I hope everyone is having an excellent holiday season!
I am so excited! My health is coming back and I have some performances in the works. I'll be at Claremont in late Feb, Chicago at the AWP in March and Syracuse University in April. I am sketching out a new piece based on some of my experiences during the downtime.
I am realizing the value of conflict and resolution (as opposed to not rocking the boat until one either explodes with pent-up frustration, or smothers oneself in helpless silence). When violence is used against us, it often poisons our perception of what should be a healthy part of the human psyche--anger.
Anger is not inherently a bad thing, nor is outrage nor expressions of self-worth. But abuse takes this perspective away from us, since these impulses were used against us as weapons. Someone else's rage...someone else's ego or opinion, obliterated ours. And we never want to be like that, so we suppress these emotions within us. Anger scares us, we don't deserve self-worth, we aren't confident enough for outrage.
But if we are to be anything other than victims, or shells, or children, we need to experience these emotions, and learn what our abusers did not--how to responsibly and constructively incorporate them into our thoughts, feelings and actions.
That's what my new full performance piece will be touching on--wish me luck!
