Performing Diaspora Events

6 Nov, 2018

Cynthia Ling Lee on Lost Chinatowns

2018-11-06T20:02:28-08:00By |Categories: Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events|

Performing Diaspora 2018 artists Melissa Lewis (顾眉)  and Cynthia Ling Lee on Cynthia's work, Lost Chinatowns. Original conversaiton on Oct 27, 2018 Melissa Lewis: I love hearing about how your work began.  Can you share the story of where things started with this piece? Cynthia Ling Lee: It all started with the search for groceries.  Asian groceries, that is. All I wanted was to be able to cook my food.  I had been living in North Carolina for three years and

7 Nov, 2017

Why Motherhood?

2017-11-22T18:41:10-08:00By |Categories: Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events|

We create this piece in exploration of our own lived experiences around nurturing. We honor the different/range of relationships we and other LGBTQ folx have with our gestational/biological mothers. This piece is for our many many nurturers/mothers, including our Trans/(gender)queer/GNC/Two-Spirit selves. Photo from most recent Work-in-Progress showing at Counterpulse SF        Motherhood is such a complicated theme to talk about; the public imagination of what it is to be a mother seems rigid and crystallized. Motherhood is romanticized,

7 Nov, 2017

Toxin-laced Living Worlds

2017-11-22T18:41:49-08:00By |Categories: Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events, Uncategorized|

Javier has been excited to explore how environmental toxicity connects intimately to the motherhood we inhabit and relate to. She's especially inspired by Mowhawk researcher and midwife Katsi Cook, who below writes of our gestational mothers—the ones who bear us in their womb: Of the sacred things that there are to be said about this , woman is the first environment; she is an original instruction. In pregnancy, our bodies sustain life. Our unborn see through our eyes, hear through

3 Oct, 2014

Kimpa, Laura, Marie, Amy…

2014-10-03T15:56:00-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Muisi-kongo Malonga, Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events|

As a woman of African descent, born to an African American mother and a Central African father, I believe this project reflects the uniqueness of my journey and addresses many of the questions that permeate my existence, as I seek God, and wrestle with womanhood, motherhood, Africanity, AfricanAmericanity and all of the ‘anities’ and ‘isms’ that come along with it. As I delve deeper into Mama Kimpa Vita's story, the voices of kindred mother-martyrs have turned from whispers to raised voices,  adding

6 Feb, 2013

“Can a mere cloud bear such a message?”

2013-02-06T09:43:12-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Nadhi Thekkek, Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I was first inspired by Kalidasa’s Meghadhuta (The Cloud Messenger) in 2009. At the time, I was exploring the role of the messenger in Indian texts and poetry. Often times the role of the messenger was simply stated – a person carrying a message from one lover to another. In dance, in some of the more commonly performed pieces, the messenger was often a sakhi (dear friend) of the nayika (heroine), and the nayika was usually desperately trying to convince

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