Kym’s Manifesto Sept. 16, 2020
art losers unite!
Let’s play.
No, really let’s fucking play.
Are you pissed that Bruce Springsteen was the first “show” that opened on Broadway after the pandemic performance pause? Because we are. That’s not theater. That a fuckjng millionaire onstage playing an acoustic guitar. Why are we giving a past-your-prime millionaire hack any of our money? He has plenty of money and he just reminded us why we hate Broadway. It’s a greying museum of jukebox musicals, Disney kid bullshit, stunt casting and revivals. This drivel will not be covered here.
Are you toiling in oblivion? Because we are. And that’s okay. But that doesn’t mean we don’t matter. Art losers’ unite! Let’s talk about actual artists’ lives - the bad healthcare, expensive space, and competition for grants, residencies and resources.
We can’t stop making work. We tried to get a great day job and we couldn’t do it. We couldn’t compromise/waste the time we have on Earth doing dumb shit all day long that had nothing to do with us.
The pandemic has changed everything. The pandemic has changed everything. The pandemic has changed everything. The entire world has been touched by a disease. But really. Covid is a fucking reality that we all experienced - in every corner of the climate changing Earth. Let’s talk about your ACTUAL experience during Covid. Boycott small talk! We have a lot to unpack.
1. There is no such thing as a prime of life. There is being alive and then there is being...dead.
2. Say yes to the other audience members. Let’s scream together instead. Words are useless. They hide how we actually feel.
3. Living, pushing to the edges...
to the edges…
the edges of the paper and beyond..
Thinking out of the box. All those dumbass fucking cliches. How real can we be in a room together again. How can we really push the envelope? Mosh the envelope. Tear the envelope. Eat the envelope. Bleed the envelope.
4. We shouldn’t even have to say this but we have to… Safe fucking space. But really. If I say love, I mean love. No abuse of power. Everyone is allowed and encouraged. Let’s all have the same freedom and give everyone the freedom to stretch out and to yell back. Non-ableist all-inclusive. Accepting. Loving.
5. Let’s talk about death and sickness without stigma. As if it’s a part of life because it is.
6. Disturb and delight. Feel the rawness that all people feel but are afraid to expose.
Visceral.
Provoking.
Making work that fuckin goes close to the bone
the blood
the heart
7. Realize the Potentiality of being in a space together. WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT. If you show up for a show, we don’t even have to do that show. You don’t have to sit and be a nice audience. Let’s scream together. But not symbolically. We mean from the bottom of our gut, soul, stomach, larynx, scream until we are hoarse - voiceless.
8. Explore the dream world, the hallucinatory world. There’s answers there. There’s healing there.
9. When you leave the show, you don’t feel like you want to kill yourself. You don’t feel like the artist dumped their trauma on you and now you are carrying it around forever. Catharsis! Expunge! Clear the pathways! Purification!
10. FUCK FUCKING AI
Like our foreartists before us - I invoke Patti, Yoko, Andy, Linda, Pauline, Tadashi, Pope L, Ann, Candy, Tania, Homer and Adrian! - there are no barriers between all the arts -music, poetry, photography, performance art. Like the universe, we are all one!
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