Becoming Curious
Since moving to "The West" during the pandemic, I have focused my personal journey on Truth and Reconciliation...
Asking hard questions about the land I currently live on (colonially referred to as Bisbee, Arizona) and the land grew up (colonially referred to as Western New York) - how I continue to benefit everyday from the centuries-long genocide of indigenous people on this continent.
This research/decolonizing process has evolved into making a new play/interactive conversation called:
Becoming Curious
This work/play holds space for how we learn what we learn, for the American-made myths we have internalized, and for piecing together the truths of our ancestors… compassionately inviting audiences to create forward by relating anew to the sacred/stolen land that we each call home.
My bones know the truth, encouraging me to seek out others to imagine the world forward…
My head tells the story.
My gut still believes we can change the world.
My heart sings the songs.
My spirits are good.
Thank you for taking the time to hold this project in your arms.
Thank you for taking the time to hold this project in your arms.
Listen With Me
While time traveling, young girl of Fourth Generation Ukrainian descent with rose-colored glasses bumps into a bison calf from the late 1800s - but first she sings this song…
I imagine this musical to have several live versions - all experimenting with the theatrical form anew:
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Small Outdoor Circle: Including Other Musicians
An intimate community play circle where the audience can animate the puppets (boy & bison), share stories and pass objects (water, train) around to create their own unique one-time version of the story.
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Song Cycle Concert: Solo with Stories Between Songs
A Solo violin concert performance with large-scale projections of my animated collages. This could be in a theater, outside with projections on a building, or in a house or backyard.
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Educational/Community Workshop
A college or high school workshop where students would learn the songs, play instruments, share their own related stories, and build their own characters/theatrical ways of sharing.
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Professionally & Acted Produced Ensemble Musical
A large-scale production that could include elements from the other versions and more (projections, puppets, songs, stories, audience participation, indoor/outdoor).
Some of people & their wisdom continuing to guide this project…
“My heart is close enough to sing to you in a language to clumsy for words.”
Joy Harjo, Crazy Brave
“The ceremonies were clear demonstrations of ‘gendered and sexual possibility’ that challenged the very fabric of settler colonial culture and society.”
“Given the way in which Indigenous peoples are so often forced to reactively hyperfocus on the present and on day-to-day survival, have some space to cast ourselves as far into the future is vital and potentially emancipatory.”
“The more concealed these secrets are, the more we become strangers to ourselves… the ghosts of the past are alive in our unconscious… we are all gatekeepers of the unspeakable.”
Galit Atlas, Emotional Inheritance
“Neither arcane colonial laws nor the historical trauma of genocide simply disappear with time, certainly not when conditions of life and consciousness perpetuate them.”
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous History of the United States & “All The Real Indians Died Off”
“Colonization is nothing if not about the extraction of mineral wealth and the exploitation of people.”
Here is another way that I experimented with putting my research/understanding into an un-learning context:
I created this rhyme presentation for September 30th: The Day of Rememberance for Indian Boarding Schools.
I encourage you to honor the victims and survivors by taking the time to learn about the ongoing/multi-generational trauma caused by this 100+ year federal policy...
*I am not sure how/if this will be used directly in the sharing of BECOMING CURIOUS… but it was definitely a monumental part of my process(ing), and I want it to be shared widely either way…
To learn more, visit the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
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Love is LOVE is Love.
Kindness & saying hello makes a difference.
