinions. Just opinions and everyone is entitled to their own.

I just want his Star Wars to be remembered as it truly was and his words and vision as they truly were. In the end, we all share our love for his creation with each other.

Star Wars is Forever.

"The importance of The Clone Wars that cannot be understated is that it was the last huge expansion of the Star Wars universe that came directly from George Lucas." ~ Pablo Hidalgo

--------------------

"I always think of the research you speak of as what I knew about the EU before I took this job. As I stated above, working directly with George changes the way you see the EU and everything in it."

~ Dave Filoni 2008

----------------

DAVE FILONI: The First Time George Lucas Talked About Ahsoka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAjnLseHQwA

--------------

"I get all my information on the Clone Wars from him. [George Lucas]"

"I can pitch him ideas and say 'lets do certain things', but at the end of the say he will say 'yes' or he will say 'no', and than that is the way it's gonna go." ~ Dave Filoni, 2019

-------------

"From Issue 77 Of Star Wars Insider, Using Dark Empire & The Thrawn Trilogy As Examples. "So so episodes beyond Return of the Jedi exist? Nothing beyond possinle story points and ideas, certainly not fleshed out story treatments or scripts. Fans often wonder if Dark Empire or the Thrawn Trilogy were based off those notes or are meant to be Episodes VII, VIII, IX. - That's not the case. Those works are the creation of their respective authors with the guidance of editors at Lucas Licensing. They are not, nor ever were, meant to be George Lucas' definitive vision of what happens next" ~ Pablo Hidalgo, 2004 https://ibb.co/K9PMgH3

[This is a screenshot of the Original Text that I found]

-------------

“Everything that I’ve worked on at Lucasfilm has been considered canon.” ~ Dave Filoni

--------------------------------------

“Working on ‘Clone Wars,’ it was always canon.” ~ Dave Filoni

---------------------------------------

One of the main characters in the feature film, a 90 minute introduction to the series that hits theaters August 15, is Anakin's teenage Padawan, Ahsoka. Lucas said:

   "[With Ahsoka] I wanted to develop a character who would help Anakin settle down. He's a wild child after [Attack of the Clones]. He and Obi Wan don't get along. So we wanted to look at how Anakin and Ahsoka become friends, partners, a team. When you become a parent or you become a teacher you have to become more responsible. I wanted to force Anakin into that role of responsibility, into that juxtaposition. I have a couple of daughters so I have experience with that situation. I said instead of a guy let's make her a girl. Teenage girls are just as hard to deal with as teenage boys are."

~ George Lucas 2008

https://io9.gizmodo.com/george-lucas-spills-all-about-clone-wars-at-skywalker-r-5033398

-----------------------

"Understand, that the Holocron's primary purpose is to keep track of Star Wars continuity for Lucas Licensing and to some degree Lucas Online. To my knowledge, it is only rarely used for production purposes."

~ Leland Chee 2005/6

[Lucas was in Production]

-----------

"Star Wars continuity, even EU continuity, does not rest on my shoulders. Our licensees submit product directly to either our editors or our product development managers. The Holocron serves as a tool for them to check any issues regarding continuity, and after that, if the editors or developers have any questions, they pass it along to me to check for continuity. At the same time, I am constantly on the lookout to make sure that any new continuity being created gets entered in the Holocron. With regard to the the films and The Clone Wars, I am not involved in continuity approvals though I have often been asked to provide reference material."

~ Leland Chee

-------------------

"The question selected from The Furry Conflict poll was: How much does the Expanded Universe influence the movies?

As I asked him, Lucas leaned back a moment and said to me “Very little.” When he first had agreed to let people write Expanded Universe books, he had said “I’m not gonna read ‘em” and it was a “different universe” and that he wanted to keep away from the time period of his saga. He jokingly complained, however, that now when he writes a script he has to look through an encyclopedia to make sure that a name he comes up with doesn’t come too close to something in the EU.

He later commented that the future of Star Wars may lie in other venues outside of feature film."

- "Marc Xavier", November 2003, "The Furry Conflict and the Great ‘Beard‘ of the Galaxy"  (report based on a Q&A session with George Lucas which occurred at USC on 11-19-03)

--------------

"Q: in that vein, is it possible we'll see more Star Wars TV product?

A: Because I"m retiring from this part of my creative life, I'm open to more TV Product. but not more feature films, the story is complete. [and any other story wouldn't be my philosophy and views,] the books are not the same philosophy as the movies."

George Lucas 2003

---------------

Q: Can you quote any good story other than the movies?

A: No, I don't think so. (laughs)." ~ George Lucas

----------------

"George's view of the universe is his view," Chee says with a slightly grudging tone. "He's not beholden to what's gone before."

~ Leland Chee 2008

----------------

"And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it."

~ Leland Chee 2008

Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franschise Continuity cop.

[Actually, it was more like that Chee was standing outside of his.]

---------------

"Understand, that the Holocron's primary purpose is to keep track of Star Wars continuity for Lucas Licensing, and to some degree Lucas Online. To my knowledge, it is only rarely used for production purposes."

~ Leland Chee [I'm not sure about the exact date on this, but I think its from around 2004 or 2005]

[Lucas worked in production]]

------------

"I've been against a multiverse even before Disney"

~ Leland Chee 2018

[No, really? =p ]

--------------

"Is the "C" class part of the overall continuity alongside "G" class?"

As far as LucasBooks and Lucas Licensing are concerned, of course it is. LucasBooks and Lucas Licensing hold sway over the content and storylines of the Expanded Universe, and thus have every right to declare a canon of those materials. Whether this internal declaration is subscribed to by parent company LFL or Lucas himself is another matter, one which, though interesting, is outside the scope of this Holocron-oriented thread.

Leeland Chee 2004

-----------------

"So with the Story Group overseeing all of the content in film and television and elsewhere, we don’t have to retroactively make those changes. We can anticipate those changes. We can seed things in one medium [and see them grow] in another. So we might be seeding things in books or TV that you might not realize is substantial until years down the road. And if people knew what the road map looked like, they would just be floored.”

Leland Chee, 2017 - SYFY WIRE

[Chee is much happier working for Disney. He finally got what he wanted. A one Universe Star Wars.- Which would be great besides for that whole Disney part! =p]

----------------

“In these early drafts, the planet was called Had Abbadon. The name Coruscant came from author Timothy Zahn for his 1991 novel, Heir to the Empire. It's actually a real word that means ”glittering” or ”giving forth flashes of light.” When it came time to name the city-planet for Episode I, after considering several other names, Lucas decided to go with the already established Coruscant."

- Steve Sansweet, LFL/Fan Relations, June 2003

------------------

“As far as I know he hasn’t read any of my novels. From what I’ve heard Lucas is a visual man, he likes the comic books for the visual aspect. Frankly I don’t think that he has time to read so I am not offended.”

-Timothy Zahn, Author for the EU, The book report interview November, 1997

-----------------------

That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”

“It could be an entirely new storyline, but if he picks and chooses bits and pieces from the expanded universe, we’d all be thrilled to death.”

~ Timothy Zahn

-----------------

"Q: Did George Lucas intend for Boba Fett to die in the sarlacc, despite what others may say or print?

A: Yes, in George's view -- as far as the films go -- the baddest bounty hunter in the Galaxy met his match in the Great Pit of Carkoon where --unfortunately for Mr. Fett -- the ghastly sarlacc made its home.

However, Lucas also approved Fett's comeback in the expanded universe. And of course, by going back in time with the prequels, the Star Wars creator has brought Boba Fett back to life himself, albeit at a much younger age."

- Steve Sansweet, LFL/Fan Relations, December 2002

-----------------

As far as I know, George Lucas himself is not involved. He has a liaison group that deals with the book people, the game people, etc. They do the day-to-day work. Occasionally, he will be asked a question and will give an answer."

"I did meet Lucas once for a few minutes."

~ Timothy Zahn

[They spoke about 1930′s cinema and Samurai movies. They never even talked about Star Wars! How nuts is that!]

Timothy Zahn’s Trilogy was outstanding. Gotta give him his due.

---------------

In 2014, Disney declared the Expanded Universe was no longer canon. It became ‘Legends’. What do you think of this, seeing all of your work suddenly become non-canon?

"Those of us writing the EU were always told, all along, from the very beginning (have I stressed that strongly enough?), “Only the Movies are Canon.” Sure, it was disappointing."

~ Kathy Tyers, EU author [Truce at Bakura] Interview: April 2018

https://starwarsinterviews.com/various/authors/kathy-tyers-author/

-------------

EU Disclaimers [Stating these were not George Lucas' Sequels and not what he would use.] - [I did not take all of these personally, but they do match those that I did.]

https://ibb.co/GfwK0CB https://ibb.co/Tr3dj06 https://ibb.co/19B66B1 https://ibb.co/p1mCFcm https://ibb.co/rtSVh7d https://ibb.co/Tcm7dFy https://ibb.co/ygQXjCN https://ibb.co/GRvmV7V - Jonathan W. Rinzler is/was an author and editor for Lucas Licensing's book division. In 2005, he was hired to write three Star Wars guide books,respectively Star Wars: Visionaries (although he only wrote the introduction of this one), The Art of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. He later went to write The Art of Revenge of the Sith that same year. In 2007, he wrote and published The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film amongst many other such works for Star Wars.

This is more than a disclaimer, it's a quote, this is a question directly to him as he worked in Lucas Licensing asking him if the Expanded Universe wasn't considered canon ever why did Lucas allow it to exist. Answer - Money. He was also a personal acquaintance of Lucas' for many years. He also is quoted as telling the story as to why Lucas hated Mara Jade so much. -

Rinzler, George Lucas “Couldn’t Stand” The Character Of Mara Jade - http://starwarshub.net/2019/02/01/according-to-author-j-w-rinzler-george-lucas-couldnt-stand-the-character-of-mara-jade/

[Lucas said [paraphrasing], ‘Jedi don’t marry. They take vows.’

[This site also contains a good amount of information on the only legitimate sequel trilogy to Return of the Jedi, the one Lucas came up with himself and completed Treatments for Episodes, 7, 8, and 9 in 2011.]

For a more in-depth look at Lucas’ Sequel trilogy treatment in so far as we know it, these are excellent sites and we know a lot more about his Sequel trilogy and his vision for how the Saga was truly meant to end. There’s some beautiful concept art to be found as well.

George Lucas’ Episode VII - https://medium.com/@Oozer3993/george-lucas-episode-vii-c272563cc3ba

George Lucas' Ideas for His Own Star Wars Sequel Trilogy-https://io9.gizmodo.com/george-lucas-ideas-for-his-own-star-wars-sequel-trilogy-1826798496

STAR WARS: The Original Plans for the Sequel Trilogy - YouTube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1dM9qFe4p0

https://ibb.co/jvph85c

[connorrenwick]

LikeMindedObjects Is a Multifaceted Studio Spreading Its Creativity Far and Wide

The following post is brought to you by Squarespace. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

LikeMindedObjects is the studio of artist and designer Elise McMahon. Through her collection of resourcefully designed lighting, furniture, and objects, she hopes to empower us all by enhancing our quality of living. Aside from these colorful, lighthearted pieces that you can pick up in LikeMindedObjects’s shop, the team also works with clients to create custom furniture and lighting for all sorts of public and private spaces. LikeMindedObjects also collaborates on events and exhibitions that explore inclusivity and uniqueness. Squarespace helps Elise out with her website and her shop, making it easy to update her shop with new pieces, making her feel tech savvy while also taking the middleman out of the typical web developer/client relationship.

Photo by Kyle Knodell

As you can see, there are quite a few exciting aspects of LikeMindedObjects’ business. So we asked Elise the obvious – how did her business come about?

“LikeMindedObjects officially started about 7 years ago. I had been very casually self-employed for a few years, making furniture for people by word of mouth, teaching woodworking and upholstery at various arts studios in NYC, and intuitively making furniture and sculptures that resulted in what became my first collection. Mostly out of powder coated bent aluminum tubing and perforated metals, hardwoods, and upholstery of leather and hides from friends farms. I was, and am always, responding to the materials in my surrounding environment and at the time I had just moved to upstate New York in the Hudson Valley, and was feeling very inspired by my surrounding community and moved towards solidifying my independent business practices.,” she shared.

Photo by Kyle Knodell

Being casually self-employed and relying on word of mouth advertising is definitely a common jumping off point for creatives of all types, but what brought Elise to the point of actually opening LikeMindedObjects creative studio?

She says, “I was constantly motivated as an individual to create special, inclusive situations for social interaction and idea sharing – whether that be through furniture, interior designing, and building or collaborating with artist friends on temporary installations or activations like artist dinners, concept businesses, or education projects. This is what differentiated between a “Design” studio or a “Creative” studio. With the term creative studio I felt I could more properly portray the potential for various roles we could play for a client – from branding, curatorial projects, event planning, or interiors and furniture. I saw these all as fair game in approaching our work. That being said, I have always felt furniture, interior, and product design was the core approach. I believe each object can tell a super potent story, a story of the manufacturing, material and labor, and then ultimately the person who owns and displays this item in their home. We are communicating to our visitors and ourselves what our priorities are with how we operate in our daily life in our unique personal spaces, which pretty much expresses two things – how we spend our time and how we spend our money.”

Photo courtesy of Healthyish Bon Appetit

LikeMindedObjects really reaches wide with its breadth of capabilities and interests. We were curious which part of the multi-dimensional studio came about first and how things progressed from there.

“I think two things were happening simultaneously. Freelancing custom fabrication work in NYC honed my methods of making in a professional context, and then my personal creative practice honed my visual and material voice. When I married those two things together is when LikeMindedObjects came to be what it is. From a full interior to a piece of jewelry, these items are truly like-minded in the belief that there is so much humanity at play in our built environments and accessories.,” Elise says.

With so much on her plate, we had to ask Elise how Squarespace assists LikeMindedObjects in both maintaining their multifaceted portfolio as well as helping to run the e-commerce side of things.

“I am a real DIY gal, so having my site through Squarespace has actually been perfect for me. I love tweaking my pages regularly, updating with new projects and photos. It’s amazing that right when I have something new I can photograph it in my studio and put it up for sale that day. I never really thought of myself as particularly computer savvy, but with Squarespace I feel super comfortable adjusting everything to how I imagine it should be. I can create context around the objects by showing images of installations or interiors that have similar objects, or create click through pictures linked to project pages so people can connect the dots themselves. My parents are artists too, and I remember watching them deal with their website builder 10 years ago, how long it would take to get him to upload anything new and the costs associated. I remember thinking even as a teenager that if I ever had a website I did not want to be beholden to a middle man.”

Photo by Yulia Zinschtein

With so much being created it’s always interesting to learn how an artist pares down what projects to sell and what to start over or move on from.

Elise shared her thoughts on the process. “In contrast to custom furniture/interior design I feel like having the LMO shop, both online and IRL in Hudson NY, allows me to experiment and focus in on more playful product design and furniture collection. It also helps me focus my manufacturing practice towards multiples, not just one offs. I love thinking about what can be manufactured in an artist-style factory. The Hose Lamp or Face Mirrors, for example, have their unique parts and fabrication process but also are consistent with the functionality of other products within the same typology on the market (i.e. “lamp” or “mirror”), but how can we play with the normal assumptions around those items?”

Photo by Pippa Drummond & Sight Unseen

Having the chance to work on so many interesting projects and collaborations must make it difficult to play favorites, but we asked Elise what hers might be anyway.

“I have worked collaboratively on a number of projects over the years, mostly in an art context, but then again I truly believe that when a client hires me for furniture/interior work we become collaborators immediately. This past year, the LMO team created a very special food and game space for the NYC offices of online art gallery platform, Artsy. Their head of office environment, Sean Roland, commissioned us for a new space. He is a great collaborator and brought us on with a lot of clarity of functionality paired with flexibility of aesthetics, which allowed us to explore our most current excitements in materiality and fabrication. We created bleached reuse denim upholstered banquets, powder coated plant stand room dividers, lighting, and colorful formica floating shelving. When it all came together it made a super functional but visually rich space.,” she says.

Photo by Kyle Knodell

Rather recently Elise has taken LikeMindedObjects from living solely online to also having a physical presence as a brick and mortar showroom – ENKYU LIKEMINDEDOBJECTS SHOP – located in Hudson, New York, that’s shared with her partner Enky Bayarsaikhan’s clothing line.

She shares, “Alongside a webshop, the showroom really seemed to be the next step towards piecing together what is necessary for a design business. There needed to be a beautiful space to display collections in the interim between creation and purchase. My fabrication studio has projects moving through constantly, of course creating dust and other moving parts, so my finished pieces really needed their own clean reality.  Also the storefront we found was previously a photo studio, so we inherited an amazing fully built-out corner NYC wall for taking product photography. It felt quite serendipitous. Another serendipitous element was that a good friend, Enky Bayarsaikhan, was also looking for a storefront for her clothing collection ENKYU. We partnered on the space – my furniture, her clothing. So of course we called it ENKYU LIKEMINDEDOBJECTS SHOP, and the rest is history. We also use Squarespace for our store website and link it to our personal pages, which has been the perfect balance of together but separate business structure.”

Photo by Kyle Knodell

So, what’s on the upcoming horizon for Elise and the LikeMindedObjects team as we continue to roll through 2019?

According to Elise, quite a bit! “There are a couple of projects about to launch that I cannot say anything about yet, but keep an eye out for an LMO collection being distributed nationally this summer! Also, I have been working to develop a collection of zero waste upholstered furniture which is so exciting to me, as the typically found upholstery materials we have all come to use are actually made of quite unhealthy petroleum based foams – I am developing alternatives that feel really positive. I am working to further manifest an approach to design that is truly ethical. I want LikeMindedObjects to be deeply conscious of the labor, materials, and impacts of what we make to align with the foundational understandings necessary to respect within a circular economy. This has intuitively been at the core of our products since the beginning, but I feel even more empowered now to follow through on a larger more impactful scale. For obvious environmental reasons that I think everyone wants to get behind this, we just needs to have clearer paths towards making the correct choice, right?”

Ready to get to work on your site? Take the first step with a Squarespace website. Use coupon code DESIGNMILK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Photo by Kyle Knodell

via http://design-milk.com/

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[obsidianarchives]

Black Woman Creator: Monique Steele

Originally from the island nation of Jamaica, Monique Steele is an illustrator, designer, and card carrying member of the Beyhive. Graduating with a BFA in illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, she left for NYC to pursue designing full time. In her off hours, however she spends her time making art that represents all the things she’s a fan of from Harry Potter to historical fashion to killer queens throughout history and yes, Beyoncé. When she’s not drawing, you can find her incessantly spouting the virtues of non-prestige television, debating the best superpower to have (it’s teleportation by the way) or yet again shouting into the void about the one time she met Sebastian Stan on the streets of New York City (a fact she has yet to get over).  

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

I create illustrations, mostly of women in historical costumes and occasionally fanart of things i enjoy, mostly fan-art of Beyoncé (so much Beyoncé). On the rare occasion I do a full illustration, I try to create a scene that tells a story. I want people who see my work to be able to come up with several ways the scene before them could play out.

BGC: Why do you create?

I create because I don’t think I know how to exist without making things. I draw to show appreciation for the things I enjoy and the things I wish I saw in day to day life. For me, it is a natural extension of who I am and how I relate to the world around me. Art and illustration are just subsections of storytelling and, growing up, I was a lover of stories. Drawing gave me a way to insert my own thoughts and feelings into worlds and landscapes and tales that didn’t exist outside of books and television. It allowed me to tell stories.

Creating also became a safe haven for navigating two very different cultures when I first immigrated to the United States. Having the ability to come up with my own space and rules through illustration was a source of quiet amidst the confusion. At the time, creating meant not having to choose a cultural identity where I could be wholly myself and express who I was, how I thought and what I enjoyed independent of which part of the cultural spectrum that placed me. While that particular battle no longer continues when I make art, I still find that its through the act of creating that I feel completely myself. When I create I’m not beholden to anyone else’s parameters but my own. In essence I create because it allows me to be the master of my own narrative.

BGC: Who is your audience?

Truthfully, that’s a question I’m not exactly sure how to answer. I think as an artist I’m just finding my voice and maybe because of that I haven’t really figured out who I’m making art for. I would like to believe that I make art for the people of color who just want to see themselves in ways that they’ve never even thought plausible. I want to make art for the people who’ve never been the star of the show and make art that centers them as the main characters. Mostly I think I make art for people who want to see flights of fancy, and bright colors and magic, but in ways that involve them and doesn’t relegate them to the side lines. I think my audience would be the people who, similarly to me, are just finding their voices and making spaces for themselves in the world.

BGC: Who or what inspired you to do what you do? Who or what continues to inspire you?

At one point in time the thing that inspired me the most was probably all the stories I grew up reading and the movies I watched growing up. I drew a lot of things that were based on trying to recapture the thrill of adventure that I would get from these stories and narratives. As I got a little bit more mature and settled in my work I still look to pop culture as a basis for what themes I want in a piece of work, but now I shift the lens a bit to refocus on my place and the place of people like me in pop culture. Realizing I’ve never seen many people like me in the stories I love to read about or watch helped drive me to make a lot of my later pieces.

I’m also very interested in history and research and highlighting time periods in which people of color existed but are often erased in the pop culture retelling of that time. It’s very often that a period piece will emerge and frame places like London as mono-ethnic societies. The references for Victorian and Elizabethan people of color that existed gets washed away from history and my desire to see those other versions of history does impact a lot of the stuff I try to make now.

Another big inspiration for me is definitely seeing the creativity from my contemporaries and other artists and creatives. I make quite a bit of fanart in my spare time, mostly when I see or hear something that strikes me in the moment. I might see a celebrity wearing an amazing outfit and that inspires me to try to recreate the look in a drawing or watch a musical performance that is so mind-blowing I’m immediately inspired to make something that captures some of that feeling. In a way, I feel as though I’m a creativity sponge. Seeing and experiencing spectacular moments of creativity inspire me more than anything else. Seeing something beautiful makes me want to create something beautiful as well.

BGC: Why is it important as a Black person to create?

It’s important because in many ways being a Black creative opens the door to so many others to feel like they can as well. I remember going to art school and not seeing people who looked like me, which in turn made me feel as though I didn’t belong in that space, a feeling that shakes your confidence in numerous imperceptible ways. Being able to feel as if you are a part of something and a valuable contributor to that community is such an undervalued experience. Feeling seen and valued starts with being able to identify that the people who came before you were also members of the creative community who did work that is appreciated amongst the work of their peers. Not seeing people you identify with in a space is a bar to entry that perpetuates until it becomes seen as truth. With every Black creative out there we nudge the door a little bit wider, bit by bit, until it’s an open doorway for anyone interested to be a part of the industry without feeling intimidated by their own otherness. Without us there to tell our own stories, we have to rely on others to tell those tales for us. Which leads to claims like “Black people don’t have their own stories unless they involve pain and tragedy,” a common refrain often quoted on the internet. Without Black creatives there to tell our stories in an honest, truthful, and non-judgmental way that belief spreads until it's considered to be fact.

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life?  

The creation vs. everyday life balance is such a tricky thing, because, professionally I work full time as a Graphic Designer. In a way I never really stop creating. When your hobby becomes your job, you’re always working, which is why I think it’s important to put the creating parts away for bit and take a break, mostly so I don’t “burn out” or go insane. I try, after I finish a piece, to set aside time and not dive right into the next thing. I also give myself a time table when I work because I do often come home on weekdays from my job designing one thing, to work on a completely different personal artistic endeavor. For instance when I come home in the evenings I won’t start working on my own projects until maybe 8:00 pm and when it hits midnight I try to wrap things up. When it’s a personal project, I know I have more time because the only one setting my deadlines is myself. Freelance gigs are a little trickier because, naturally, the assignment comes with its own deadlines. Regardless of whether it’s freelance or personal in nature, I do try to schedule myself and parse out time so I work in a way that doesn’t completely leave me running ragged. I also try to give myself moments to partake in other hobbies. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking a break to go see a movie or play a video game or hanging with friends, but I find those moments just as valuable as the actual act of creating. It’s in those moments that I refuel for the next thing or find something that sparks a new interest that sets me down the path to begin creating anew.

BGC: Any advice for young creators/ones just starting?

The greatest advice I can give is to create the things that you love. It's the love for creating things that keeps you driven to continue and the more you create the better you’ll be. Also, don’t be scared of putting out things that are less than perfect. A lot of times, especially when you’re just starting out, the worry of having to be absolute perfection to compete with other people in your field keeps a lot of us from making the things that truly embody our craft and our voices. Often times in trying to seek out perfection we begin to imitate work that we already deem to be impeccable and lose the essence of who we are as artists. In an attempt to display faultless work, we hold ourselves back from enjoying what we’ve made as well, which, I feel, is one of the greatest parts about making something. The process of creating is often times so messy and slapdash and it's through the throwing of all that craziness together that you find the thing that works for you. Take a risk on the imperfect and just be bold and proud of the things you make.

BGC: What are you current/future projects?  

Currently I’m working on more full illustrations centered around the theme of Black people in fantasy. It’s an idea born from the fact that I hear people say quite often that people of color in high fantasy “isn’t historically accurate.” I’ve had the idea to do something centered around that theme for a while now but I think I’ve finally found a good way to best represent how I envisioned the pieces to work, and how they would fit together. Other than that I have a million and one things I want to draw fanart for but you can bet if Beyoncé has another random performance between now and when I start my pieces, I’ll be drawing fanart of that first and foremost!

#monique steele #Black Woman #Black Woman Creator #beyoncé #Visual Arts #Art

[vileart]

Cheeky Dramaturgy: Lee Minora @ Edfringe 2017

CHEEKS

Written & performed by Lee Minora

Directed by OBIE AWARD winning Scott Sheppard

Lady Elizabeth Edwards has been making art in solitude. You are the first people she’s seen in a decade, and you are a complete disappointment!

This is Cheeks: a brutal clown show, that melds contemporary stand-up, bouffon clown and hands-on audience play. Laugh through your fear while this one-woman beast sucks the marrow from your funny bone all while taking on the tropes of our most revered female artists.

No one is safe in this weapons-grade comedy, where everything is up for grabs – except her p*ssy!

Cheeks by Lee Minora

Directed by Obie Award Winning Scott Sheppard

Venue: Silk (Venue 444)    

Date: August 5th - 26th  (No Show Monday the 14th)    

Time: 18:20 (6:20pm)

Show runs 50 minutes

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Cheeks began as a dare for me, the performer and ended up a dare for you, the viewer.

In the summer of 2016, my co-collaborator Brad Wrenn proposed a dare, that we each make a solo show for The Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

We had just finished creating It’s So Learning with The Berserker Residents: an interactive, bouffon take on the American school system. And I was hungry for more of this style called: bouffon clown. Never one to back down from a dare, I accepted and began making CHEEKS with only the bouffon clown in mind.

The word Bouffon comes from the Latin verb buffare meaning to puff or fill the cheeks with air; the practice of making oneself grotesque to provoke laughter.

The bouffon clown is corporeal and merciless, using mockery and aggression to illuminate hypocrisy and pulverize reverence. Personally, I always had a way with mockery and aggression but little chance to display that gift. As a woman, I had tried to soften those aspects of myself -perhaps unsuccessfully but nonetheless- I tried!

As a bouffon, I not only got to sharpen my comedic knife, but twist it to boot! In this form, I began to find my place as female artist and lose it simultaneously. Bouffon has a way of exposing that type of complicated truth. As I played in the bouffon style, I found a freedom in my body and an immense pleasure in my performance. A pleasure and freedom, that I realized had, at times, been missing from my practice.

As a bouffon, I was embracing all of the fleshy, carnal realities of my body and the aggressive, confrontational, aspects of my intellect. I was weaponized, grotesque and funny as hell! But while I could embrace this pleasure alone, in a lab, once exposed it quickly fell under the scrutiny of society, cultural norms and gender roles.

These became the questions of CHEEKS: can an artist make work for only herself? In isolation? Or does an artist need a viewer? Can she expunge the need for approval? Can she be the keeper of her pleasure? And even her pain?

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Oh, I ask myself that all the time. I think theater is most effective when it uses the superpowers of theater; therefore I create original comedic performances that capitalize on the liveness of theater performance. The work I am most drawn to is dangerous, funny, irreverent and challenging.

My litmus test as a creator is: “Could I watch this on TV?” If the answer is yes, why go to the theater? I aim to embrace and elevate the exchange between audience and performer, 4th wall be damned! No one is safe. I expunge passive viewership. Clown work in particular, deftly employs these principles. To me, the excitement that clown and its many sub-styles, capture is based in its huge capacity for failure.

The more I invite the audience to be active viewers the more I open myself to great risk and in that space is the necessity of theatre and that’s a reason to join other people in a room together. That’s something you can’t watch on TV.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I studied theater at Temple University in the United States. When I became a theater major at 18 year old, I didn't realize I could create my own work . Then I began working with a MFA directing candidate studying there named Felipe Vergara and he was the first person to ask me to create something myself from the ground up.

I continued to work with him after graduating and found an immense freedom in creating my own work. When I make my own work I can ask the questions I most interested in, I’m no longer beholden to old plays with problematic female characters, I get to follow my impulses and bring to life my own vision.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

CHEEKS is immensely interactive. I always want my audience to feel like they are in good hands, even when I’m creating a feeling of danger in the piece.

The first piece I created for CHEEKS was called “The Slap”. Part of my pallette for the show was my pleasure and my pain as a female artist. I wanted to examine if I ever have ownership of my pain or violence directed towards me. I was curious if I could get someone from the audience to agree to slap me and if I could implicate the viewer in this act of violence with their own laughter.

And the answer is yes, people find this very funny and to be fair it is wrapped in some hilarious content. But there is a certain treatment required for such a request; caring for the viewer is an important part of my approach.

Additionally, I was asking a lot of questions about my pleasure as performer while making the piece and I tried to make the process match the content. My rehearsal room has a keen

sense of play and pleasure. I’m always trying to find the game in the room, trying to make my director break, trying to let the show get ahead of me in a joyful way.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

CHEEKS is my first solo show so I can't really say if it fits with my style as a solo artist. I typically creates work with an ensemble.

I can see that the proposals I make in group collaborations are part of the same family as my solo work but in CHEEKS these proposals are undiluted. CHEEKS is my usual work on steroids.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Well it’s a comedy so I hope people get to laugh, firstly. When they leave the show, I hope that it keeps ringing out like a bell after it’s been struck, that it reverberates in their minds and makes them ask some questions about what we agreed to laugh at and why it was funny.

That they have had an experience of being pulled between the pleasure of the comedy and the pain of what made it funny.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

The entire show is audience experience therefore they are always at the forefront of my mind. As I said above, making sure the audience feel that they are in good hands is of paramount importance to me. I need them to settle in so that they can let their guards down.

Comedy is a great scalpel for opening people up to receive a critique. So I make sure the show has a way of easing you into the participation like a warm bath except it’s filled with sharks. Ha ha.

“Fun, ridiculous and absurdly grotesque. Lee Minora’s show Cheeks is everything I love about comedy!”

- Red Bastard (Eric Davis)

Philadelphia-based artist Lee Minora, makes its international debut at Silk with PBH Free Fringe. Cheeks is directed by Scott Sheppard. Sheppard is the co-creator of Underground Railroad Game, for which he won an OBIE award for Best New American Work.

*PHILADELPHIA FRINGE TOP PICK*

- PHINDIE, DEB MILLER

*TOP 6 RACY PHILLY FRINGE SHOWS TO SEE*

- PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE, RACHEL VIGODA

Lee Minora is a Philadelphia-based, performer, creator, and stand-up comedian.

Lee has created original work with The Berserker Residents, Applied Mechanics, New Paradise Laboratories, Pig Iron and Found Theater Company where she was a founding member.

Regionally, she has appeared with EgoPo Classic Theatre, The Lantern Theater, Quintessence Theatre Group, The Scranton Shakespeare Festival and Renegade Theater.  

Scott Sheppard- is an OBIE Award winning theater artist living in Philadelphia. As Co-Director of the Philadelphia-based theater company Lightning Rod Special, he has been a creator/performer for all of their productions.

Scott is a member of the inaugural class at Pig Iron’s School for Advanced Performance Training (2011-2013) and was a creator/performer for Pig Iron Theatre Company’s 99 Breakups and a performer in PITC’s Gentlemen Volunteers (2015-16 remount). Recent credits: co-creator/performer in Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova 2016, FringeArts 2015, 2016), co-creator/performer in Holden (Ice Factory, NYC and FringeArts, Philadelphia) and Sans Everything (AS220, Providence and Charlestown Working Theater, Boston) and Barrymore nominated performer in The Stinky Cheeseman (Arden Theatre Co., Philadelphia). Scott is also a 2016 recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Performing Arts and a 2017 OBIE Award winner for Best New American Theater Work (Underground Railroad Game).

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