Sunday, November 23, 2008
the reality of displacement
So today I spoke with my friend Ruthie Epstein, who works for Human Rights First, an organization that assists refugees and people who are seeking asylum. She just came back from a three week work trip to Syria, where she met with Iraqi refugees. I was shocked to hear some of the numbers she told me. I hope I remember all of this information correctly but this is what she told me: There have been 4 million Iraqis displaced by the war. She told me that most of the people were displaced not by general violence but rather by targeted violence/direct threats. She said that this year the United States accepted 14,000 refugees from Iraq, which is up from 1600 from the year before. The refugees staying in Syria are from the middle class in Iraq, and came to Syria with some savings, most of which are running out by now. They aren't able to get working papers to stay there, so they try to get relocated to third countries, preferably in Europe, she said, though she speculated that a lot of the refugees would probably be fine about being relocated to the U.S. I was not aware that in Europe, Sweden has been taking in the largest number of refugees. She said that a ton of refugees have gone into Iran (I think she said 50,000??), but that the U.S. tries to keep that quiet.
Most recent list of participants!
I'm excited to say that more and more people are joining the action! We are up to 28 participants, which is totally incredible. Here is the latest list of folks:
Participating Artists thus far (as of 11/23/08)
Alaska – Kyli Kleven
Arizona – Aileen Mapes
California – Keith Hennessy
Colorado — Lily Brown-Johnson
Connecticut — David Dorfman
Florida – Heather Maloney
Georgia – Diana Crum
Hawaii – Brianna Skellie
Illinois – Marissa Perel
Iowa – Amanda Hamp
Kentucky – Ben Asriel
Maryland – Sharon Mansur
Massachusetts - Jesse Zaritt
Michigan – Amy Chevasse
Minnesota – Morgan Thorson
Montana – Harmony Wolfe
New Hampshire — Greg Holt
New Jersey – Joshua Bisset
New York – Miguel Gutierrez
North Carolina – Janice Lancaster
Ohio- Lena Lauer
Oregon – Tahni Holt
Pennsylvania – Jung-Eun Kim
Texas – Abby Crain
Vermont – Selene Colburn
Virginia – Zap McConnell
Washington – Tonya Lockyer
Washingon, D.C. - Maida Withers
Participating Artists thus far (as of 11/23/08)
Alaska – Kyli Kleven
Arizona – Aileen Mapes
California – Keith Hennessy
Colorado — Lily Brown-Johnson
Connecticut — David Dorfman
Florida – Heather Maloney
Georgia – Diana Crum
Hawaii – Brianna Skellie
Illinois – Marissa Perel
Iowa – Amanda Hamp
Kentucky – Ben Asriel
Maryland – Sharon Mansur
Massachusetts - Jesse Zaritt
Michigan – Amy Chevasse
Minnesota – Morgan Thorson
Montana – Harmony Wolfe
New Hampshire — Greg Holt
New Jersey – Joshua Bisset
New York – Miguel Gutierrez
North Carolina – Janice Lancaster
Ohio- Lena Lauer
Oregon – Tahni Holt
Pennsylvania – Jung-Eun Kim
Texas – Abby Crain
Vermont – Selene Colburn
Virginia – Zap McConnell
Washington – Tonya Lockyer
Washingon, D.C. - Maida Withers
Friday, November 21, 2008
still looking for participants
hi to all
i'm back in ny after 7 weeks away. just here for the weekend before heading to san francisco for a week.
like i've reported in previous posts, some folks have had to back out of foi2008, but others have signed on. i'll be putting up a more updated list of participants over the weekend once i have confirmations from various folks, but in the meantime, i'm going to post the list of states that we're still needing folks for. check it out cuz some of them are different than before, and different than what's on the dtw blog...
Still looking for people in:
alabama
arkansas
delaware
idaho
indiana
kansas
louisiana
maine
mississippi
missouri
nebraska
nevada
new mexico
north dakota
ohio
oklahoma
rhode island
south carolina
south dakota
tennessee
utah
west virginia
wisconsin
wyoming
i'm back in ny after 7 weeks away. just here for the weekend before heading to san francisco for a week.
like i've reported in previous posts, some folks have had to back out of foi2008, but others have signed on. i'll be putting up a more updated list of participants over the weekend once i have confirmations from various folks, but in the meantime, i'm going to post the list of states that we're still needing folks for. check it out cuz some of them are different than before, and different than what's on the dtw blog...
Still looking for people in:
alabama
arkansas
delaware
idaho
indiana
kansas
louisiana
maine
mississippi
missouri
nebraska
nevada
new mexico
north dakota
ohio
oklahoma
rhode island
south carolina
south dakota
tennessee
utah
west virginia
wisconsin
wyoming
Thursday, November 20, 2008
"political art"
hi folks
i've been in philadelphia all week leading a choreography workshop through the Mascher Collective and so i've been remiss in getting the most recent info up on the blog. now that the info about the action is up on the dtw blog and the emails are passing around some more interest is coming my way. this is great, although at the same time different participants are having to back out because of scheduling conflicts. ah! it's a lot to manage and i'm getting confused as to what is going on and i feel bad about the curtness of my response to folks but i'm struggling a bit to make this thing go forward. i keep hoping to get at least 30 people involved in the action. i think i need to send another mass email out about the action, and i probably need to set up a fucking facebook page about it too. i'll keep looking for participants up to the last minute, though... so if you're on the fence about whether or not to do this, you have a little more time!
so interestingly enough a big topic this week that keeps coming up over and over in the workshop that i'm leading here is the viability of (self-consciously named) "political art." it's such an age old question of course. does it work? is it good? can it hold up to our aesthetic expectations? and so on and so on. so many great questions are being brought up in the workshop, i feel like it's impossible for me to even remember all of them to put them down here. i guess it's just interesting to me how these questions often plague dance contexts, and how much they seem to be related to a larger anxiety that we hold about the relevance/utility of dance in general. it seems somewhat a product of our self-absorption to get too caught up in these questions. i'm thinking of lots of different people here. i remember reading the book Who Cares (published by Creative Time), and there's this part where artist/writer Coco Fusco talks about how it drives her crazy that her students use the looming fear of potential "exploitation" as an excuse for not making art that engages topics beyond the students' immediate world. i also think about how it's our privilege as u.s. based artists to "decide" whether or not we want our work to be "political," when there are so many other places where this isn't exactly a choice. the very desire to express has been criminalized at varying points in our own history of course. maybe people feel far away from that now?? i don't know... again, i'm reminded of the fact that at least two of the people who i talked to about participating in foi2008 were afraid to participate because of the potential for violent response. so obviously there's something going on there....
i wish i could just transcribe all of the things that came up today in the conversation that we had in the workshop, but of course, i can't. however, i do want to include here a quote from a Judith Malina article that i had the workshop students read and which i found inspiring. it's from an article titled "The Work of an Anarchist Theater":
"The role of the artist in the social structure follows the need of the changing times:
In time of social stasis: to activate
In time of germination: to invent fertile new forms
In time of revolution: to extend the possibilities of peace and liberty
In time of violence: to make peace
In time of despair: to give hope
In time of silence: to sing out"
one of the students in the workshop today commented how it's possible to think that right now we're in all of these conditions, all of these different "times." mostly, i think it was interesting to consider that our perceptions of "artist" and "politics" are often dangerously static. i like that this article considers how these entities are temporal, contextual.
i've been in philadelphia all week leading a choreography workshop through the Mascher Collective and so i've been remiss in getting the most recent info up on the blog. now that the info about the action is up on the dtw blog and the emails are passing around some more interest is coming my way. this is great, although at the same time different participants are having to back out because of scheduling conflicts. ah! it's a lot to manage and i'm getting confused as to what is going on and i feel bad about the curtness of my response to folks but i'm struggling a bit to make this thing go forward. i keep hoping to get at least 30 people involved in the action. i think i need to send another mass email out about the action, and i probably need to set up a fucking facebook page about it too. i'll keep looking for participants up to the last minute, though... so if you're on the fence about whether or not to do this, you have a little more time!
so interestingly enough a big topic this week that keeps coming up over and over in the workshop that i'm leading here is the viability of (self-consciously named) "political art." it's such an age old question of course. does it work? is it good? can it hold up to our aesthetic expectations? and so on and so on. so many great questions are being brought up in the workshop, i feel like it's impossible for me to even remember all of them to put them down here. i guess it's just interesting to me how these questions often plague dance contexts, and how much they seem to be related to a larger anxiety that we hold about the relevance/utility of dance in general. it seems somewhat a product of our self-absorption to get too caught up in these questions. i'm thinking of lots of different people here. i remember reading the book Who Cares (published by Creative Time), and there's this part where artist/writer Coco Fusco talks about how it drives her crazy that her students use the looming fear of potential "exploitation" as an excuse for not making art that engages topics beyond the students' immediate world. i also think about how it's our privilege as u.s. based artists to "decide" whether or not we want our work to be "political," when there are so many other places where this isn't exactly a choice. the very desire to express has been criminalized at varying points in our own history of course. maybe people feel far away from that now?? i don't know... again, i'm reminded of the fact that at least two of the people who i talked to about participating in foi2008 were afraid to participate because of the potential for violent response. so obviously there's something going on there....
i wish i could just transcribe all of the things that came up today in the conversation that we had in the workshop, but of course, i can't. however, i do want to include here a quote from a Judith Malina article that i had the workshop students read and which i found inspiring. it's from an article titled "The Work of an Anarchist Theater":
"The role of the artist in the social structure follows the need of the changing times:
In time of social stasis: to activate
In time of germination: to invent fertile new forms
In time of revolution: to extend the possibilities of peace and liberty
In time of violence: to make peace
In time of despair: to give hope
In time of silence: to sing out"
one of the students in the workshop today commented how it's possible to think that right now we're in all of these conditions, all of these different "times." mostly, i think it was interesting to consider that our perceptions of "artist" and "politics" are often dangerously static. i like that this article considers how these entities are temporal, contextual.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
two steps forward, one step back
day ends. saw an incredible show in paris. deborah hay's "If I Sing To You" . it was totally life-changing and inspiring.
happy to say that we have two new folks on board:
Arizona - Aileen Mapes
Michigan -- Amy Chevasse
sad to say eleanor bauer can't rep for new mexico... so that is open again to whomever is interested...
happy to say that we have two new folks on board:
Arizona - Aileen Mapes
Michigan -- Amy Chevasse
sad to say eleanor bauer can't rep for new mexico... so that is open again to whomever is interested...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Oregon!
And the day ends with more good news. Tahni Holt, an artist working in oregon, is going to be participating as the rep from that state. i'm thrilled.
connecticut!
well i'm happy to say my spirits just picked up. David Dorfman will be the connecticut rep for foi 2008! now we're almost exactly half way there in terms of numbers of participants. incredible.
the ride
i'm starting to realize that organizing this action feels like a big ole analog to doing the event itself. there's the initial thrill of deciding to do it, as there always sort of is with deciding to organize any kind of major action or performance. there's the basic conceptual groundwork followed by the necessary pragmatic considerations. there's the assembling of all of the participating folks and the intricacy of those conversations. there's the momentum and excitement of the thing having its own momentum. then there's the continuous plodding on when the thing starts to be fall apart, or appear meaningless. i'm a little bit in this last feeling at the moment, but i know that that will pass. my metaphor driven mind can't help but make a link here between this continuous work and the reality of living with any kind of ongoing, chronic condition. obviously there is a huge difference in that foi 2008 has a clear destination and an ending point. i applaud all of the people who don't have the luxury of that endpoint.
i'm a little worried that this constant buzzing of organization is starting to distract me from the intentions of the action and also from any real mental/physical preparations that i need to seriously think about in relationship to doing foi again with my own body. i remember speaking to a class last year at the new school about getting a show together and one of the first things that came out of my mouth, unscripted and unplanned, was "i find that often the first thing that disappears in the process of making a piece is the process." i heard myself say that and was completely wigged out. those poor college kids, they didn't really know what to do with my real time verbal therapy.
anyway, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
i've been in contact with a friend of mine about the possibility of live video web streaming of foi 2008... i'm waiting to hear what she says but i'm open to anyone's ideas about it.
i'm a little worried that this constant buzzing of organization is starting to distract me from the intentions of the action and also from any real mental/physical preparations that i need to seriously think about in relationship to doing foi again with my own body. i remember speaking to a class last year at the new school about getting a show together and one of the first things that came out of my mouth, unscripted and unplanned, was "i find that often the first thing that disappears in the process of making a piece is the process." i heard myself say that and was completely wigged out. those poor college kids, they didn't really know what to do with my real time verbal therapy.
anyway, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
i've been in contact with a friend of mine about the possibility of live video web streaming of foi 2008... i'm waiting to hear what she says but i'm open to anyone's ideas about it.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
foi on DTW blog and election and perception and bombs
hey i'm happy to say that Dance Theater Workshop posted info about foi 2008 on their blog.. you can go here:
http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/blog/2008/11/11/join-a-nationwide-contemplative-action-of-protest-reflection-and-solidarity/
you can read some GREAT comments by participating artists Marissa Perel (illinois) and Diana Crum (georgia) in the comments part of the "info on the way" post.
i'm excited that we have almost HALF of the numbers that i'm hoping for for this event. i'm going to be doing my foi at The Barn in greenpoint, brooklyn. it's a great rehearsal studio/space run by Felicia Ballos, Beth Gill and Isabel Lewis. i'm really happy to be doing it there because it's a little bit out of the way from the craziness of the city, but it's easy to get to and people can come and go easily... also i'm still fantasizing about creating some kind of video streaming thing on the day of the event and there's wifi there.
i'm gonna send out another mass email about the action to my email list in hopes of finding people for the missing states. if you have any ideas about anyone, please tell them to email me at miguel@miguelgutierrez.org... i realized that the first time i sent out an email about it i sent it mostly just to my "dancer" email list. i'm gonna go to the whole list now.
i'm in blois, france, a sleepy city, where i'm getting ready to perform a show tomorrow. the french press has gone berserk over obama's election. in paris you see his face on the cover of every single magazine, i'm not kidding. people are really talking about what this means to the rest of the world. i've also heard a couple of different people talk about how they feel like this is a real signal to the government of france to consider its lack of diversity.
on a slightly different note, someone i work with here talked about how his election allows her to see the u.s. in a favorable light again, and that she was surprised to realize how much prejudice she's been feeling about the u.s. for the past 8 years during bush. i had a complicated response to that statement. i thought about how most of the people i know and myself were never for bush. how more than half of the u.s. certainly wasn't in 2000 and again, how practically half of the country voted against bush again in 2004. while i fully aware and completely happy about the symbolic nature of obama's victory, i find it disheartening to think that people in other countries were not aware of the amount of people, and the amount of frustration and hopelessness that was felt during the bush years in the states. i mean, obviously the numbers of people who volunteered their energy during the obama campaign alone are proof of this. among my friends in new york and across the country, there was certainly a feeling of NEVER AGAIN in regards to mccain.
sadly, last week i couldn't help but notice that it wasn't good news everywhere:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/asia/07afghan.html?scp=1&sq=aghanistan%20civilians&st=cse
http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/blog/2008/11/11/join-a-nationwide-contemplative-action-of-protest-reflection-and-solidarity/
you can read some GREAT comments by participating artists Marissa Perel (illinois) and Diana Crum (georgia) in the comments part of the "info on the way" post.
i'm excited that we have almost HALF of the numbers that i'm hoping for for this event. i'm going to be doing my foi at The Barn in greenpoint, brooklyn. it's a great rehearsal studio/space run by Felicia Ballos, Beth Gill and Isabel Lewis. i'm really happy to be doing it there because it's a little bit out of the way from the craziness of the city, but it's easy to get to and people can come and go easily... also i'm still fantasizing about creating some kind of video streaming thing on the day of the event and there's wifi there.
i'm gonna send out another mass email about the action to my email list in hopes of finding people for the missing states. if you have any ideas about anyone, please tell them to email me at miguel@miguelgutierrez.org... i realized that the first time i sent out an email about it i sent it mostly just to my "dancer" email list. i'm gonna go to the whole list now.
i'm in blois, france, a sleepy city, where i'm getting ready to perform a show tomorrow. the french press has gone berserk over obama's election. in paris you see his face on the cover of every single magazine, i'm not kidding. people are really talking about what this means to the rest of the world. i've also heard a couple of different people talk about how they feel like this is a real signal to the government of france to consider its lack of diversity.
on a slightly different note, someone i work with here talked about how his election allows her to see the u.s. in a favorable light again, and that she was surprised to realize how much prejudice she's been feeling about the u.s. for the past 8 years during bush. i had a complicated response to that statement. i thought about how most of the people i know and myself were never for bush. how more than half of the u.s. certainly wasn't in 2000 and again, how practically half of the country voted against bush again in 2004. while i fully aware and completely happy about the symbolic nature of obama's victory, i find it disheartening to think that people in other countries were not aware of the amount of people, and the amount of frustration and hopelessness that was felt during the bush years in the states. i mean, obviously the numbers of people who volunteered their energy during the obama campaign alone are proof of this. among my friends in new york and across the country, there was certainly a feeling of NEVER AGAIN in regards to mccain.
sadly, last week i couldn't help but notice that it wasn't good news everywhere:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/asia/07afghan.html?scp=1&sq=aghanistan%20civilians&st=cse
Sunday, November 9, 2008
current participants and looking for folks in these other places
this is an updated list of folks involved so far... we're almost halfway there... please keep spreading the word!
Alaska – Kyli Kleven
California – Keith Hennessy
Florida – Heather Maloney
Georgia – Diana Crum
Hawaii – Brianna Skellie
Illinois – Marissa Perel
Iowa – Amanda Hamp
Kansas – David Ollington
Kentucky – Ben Asriel
Maryland – Sharon Mansur
Massachusetts - Jesse Zaritt
Minnesota – Morgan Thorson
New Jersey – Joshua Bisset
New Mexico – Eleanor Bauer
New York – Miguel Gutierrez
Pennsylvania – Jung-Eun Kim
Texas – Abby Crain
Vermont – Selene Colburn
Virginia – Zap McConnell
Washington – Tonya Lockyer
Washingon, D.C. - Maida Withers
Still looking for people in:
alabama
arizona
arkansas
colorado
connecticut
delaware
idaho
indiana
lousiana
maine
michigan
mississippi
missouri
nebraska
nevada
new hampshire
north carolina
north dakota
ohio
oklahoma
oregon
rhode island
south carolina
south dakota
tennessee
utah
west virginia
wisconsin
wyoming
Alaska – Kyli Kleven
California – Keith Hennessy
Florida – Heather Maloney
Georgia – Diana Crum
Hawaii – Brianna Skellie
Illinois – Marissa Perel
Iowa – Amanda Hamp
Kansas – David Ollington
Kentucky – Ben Asriel
Maryland – Sharon Mansur
Massachusetts - Jesse Zaritt
Minnesota – Morgan Thorson
New Jersey – Joshua Bisset
New Mexico – Eleanor Bauer
New York – Miguel Gutierrez
Pennsylvania – Jung-Eun Kim
Texas – Abby Crain
Vermont – Selene Colburn
Virginia – Zap McConnell
Washington – Tonya Lockyer
Washingon, D.C. - Maida Withers
Still looking for people in:
alabama
arizona
arkansas
colorado
connecticut
delaware
idaho
indiana
lousiana
maine
michigan
mississippi
missouri
nebraska
nevada
new hampshire
north carolina
north dakota
ohio
oklahoma
oregon
rhode island
south carolina
south dakota
tennessee
utah
west virginia
wisconsin
wyoming
Friday, November 7, 2008
info on its way
hi all
getting some more participants in foi 2008 lined up. should have updates this weekend... like so many, i'm thrilled about obama. let's hope for the return of sanity...
getting some more participants in foi 2008 lined up. should have updates this weekend... like so many, i'm thrilled about obama. let's hope for the return of sanity...
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