I come from the punk headspace that it's not about the gear. If you want something, you should make it with your voice. If you want intimacy - to create it with your voice
Congratulations to The Cultch and Urban Ink on week one of TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival!
TRANSFORM has been a delight to be a part of and witness, as facilitator for their (virtual) international guest program as well as artist chat host for the Aftershow Party Room, which takes place on Zoom with a live feed on a set by DJ Kookum. Audiences join in on the chat and then we transition to an artist Q+A’s hosted by yours truly.
On a personal level, it’s been a brilliant yet bittersweet experience. The intrepid teams at The Cultch and Urban Ink are finding new ways for us to be together and experience the work of all these amazing artists virtually. It's been inspiring to witness how we can transcend distance through technology. And yet, there's still a tremendous amount of loss for our sector, which depends so much on physical proximity.
Pascuala Ilabaca y Fauna - El Baile del Kkoyaruna (Vídeo Oficial)
“This song is dedicated to so many people who leave their hometown, their family to look for a job. This poetry wants to remind you that you can leave a geographical territory, but your origin, your myth, will be with you wherever you are.”
via Jacob Wren on FB (who is one of the few people who posts the kind of stuff that keeps me addicted to that platform)
And by a minute, I mean seven years. SEVEN YEARS. Good heavens.
Currently on day 3 of 14 self-isolation in the midst of COVID-19 and working from home along with the rest of my colleagues at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. With all this time at home, why not dust off this old thing, catch myself up on the past seven years and look towards THE FUTURE.
Where the hell have I been? Well, looks like I quit this thing shortly after (on the work front) I joined PuSh as associate curator, and (on the personal front) before I got divorced. Since then: Seven festival editions in four different roles, six years in another long term relationship, seeing my parents through two years of cancer treatment and an emergency triple bypass, and my brother be a dad to my super cool niece.
Life happened.
I’ve been looking for creative renewal and a way to cultivate a writing practice. I just came back from Baltimore where I attended a workshop intensive to (hopefully) become certified as a facilitator in Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. It was challenging and inspiring, and I need a place to think, process, and keep myself accountable.
#pushfestival "...we make believe so we can make belief..." -Peter Dickinson (our ever charming and fiercely passionate board chair at last night's fundraising event)