QBWL poiesis: queer space and black space

I've been away from this project for a while, namely because I haven't had much time (for reasons you know very well from reading this blog). The other reason is that I simply hadn't been doing enough theatre to remark on it. But now that I'm in practicing mode, I can talk about it more freely.

It's been a few months, so let me recap. The "poiesis" label has all the relevant posts, but for the scroll-phobic, here's an overview. Feel free to refer to them and to force me to focus on what I meant to do. It's really easy for me to get trapped in theory when I'm trying to create a guide for practice.

"Big projects for 2011" outlines the gist of what my queer Black womanist liberation poiesis is about and what I'm trying to do with it.

"Why should you give a shit what queer Black women have to say?" is basically me trying to justify my efforts.

"Why queer Black womanist liberation poiesis matters to straight White guys doing theatre" looks at the benefits for even it's "natural enemies." Scarequotes on purpose because, despite what some people seem to believe, it's not about the Scary Black Dykes coming to cut off White men's penises.

"Dog Act and the power of naming" gets into identifying voice as the primary element of QWBL theatre by using Flux Theatre Ensemble's Dog Act as its case study.

"Voice, critique, and QBWL poiesis" springs off the Dog Act post to start looking at ways to critically engage with a piece without relying on the concept of picking apart what is good and bad about a piece.


"QBWL poiesis and Buber's I and Thou" explores how QBWL poiesis can be a powerful way of practicing the I-You relationship, which is incapable of domination, objectification, or dehumanization.

With those posts in mind, let me get into the next thing I wanted to explore.

A lot about this QBWL poiesis is about how we position ourselves and others in our own narratives. As such, space becomes another vital concept. While in previous posts I tended to lump that into voice, I now think that is an error. Looking back on it, I'd characterize voice as the What and space as the Where/When. Naturally, this is not set in stone. This framework is not about establishing rigid categories, but for the sake of understanding, a bit more precision is desirable.

This, in my mind, ties into the queerness of a QBWL poiesis. As suggested in this post, the main trait of queerness is how it occupies - or rather, embodies - a fluid space. It resists pre-defined positions and embraces paradox. It reveals the illusions of boundaries within and between Self-Other. When I talk about queering space or coming from a queer space, I'm talking about approaching understanding physical and conceptual structures this way.

Queering space is about naming and exploring boundaries. Where do the boundaries of a piece lie? Where are they transgressed? What maintains the boundaries? How are they crossed? How does that manifest? Who or what creates the boundaries? Why are they there in the first place?

The boundaries a queer space explores exist not only within a piece, but outside it as well. Part of what makes a piece like Tulpa, or Anne&Me so powerful for the people who've seen it is that it reflects and confronts the boundaries we carry with us outside the play.

In more particular terms, queer space also challenges what we've come to assume is true about gender and sexuality. It's not just who we are and what we like, but how we are and/or like those things.

Yet, while a QBWL poiesis stands firmly in a queer space (inasmuch as anything queer can be fixed), it is also a Black space.

Here it might be useful to explain - at least insofar as I am able - the associations I make with Blackness. For me, Blackness is not just a color or culture. It is a sense of the center of things. It's about our origins, the source from which we emerge and express. It's the fertile soil that gives birth to us. When I talk about a Black space, I mean understanding from a sense of where we come from.

As part of the Where We Come From, this poiesis is rooted in the African diaspora experience. As such, it operates on diunital cognition (both-and) rather than dichotomous cognition (either-or). The direction is parallel, rather than perpendicular or hierarchical. Naturally, the reality is more nuanced and complex than this definition, but I will say that this difference in ways of thinking is, in my experience, very real and often a source of conflict when that difference is not named or acknowledged.

Of course, there is also a feminine space, but I haven't given it as much thought, so I can't talk about how it fits at the moment. My intuition is that feminine space is related to how we create the space itself, but that's neither here nor there right now.

Let's give this framework a shape. A circle is rather fitting. Queerness would be the ever-shifting circumference, and Blackness would be the point at the center.

A more accurate visualization would be a sphere with a core of dark matter emanating colors that shift amorphously in all directions. In two-dimensional terms, however, picture it as a circle with a dark point at the center, with various colors and shades occupying the space in between.

Come see "Tulpa, or Anne&Me" at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity

Image designed by Chris Tyler

Just in case you forgot (not like I think you would), here's some info for the upcoming production of Tulpa, or Anne&Me at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Tickets are on sale now and are only $18.

We're at the Robert Moss Theater (440 Lafayette Street, Manhattan - right off the 6 train at Astor Place) on June 2 at 6pm, June 3 at 4pm, June 16 at 8pm, and June 19 at 8:15pm. The shows on June 2, 3, and 16 will have a post-show discussion.

CAST
[Name]: Starr Kirkland
Anne: Rachel Lambert
Guardian Angel of Blackness #1: Mia Y. Anderson
Guardian Angel of Blackness #2: Ayo Cummings

CREW
Assistant Director: Alexa Gruber

Set and Lights: Lauren Bremen
Marketing and Publicity: Chris Tyler
Video: Brianne Mueller and Phil Kegley

SPECIAL MENTION
The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond for the moral and practical support.

Ubiquitous Roots Productions for the space.


WHILE YOU'RE AT IT
I really want to check out Disenchanted and White House Wives: Operation Lysistrata. Anybody else gonna be there?

And follow the main character of Tulpa, or Anne&Me on Twitter! She's Afrodyke!

BTW, pass around the e-card to a friend (or ten).

Do you Tweet? Follow [Name]

[Name], the main character of the play, Tulpa, or Anne&Me, is tweeting as Afrodyke. Talk about life imitating art. Follow her for conversation about movies, comics, books, and other nerdy interests.

I'M SPEAKING IN ALL CAPS IN MY BRAIN!!!

You know when I told you all about Tulpa, or Anne&Me getting a staged reading at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity?

Fate just turned me into a liar. And that's a good thing!

Over the weekend, my co-producer Sara and I found out that Planet Connections has full performance slots available to us. Read that again. Instead of a staged reading, we're moving up to an actual production. The reason why I'm telling you now is because Sara had to sleep on it, and I had to make sure I was awake. You ever have something so big happen to you so quickly that you don't know how to feel about it? That's where I am right now.

As you read on the Flux blog (You do read the Flux blog, right?) and saw on our IndieGoGo campaign, Tulpa is really doing something new both artistically and politically, so we're eager to bring it to life.

But a production also means that we need more money to pay for stuff like a stage manager, designers, tech people, rehearsal space, and set/props and such. We estimate a total cost of about $2,500 to make this production happen, as opposed to the $1,000 necessary for the staged reading.  With an opening performance set for the first week of June, we don't have a lot of time to put that together.

There are 5 days still left on our IndieGoGo campaign, and there is no limit to the amount we can raise.  We set a new goal to raise an additional $1,000 by this Friday to make the production of Tulpa a reality.  It sounds like a lot, but if only 40 people donate just $25, we'll reach our goal. I get that money is tight, but every little bit you do means a whole lot- even if it's just telling a friend (or ten), posting about Tulpa on your blog, or linking to our IndieGoGo campaign via Twitter, Facebook, or what have you. Yes, yes, I know there's a lot of bold in this paragraph, but I can't emphasize this enough.

Dates, times, and venue for the performance TBA.

 

I can't wait to show you what we can do.

Thanks for your support everyone! This is way beyond what I dared to hope!

Tulpa is ALMOST there thanks to YOU!

Everything you've done so far - big favors or small acts of kindness - is the reason why Tulpa, or Anne&Me has come this far. No matter what your role is in this project - artist, audience member, moral support or just a little help in the background - everything you do means a lot. I really appreciate everyone who's had a hand (or finger or toe) in making Tulpa possible.

Because of you, we have less than $150 to go! That's only 6 people donating just $25 each!

If Tulpa, or Anne&Me has touched your life in any way, please let people know by:

• forwarding this e-mail to friends you think would be interested
• connecting to RVCBard on Twitter
• sending your ideas for the next phase of Tulpa, or Anne&Me
• leaving comments on this blog or at Ars Marginal
• telling a friend (or 10) about this crazy play you heard about/acted in/directed/contributed to
• pitching a story or project related to Tulpa, or Anne&Me so we can get the word out
• coming to the FUNraiser on April 9 so you can meet everyone and have a good time
  

Working on Tulpa, or Anne&Me has taught me something very important: to challenge my expectations. Most of the people contributing to Tulpa, or Anne&Me have not been artists or activists or academics, but regular people who've read the script or checked out Tulpa's IndieGoGo campaign and said, "Yes, this is what I need to see," or "Finally! Someone who's talking about this like a real person and not a pundit," or "Thank God! Someone understands!"

It cuts across age, income, and race. It gives me a lot of hope to see that the greatest hope for real change comes from everyday people like you.

I appreciate that, and I mean it.

ETA: WE DID IT!!!

Gus Schulenburg is awesome (and you can too!)

Gus Schulenburg of Flux Theatre Ensemble made a post about Tulpa, or Anne&Me that reminds me why I love having him in my audience. While good reviews and full houses are great, what really excited me as a writer are the responses of thoughtful, engaged audience members - even if it's an audience of one. C'mon, look at this!

Tulpa, or Anne & Me suggests that we often see tulpas – creations of [our] own unconscious fears and desires - instead of the real flesh and blood human beings in front of us. To exorcise those spirits, we must be willing to really listen, take full ownership of our actions, and not turn away when we dig up the mandrakes of our souls.

That goes way beyond the thumbs up/thumbs down type of thing that so often passes for theatre criticism (which often read like consumer reports). Read the whole thing here.

"Tulpa" needs YOU!

A while back, I announced that Tulpa, or Anne&Me is getting a staged reading at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this June.

I'm really grateful for everyone who's stuck by me through Tulpa's journey to this amazing opportunity. Your support has played a big part in keeping me focused and giving me the courage to move forward with this quirky little play. But to make this worthwhile, we need help.

We're trying to raise $1,000 for the event in order to cover the costs of production - the biggest one being rehearsal space and paying the artists a small stipend. Check out our IndieGoGo campaign for a better idea of what we're doing and why this stage is so important.

I did the math on this, and it's very doable. If we can get just 50 people to contribute only $20, we can meet our goal. All I'm asking is that if you can spare it, I'd really appreciate it (and you'll get a thanks from me). And if there is just one other person - just one person - you know who'd be willing to support Tulpa, or Anne&Me, please spread the word and let them know about it. It might not look or sound like much, but it does add up.

Thank you so much for being with me through all this. I really owe you one, and I'm going to do my damndest to pay you back.

Save the date: April 9 for Movie FUNraiser

I've been really busy with Crossroads Theatre Project and the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. If you're going to be in town, I'd really like to see you at the staged reading of Tulpa, or Anne&Me. If you've seen it and know some people who should see it too, please tell them - even if you can count them on one hand.

As we're gearing up for the reading, we're planning a FUNraising event to pay for rehearsal space. On the evening of Saturday, April 9 (let's say 8pm), we'll be screening a movie at Houndstooth Pub. The theme for the event will be girl power - movies with women in lead roles who don't need a man to be awesome. We're looking at showing

1. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland,
2. Heathers (starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater), or
3. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.

We'll choose the movie based on which one gets the biggest donation. So even if you can't be there, your vote will count! Simply click on the button below to donate:



Don't worry - this isn't going to be one of those "siddown and shaddup" movie-going experiences. You can laugh, talk at the screen, boo/hiss and otherwise act like a complete groundling with no culture at all.

It's going to be a lot of fun! Where else can you go out and catch a cool movie, drink beer, and meet great people at the same time?

I'd love to see you there and catch up on what you've been up to. Even if you can't be there, your support would mean a lot. Whether it's donating $10 or just letting 5 people know that beer and food and a movie will happen at the same place, every little bit helps, and I appreciate it.

Hope to see you in April (and also in June)!

(By the way, you can visit Off Book Market to get your own copy of Tulpa, or Anne&Me. Quite a few people have some great things to say about it.)

I interview myself

I interview myself about Tulpa, or Anne&Me:



If the video doesn't play, check it out on YouTube.

What never happned: meeting Anne Hathaway

I made a YouTube video. Check it out (or click here if it doesn't act right).

"Tulpa, or Anne&Me" at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity!!!

Great news! Tulpa, or Anne&Me was selected for a staged reading at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this June. Date is pending, but we'll be performing at the Gene Frankel Theatre. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out. If you have seen it, check it out anyway because quite a bit has changed since the reading last June and in November.

If we can raise $1,000, it would really help us get enough rehearsal time to pull of a polished staged reading. At this phase of production, generous contributions like yours are crucial to finding the best people and spaces to work with. Every little bit - $20, $50, even $100 - helps a lot. You will also be listed on our playbill once we get a date and time for the performance. All you have to do is click the donate button below.



If you can't be there for the reading, you can get your own copy of the script for only $5. Visit Off Book Market to get it today. Quite a few people have some great things to say about it.

Don't forget to pass the collection plate via Twitter and/or a blog post!

updating how i describe "Tulpa, or Anne&Me"

I've revised the way I describe Tulpa, or Anne&Me. Not because it was bad, per se, but because I found a better way to do it. Strangely (or rather, not so strangely), I found my inspiration from how people pitch films.

Here's the new blurb . . .

Tulpa, or Anne&Me is a full-length play about how racism affects our relationships.

Our heroine is a nerdy, introspective, lesbian African American artist whose life gets turned upside down when Anne Hathaway crawls out of her television.

During a series of Anne's surreal visitations, we watch them become good friends, which leads them to really start looking at how race impacts their lives as women, as friends, and as human beings. With the help of two outspoken imaginary friends, she relives feelings and experiences she's kept hidden even from herself, until now. We follow her efforts to express these things to Anne so there can be real intimacy between them. At the same time, we witness Anne struggle to understand where she fits in that process in order to be a true friend and confidante to the heroine.

Throughout the play we are challenged to go beyond the rhetoric and confront race from the truth of who we are.

Am I missing something here?

"Tulpa" available at Off Book Market

The most up-to-date version of Tulpa, or Anne&Me can be purchased here. Its only $5 for your own copy, which includes author's notes, production notes, and a cast and scene break-down. Off Book Market helps plays, theatres, and audiences to find each other in the 21st century. And there's the little fact that the author keeps control over their work (even in the small print). So if you've got $5, and you missed the cake and balloons back in November, you can still experience Tulpa, or Anne&Me for yourself.

Why Anne Hathaway will always have a part in my work

Check it out over at FAB Feed.

Big projects for 2011

One of my goals for this year is to put together a full production of Tulpa, or Anne&Me. I'm looking into a festival that seems right up Tulpa's alley. Also, I'm working with a director who really believes in it and wants to make it happen. Go me!

The second thing I'm working on is a Black womanist liberation poetics (or rather poiesis). If I'm honest with myself, this is more than likely a lifelong endeavor, but at the very least I'd like to make significant headway on the guiding principles. I haven't yet decided exactly what form I want it to take, but I'm thinking that I do not want to take an academic or journalistic style. Aside from my lack of interest in it, that approach would only serve to undermine one of the chief aims of this project: to help develop works that reclaim the subjectivity of marginalized people. Part of this is reconstructing ways of creating and interpreting dramatic media such as theatre, film, and television. The main idea is to start from one's own lived experience as the center then work outward from there.

I also want to avoid any dogmatic assertions about What Great Theatre Should Be and focus instead on what works and how.

Here's the preliminary reading list I'm working with:

• James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation
• Linda E. Thomas, Womanist Theology, Epistemology, and a New Anthropological Paradigm
• bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation
• bell hooks, Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies
• August Wilson, The Ground on Which I Stand

Doomsday in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .

Wish me luck, peoples!

And -

Happy Birthday, Anne Hathaway!

a brief encounter - a true story

SCENE: Lobby of the Public Theater. Night.

ME: I came just to see you.
HER: Oh that's so sweet.
ME: Please don't be mad. I wrote a play about you.
HER: You wrote a play about me!?!?!?!
ME: Pleasedon'tbemad. There' some stuffinitthat'suhsensitivebecauseit'spersonalandum. About race and you say some things but I don't think you're a racist bigot or anything.
HER: I'm a racist bigot?
ME: Nonono. I'm not saying that at all! (Showing her the program).
HER: Waitaminute! I think a friend of mine was in this.
ME: Huh what who? Did she do set design or -
HER: No, no. She was an actor. Her name was Meredith or Elizabeth or -
ME: That doesn't sound - You already knew? Um. Sorry. Really nervous. Uh. Here. (giving her sheet)
HER: Oh, sure. Is this to RVCBard [not the name I used]? (Writing carefully)
ME: Yeah it's me. Uh here I almost forgot. For you. (giving her my letter and an invitation) Uh. Thanks. Bye. (skipping away with hearts and stars and unicorns floating around my head)

I swear, I am not a racist bigot - and I have no idea what "I" say in this play but RVCBard [not the name I used]seems sweet and lovely.<3

Anne Hathaway

mark your calendar for FRIDAY, NOV 12!

Do pass this along. It won't work if nobody shows up. :P

WHO: (aka me)
WHAT: Staged reading for Tulpa, or Anne&Me combined with birthday party for Anne Hathaway (aka The Great Pumpkin). There will be cake. There will be balloons. There may be party hats.
WHEN: Friday, November 12 at 8pm
WHERE: WOW Cafe Theatre, 59 E. 4th Street, New York, NY
WHY: Fundraising for Crossroads Theatre Project and WOW Cafe Theatre.
HOW: RSVP by clicking on the Fractured Atlas button below to send a donation to Crossroads Theatre Project. Suggested donation $10 per person.



ABOUT TULPA, OR ANNE&ME
When Anne Hathaway crawls out of your television, what do you do?

Tulpa, or Anne&Me tells the story of a Black lesbian with an overactive imagination who forges an unlikely bond with Anne Hathaway. Guided by two guardian angels of Blackness (or are they voices in her head?), she struggles to connect with Anne across the thorny barrier between Black and White women. Through a series of visitations merging memory, reality and fantasy, Tulpa, or Anne&Me wrestles with the racial tensions that haunt even our most intimate relationships.

Raw, intimate, and unapologetic, Tulpa, or Anne&Me blends pop culture, Tibetan mysticism and womanism to begin the conversation about race that Black women and White women have never been allowed to have. Until now.

Read what some people are saying about Tulpa, or Anne&Me at:

• http://jasminllenadegracia.blogspot.com/2010/09/spotlight-tulpa-or-anne.html
• http://afro-dyte.livejournal.com/35818.html

ABOUT CROSSROADS THEATRE PROJECT
Crossroads Theatre Project is a collaboration of new Black playwrights whose works explore how race intersects with other identities and challenge mainstream ideas about Black theatre.

The crossroads are rooted in African folklore, Vodou, and Delta blues as a place where strange and unexpected things happen. Anything can happen on the crossroads. You can speak with the dead, meet the spirits of your ancestors, or even sell your soul to the Devil.

Crossroads Theatre Project is the anti-Chitlin Circuit created to break barriers and undermine stereotypes by presenting thoughtful new stories by and about African Americans today. In the simplest terms, this means: no maids; no crackheads; no Tyler Perry.

The vision of Crossroads Theatre Project is nearly identical to 13P. The idea is to use our shared passion for theater and our status as Othered to empower us when it comes to gathering resources and reaching out to potential audiences and creative partners. We're committed to giving people theatre by and about us that challenges what people assume we stand for and/or are interested in. The goal of Crossroads Theatre Project is to incubate the works of new Black playwrights from first draft through full production.

Read more about Crossroads Theatre Project here.

Somebody wrote about Tulpa!!!

Check out what Jasmin, Llena de Gracia has to say about Tulpa, or Anne&Me:

It is really good. And this is from a literature major who's not all that into plays, mostly because of the flowery language, which RVCBard deliberately avoids. My favorite scene--the last one in the first act--is particularly powerful, and part of it is so eerily similar to the recent Dr. Laura debacle that it gave me goosebumps to read it. As far as the overall content, what kept me interested was that it wasn't constructed as a contrived sit-in-a-circle-kumbayah moment. The conversations are fragmented and disjointed, just as they would be in real life, and they leave the reader vaguely dissatisfied, not at the writer for structuring them that way, but at the fact that these conversations are reflections of real life. I'm excited that it's the first in a 3-part series, because I wanted more at the end...but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted more of.

BOO-YOW!!!!

While I'm busy smoking this writer-crack, check out the open discussion happening at Ars Marginal and join in. I've got some questions for you, and if you have them for me, that's cool too.

Join the discussion at Ars Marginal

Over at Ars Marginal, I've started an open discussion about Tulpa, or Anne&Me. Come join us!