Forsenga Reflections: Wed Oct 10 7:30pm Performance

Last night, we hosted our first scheduled performance. Ebony, Eva and I gathered, with our intentional and happen stance audience and began.

The city scape changes by dusk. Passersby's are often on their evening rush home, after a full day's work. Some bikers whose property was amidst our installation stayed, to watch. Others unraveled their property and rolled away. Many of these details were relayed to me by other audience members. In the dark, our hosiery-encased faces were only able to see what we directed in our focus, and in other cases not much at all.

The work brought out new awareness in me, about its meaning.

Our bodies, moving in space in the light evening air, were graceful... free and quite vulnerable. I felt the power in our feminine vulnerability. Staring forward. Jolting through the air.

Me moved, in the darkness, sometimes flailing limbs in an ambiguous strive toward liberation in phase three. connection phase four. by our end, our movement began to slow down, to the deliberate discard of all material objects in our space, and the hosiery laid upon skin and fabric. we knew to end when we each saw one another and smiled.

Darkness creates a new mood. Details are less visible than the contours of movements and installation objects. I am excited to see what we create in the light on Saturday.

We were fortunate to have a guest "Samara Steele" film a dynamic middle section, and post on YouTube, to get a sense of the range of public responses seeing art in unusual space:

There is something unique about this photo. There is something so special about marking time in this way. i want to work toward having another amazing event such as this.

HERE(now) at Mapping Fields at Mix 24

It was an evening of boundary pushing performance, as curators Niknaz Tavakolian and Zavé Martohardjono envisioned. And as a boundary pusher performer I was so excited to join the concept.

I performed a new work called HERE(now) on November 20th, 2011 exploring this idea of ephemerality of presence. The setting would have been ideal in the old Dixon Place living room theater. Oriented in what felt like the downstairs party hall for the die hard queer volunteers, we set up shop amidst a caverous pink fluffy lounge. I planned my performance in a corner behind a series of pink stalgmites. With a small television set, playing a video I made called Signifyin’ Delta, audience members were invited to sit down on pink retro couches and have a conversation about a variety of subjects. A work of improvisation HERE(now) honors the unique transient nature of the present.

I created a very homey corner, with a lamp, soft lighting from the television set and warm violet and yellow gels. What I learned from the performance were ways of engaging a variety of people with a wide variety of interests and experiences. Between other performances I was able to say hello to various friends who came to experience mapping fields, who later sat with me in my space to watch the rest of the performances. When it came time for my show, and my light came on I had guests already to converse with. Instead of the one individual I envision I would have to invite, I instead had a nice group of about 3 guests to start. I asked each of them to begin by talking about what they felt about the performances so far. Engaging the audience, and making their experience and reflections the performance itself.
I brought images of my past, and asked my guests and other volunteers to come and help me rearrange my past to create a new image of this moment. And together, we created a collaborative collage, that was 3 dimensional. The collage extended to the cavernous structure surrounding us. the artistry of the audience came out.

Somewhere amidst the throws of performing, and thinking about my performance, and talking about my performance as it happened, and afterwards, I left feeling like this work was theater. This work was a theatrical set inside of a cave where audience members didn't understand that they should be giving me their attention. I wondered if I need to do a better job soliciting their attention, or what kind of setting can I create to enhance the small details, and magnify the action so that it is visible to all audience members. Installation is one thing, but when a work is interactive, I need a wider space to gather focus, and spread out the attention. I do enjoy the fact that audience members had to walk up to my space to observe, but I could not ask everyone to stand and listen for more than 10 minutes. I think that was just a bit too physically demanding on all bodies. They would need seats for that duration of time.

Performing the moment, allows one to shift in experiential awareness of the present. I found my heart center can operate in casual conversation. And its not an overwhelming feat, as I think my fears rationalized. I am aware of my company, and my companies awareness. I entered a very meta state of emotional sensitivity.

Not many were able to see my film Signifyin' Delta, but Joel who observed one segment while cuting paper, was curious about the ritual element of the film. I explained it was a made up ritual, as in it was not a literal repreesntation of any one thing, but rather a combination of various daily rituals but practicted in solitude. Lighting candels to set a romantic atmostphere, but also to honor the dead, burning incese to clear the energy, and offerings of money in the form of coins. The ritual readings are so interesting to reconsider, after focusing on valuing systems most recently, I realized this work has various facets... the reality of what happens when one works on early works... there is a feeling that there is so much we must represent. And its possible to do it. To have double or triple meanings... those that are burdend with such troubles find creative ways to make many things happen at one instance.

Reflections on Stephen Selka Lecture November 7, 2011

I attended Stephen Selka's lecture Catching Spirits on Film: Representations of Candomblé in Brazilian Cinema last week at City College New York. It was part of the Trans-Carribean Reflections City Seeds Lecture Series, on Aesthetic and Cultural Expressions of African Derived Religions. I learned about the lecture series from my colleague Nia I'man Smith, education fellow at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

The series was extremely intellectually stimulating, hosting an earlier lecture by Yvonne Daniel, a personal academic hero of mine. I had not heard of Stephen Selka prior to this series. The subject mater Selka was exploring was so interesting I was excited to attend, and definitely left more than satisfied. The lecture took place in a small auditorium at CCNY's downtown building near Wall Street and the Occupy Movement. Selka, visiting New York from Indiana University where he is on Faculty, mentioned his visit to Occupy as a preface to his discussion about Black Religion and Cinema and the black consciousness movement growing out of Salvador, Bahia.

Selka's talk toured through his academic interests, focusing on his interest the consumption of culture through cultural and commercial appropriations and cultural tourism in Salvador, Bahia.

Selka is an anthropologist by training, but used Brazilian cinema as a point of departure to discuss cultural climates and shifting discourse in the late 20th century to present Brazil.

He began his lecture in the Cinema Novo Movement (1950s-1960s), of which most notable filmmakers were Glaber Rocha, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Carlos Diegues and Jaoquim Pedro de Andrade.

Next, Selka briefed us on the Bahian Renaissance, 1960s-1970s
We watched brief clips from
-O Pagador de Promessas (The Payer of Promises) 1962 by Anselmo Duarte
-Barrenvento (The Turning Wind) 1962 by Glaber Rocha

Then we interrogated the 1970's Films in Brazil, Post Cinema Novo
-O Amulteto de GOgum (1974)
-Provo do Fogo (1981)
-A Força de Xango (1977)
-Tenda dos Milagres (1977)
-Cordão de Ouro (1978)

Following breif descriptions and clips from these films, Selka began to discuss contemporary Brazilian Cinema in more depth. Selka provided a healthy length clip and discussion of the recent film Besouro (2009) by João Daniel Tikhomiroff. My colleage Gerald Leavell shared this film with the 2011 cohort of Expanding the Walls. Gerald explored Besouro for it's visual intricacy of storytelling, whereas Selka explored the presence of the Orixa in the characters on screen, specifically the Eshu or trickster Orixa.

Lastly, Selka discussed Jardim das Folhas Sagradas (2011) The Garden of the Sacred Leaves. For Selka, this film represents a culmination of the themes and ideas previously discussed from the cinema novo movement beyond.

Selka concluded that Candomblé became more than a politicized movement, when the black movement in Brazil began using Candomblé symbols, it was a drive toward ethnic affirmation.

Selka can be reached at sselka@indiana.edu
http://www.transcarib.org/?page_id=142

Reflections on Kyle Abraham's Master Class Friday Oct 14

I witnessed Kyle Abraham’s work in progress showing of The Realest MC to check out what I would be getting into with his free master class on October 14 at Mark Morris, as part of his residency with 651 Arts. The energy, precision and speed definitely left me with a few questions as to what my attendance in a highly detail oriented, richly textured repertory classroom may feel like. I decided to give it a try.

We began in a circle, with introductions and suggestions of performances to attend that weekend. I immediately got a sense of Kyle’s consideration of the people in the classroom, a similar sense I’ve had from David Dorfman who Kyle has danced for these past 5 years. We began moving on the floor, with Bartenieff Fundamental style movement, coming out with a few yoga poses and others that felt Afro-Caribbean, such as a pose from Oshun. The combination itself was enough to excite my dance brain. After 10 minutes, the speed on the floor definitely began to settle in. As a dancer, it was important to find my way to fall into the floor with my full body, and visualize the full shape of the transition of the movements. Also similarly to Dorfman, Kyle took a liking to movement in 5/5 time signature. The warm up introduced me to Kyle's rhythm for repertory, visually rich with character traits and passionate musicality. Where else would I find myself coupéing and releasing into the floor with Kanye West playing in the background?

My only prior exposure to Kyle's work was an interview I read in Studio Magazine, conducted by my friend and co-worker Thomas Lax. Although the interview was conducted two years ago, I knew this choreographer was someone I must meet, and what better place exists to spark an introduction than the dance floor? In Kyle’s interview, I was intrigued by the still image selected from a previous performance as well as the rich diversity of training that influenced Kyle’s body of work. In person, Kyle mentioned Ralph Lemon as a personal icon and I felt the emotional theatrical richness and vision of a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on choreography. Although we learned samples from the first segment of The Realest MC the full work will include an intricate set design along with video footage, the choice of a choreographer with a keen visual sense which inspires both his movement and theatrical delivery.

I do not think I have ever attended a 651 event, and left disappointed. I always have an intimate encounter with an artist, with a sense I have truly engaged with or learned about their creative practice. I appreciate the opportunity 651 provided to meet Kyle, and am excited to continue to follow his work starting with his performance of The Realest MC at the Kitchen in December 2011.

Performance 9.11.11

Lady Liberty... you inspire me.