Friday, July 6, 2012

To Begin The World Over Again


Delirious Dances and Numinous invite you to join them on September 27 – October 6, 2012 at the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY to celebrate Thomas Paine and The Promise of America.


To Begin The World Over Again explores the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Democracy that Thomas Paine fervently advocated and fought for, and celebrates those ideals through music, dance, panel discussions and an art exhibition.

Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809) was an immigrant, an author, an inventor, a revolutionary, and one of the founding fathers of the United States. Paine was a free thinker and a visionary. He called for an end to slavery, for the rights of man and woman regardless of property or wealth, and for a democratic program of aid to young people and pensions for the elderly – concepts and rights that we now too often take for granted. Paine was vilified by the propertied, powerful and pious for his radical-democratic beliefs, and especially for his critique of institutionalized religion.

Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, published in 1776, was a best seller. It challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. It was the first work to openly insist on independence from Great Britain and convinced many people that America should be an independent nation, and inspired them to support and join the Revolutionary War.

Paine believed that America could begin the world over again as the first democratically governed nation; 

“We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand.” - Common Sense, Thomas Paine.

How would you begin the world over again?


To Begin the World Over Again 
Dance Performance, Panel Discussions, Art Exhibition, Teach-in's



September 27, 28, 29
October 4, 5, 6
2012

By Edisa Weeks and Joseph C. Phillips
Performed by Delirious Dances and Numinous
Co-produced by the Irondale Center

Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street
Brooklyn, NY 11217


Performance #2 at Occupy Wall Street – November 5, 2011


The energy at OWS has evolved. The tents change the feel of the occupation - a hunkering down. It reminds me of shanty-towns that I had seen in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and in sections of New York City that people choose not to know of or go to. However these tents, for the most, part are not occupied by the destitute. While there are actual homeless and people who prefer to live on the fringes in Liberty Park, for the most part the occupiers have resources, families and homes to go back to. Listening to the conversations floating around me, many people commented on the quality and/or size of the tents.

There is a cynicism at OWS that wasn’t there two weeks ago. Profiteers have arrived, selling 99% t-shirts and OWS buttons. In the past I had to ask where to give a donation, now there are many people with a bucket/cup/pitch attempting to cash-in on the support coming to OWS:
  • A skinny woman in a deflated looking Santa suit with a cardboard sign asking for money to help Santa’s elves
  • A college student asking for funds to support his education
  • A Homeless couple with baby asking for change
  • Occupants inside the tent city with their own bucket asking for donations

New concerns and agendas have emerged: A flyer with a picture of a man who was expelled from the occupation for sexual assault; Many signs in support of the anti fracking movement; a poster being prominently displayed throughout the camp that says “occupy for innocence” with the image of a young white girl-child relaxing or sprawling in the street with a wall of nondescript protesters on the sidewalk behind her. I felt my heartstrings being tugged like a hallmark card and I resented it. Why does a young white girl-child represent innocence?

The individual requests for donations have nothing to do with the demand for equality and for a change in how America governs itself and the world. The irony of the situation is that the people selling t-shirts and buttons are African-American; are there to make money; and are not concerned about the ideals or the goals of the occupation. So if they are asked to take their merchandise elsewhere and stop profiteering off the occupation, are the people asking them to cease and desist in this location being racist, classist, and stopping a marginalized person from trying to make a living? Or are the profiteers providing a service as people buying the buttons will hopefully wear them and spread the message to other locations?

Money co-opting an occupation that is in protest of the co-option of money, in the symbolic center for the making of money…

A few feet from the people selling OWS merchandise, there is a table making and giving away OWS buttons for free (with a box for donations), and in the art section of OWS people are silk-screening and giving away T-shirts for free. They are countering the profiteers, however I had to accidentally find or know to look for the tables with free OWS stuff, as they are not as prominently displayed as the people selling merchandise.

After walking around Liberty Park my gut feeling was this was not the place for a performance. It was a place to educate and inform the curious and the gawkers about the issues behind the occupation and how to address the increasing and glaring inequalities in America. It was a place to come and be in solidarity with the people doing the hard work of occupying the park and help generate a tension so “power” will have to come to the negotiation table.

Martin Luther King on April 16, 1963 in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail wrote:

“You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth… The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”

I decided to go ahead with the performance as I had promised Andrea I would. There were two key differences in the performance: 1. Paloma was unable to join us, so just Andrea and I did the movement score. Three was more powerful than two. Two people implied individuals on a journey, whereas three people implied a community on a journey. 2. Because so many people are asking for donations and selling merchandise, the symbol of a dollar bill across our mouths, was hollow. People in the occupation were not silenced by money. They were actively asking for it.

Comments that I remember in response to our performance were:
  • “Can you give me a dollar” - Tourist.
  • “What’s wrong with making a dollar?” Street vendor selling OWS buttons.
  • “That’s profound. Do you get it? They are silenced by money, struggling against the dollar.” - CUNY student for OWS
  • “What are you saying?!! This is why they call us crazies” - OWS organizer












  

As a performer I felt empty and adrift. I felt that I wasn’t contributing to the movement. I couldn’t find a way to take the negativity and transform it into positivity. I could become an abstract modern dancer and become the “craziness” and interact with the crowd, occupying space with them, challenging them with my presence and silence, or I could choose to become stoic. I choose stoic as I felt that it allowed Andrea to engage with the crowd’s energy and I became a base for her to return to. After the “What are you saying!!!” comment by the OWS organizer, I wanted to cry. I wanted to immediately stop the journey/performance, but I had made the commitment so continued feeling spiritless inside.

A dance performance – because it is open to interpretation and thus confusion - diffuses the core intent of the occupation. I can say I am there to support, however is a dance performance the type of support that the occupation actually needs? When the occupation is already being derided as a bunch of crazies, I feel doing an abstract dance performance at Liberty Park makes us one of the crazies and gives critics ammunition to use against the occupation. I can argue that my intensions are pure, however the road to hell was paved with good intentions. We become a distraction from the message. Our performance does provide compelling visual images – but do those images generate a tension that will bring “power” to the negotiating table and cause people to reflect, or do those images diffuse the tension by allowing people to dismiss and deride OWS and the 99% movement.

I felt our performance was about a need for catharsis, a desire to contribute to the occupation as a dancer/choreographer, and an exploration of concepts regarding crowd engagement. It came from an individual artist centered perspective as opposed to a communal activist centered perspective. Instead of imposing our art on the occupation, we need to meet with organizers of OWS and discuss how dance can support what endeavors are already in place, as well as create its own initiatives.

Our performance and the occupation needs to spread out and happen all over the city. How can we as performers help to apply pressure and draw attention to the issues: for example by taking dance actions to Goldman Sachs, Moody’s, Bank of America, and Bedford Stuyvesant where I live. Bed-Stuy was badly hit by sub prime and predatory loans. (The sub prime mess is the biggest drain of wealth out of the African-American community in American history). As we perform, have people with literature and video cameras who can interview and talk with observers - “What do you think the performance is about, takes this flyer for more information, etc...” How can each of us occupy our own block, our neighborhood, and get people communicating, invested and involved. I don’t care if you are a tea-party member, a libertarian, an OWSer, a 99%er, a democrat, a republic, WE all need to be involved in the political process and hold our representatives accountable. Not just at elections, but as an on-going part of living in a “free” society.

Dance + OWS and The 99%


While my husband, Darryl Hell, was actively involved with teach-ins at Zuccotti “Liberty” Park, I was observing the occupation, trying to figure out a way that aside from donating money, I can be part of the change efforts. How much risk am I willing to embrace? How willing am I to be a part of the effort and take on any positivity, ridicule, hostility and consequences that might result from it? Am I willing to be arrested, physically attacked and like Rachel Corrie die for a cause?

 It was a relief when a friend and choreographer Andrea Haenggi contacted me and asked if I was interested in participating in a Human River movement score in support of OWS. Andrea had coordinated a Human River improvisation in Lagos, Nigeria to raise awareness of water issues and wanted to bring that same concept to OWS. We brainstormed and tweaked the score to fit the OWS movement. What struck me when I had gone to the occupation was seeing a person with a dollar bills across their mouth and another with a bill over their eyes. The metaphor of being blinded or silenced by money (greed) resonated with me and I suggested we have a dollar bill across our mouths. Andrea suggested elaborating on several of the gestures that were being used in the General Assembly to communicate agreement or dissent. The structure was simple. Follow each other in a line, everyone wear white, whomever was in front would initiate a movement that would be echoed by the group. The person in front leading the group would continually change. Andrea and I contacted about 100 dancers and choreographers, inviting them to join us on October 16 in a movement score at Liberty Park in support of OWS. Paloma McGregor (a dynamic choreographer and dancer who dances with Urban Bush Women and Liz Lehrman) was the only person who showed up…

The improvisation was a strong and emotional experience. It felt good to stop reflecting, observing and contribute as a dancer/choreographer to the effort to create change and more equality in America. The next day several people told me we were in the Daily News Paper, in addition to the Stephen Colbert Report and The Daily Show as one of the crazies at OWS…