Word Becomes Flesh. Sunday January 15 4pm.

Presented in collaboration with 651 Arts (a fav), Marc Bamuthi Joseph/ The Living Word Project created an amazing hip hop theater piece that was a throwback to the early 2000 poetry scene. Movement contextualized into words, and/or vise versa I got a sense of the momentum of the men's stories. Exploring notions of black masculinty, adulthood, and fatherhood, we (the audience) witness an intimate portrayal of tough decisions a young black male faces coming of age and beginning adulthood, all which appears to happen without much space in between.

time acellerates.

I saw the final showing at the Public Theater during the Under the Radar Festival.

Emma Alabaster and Captain for Dark Mornings on Tuesday 1.10.12

I walked up Vanderbilt avenue to Bergen St last Tuesday night to attend Emma Alabasters new trio Captain for Dark Morning at Branded Saloon. I was first greeted by two familiar faces, and sat at a booth with new aquaintances. We then walked to the back, where we sat on high stools and benches and the performers stood on a stage about eye level with us seated. Emma Alabaster introduced the show and herself as the vocalist and bassist, as well as her collaborators: Zach Dunham on drums, and Charlie Rauh on guitar.

She started us off with a clever introduction to her first song. She stated "This song is about growing up in Brooklyn." She continued on to play an inventive bass line with a compelling voal repepition of "I don't know this place anymore." Very clearly (as someone who know's Emma and her politics) I understood the song to be a powerful statement on gentrification.

Visually, I loved her purple sweater dress and asymetrical gold earrings. Not often do muscians take notice to the fact they are in fact performers with bodies on stage. Emma has definitely taken note and her costume choices rang brooklyn all the way through, (allowing me to really believe her as she sang for an insightful hour in the night at the Branded Saloon in Prospect Heights).

I don't often have the pleasure of listening to original scores, and seldom have the opportunity to write about my experience. As someone who dances, and is heavily affected by sound I have limited experience with music. I however, do love experimental compositions, and I was fortunate to find myself at this show. Where melody sunk between by predictive brain, and continually caught me by surpize. Every moment I heard something new and my head found an unique pattern to grove. I look forward to hearing Emma's next compositions. I was definitely satisfied with my Tuesday night adventure down Vanderbilt.

The Millennium Series

I took some time last week to watch the Millennium Series, the trilogy the begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Of course, I watched the original Swedish version. I LOVED it. I have not seen a film with such a strong feminist message in such a long time. I am taking advantage of my netflix subscription to catch up with pop culture. A story line where a female is deemed crazy for stopping the sexual and physical abuse of her mother, only to be locked inside of a mental facility where she is raped by her doctors and written up as delusional and crazy. This treatment continues throughout her young adult life, where she continues to face sexual abuse in the system of mental health care. By the end of the trilogy, I am delighted to see that justice was in this case brought about in the criminal justice system.

Priscilla: Queen of the Dessert: Thursday January 5th 8pm

I just returned from a most mediocre evening of glam and glitter. Intending to see the soon to close showing of Billy Elliot, only to discover the holiday schedule interrupted its thursday night showing, and all remaining shows have sold out with the exception of 200 dollar plus tickets. I walked around in my least favorite place: time square to find an alternate show amongst the many. As a non-frequenter of broadway I was not sure what to expect. I saw the mountaintop on my birthday in September. That was across the street from Billy. So i kept on my journey, dodging the comedy show promoters on every corner along with the swarms of tourists. Then i came across the sign for Priscilla. I remember seeing snippets on NY1 News back when I had cable, and I felt like it was something I wanted to check out. How often do you get to see a broadway show full of drag queens and glitter? I was forewarned by the gently NY1 critics the show was very much a pun filled lighthearted comedy. After watching the original swedish girl with a dragon tatoo last evening on netflix, I was prepared for serious theater. For drama. Instead, i found the least dense show on broadway. The characters really had no depth beyond a journey to reconnect with the main queen's former marriage and child. He loures two queens to journey in a femmed out mini van to the town with his ex wife as his son askes him to come meet him. They are invited to perform a few numbers. En route, they encounter some gay bashing in the rural towns, and pic up a mechanic to ensure they arrive at their desitination. Beyond this we really are not able to connect much with any of the characters, and pretty much before any meaningful dialogue can take place the chorus comes in with another pop disco song the audience cant help but sing along with confetti and a disco ball to top the number off. The costumes were incredible, and the choreography was perhaps too tounge and cheek for me.

The atmosphere definitely alluded to some of my historical curiosity of theater. To show girls, and glitter and glam. When a performance was very much about the physical tallent of your body, and the spectacle created. Here, i felt the vocals were not in harmony, and thus the glam did more work when i wanted the bodies to match up to the expensive adorments they lay within. The supporting character had incredible energy, which fit his young and restless modality. He definitely carried the story for me, rounding it off with a remarakable solo performance in the semi-finalie. But most importantly was the presence of the elder queen, who marked her presence with the utmost brilliance in manner and speach. I think she had the most lines, and really showed true character in form and performance. I was impressed.

Lastly, the energy of the ensemble carried through such that I could not help but smile, clap and do a short sway of head and hips on my way out as the rest of the audience continued to dance. The music carried with me all the way home, and I could definitely due with some donna summer this week.

Priscilla, I felt your characters were so shallow because their true stories were not yet able to be heard or written perhaps. Why not, can a transexual m to f individual have a personal journey beyond being shammed by his identity and profession as a performer? What other goals, and aspirations and challenges does this individual face. Can we hear their voice? This performance felt like the glorfied white male articulation of gay culture. Of the brilliant, glittery fabulous rich life with luxurious fabrics and exciting performance. But what are their real stories. What do these individuals face in reality? That would be my interest. And they can have a story with their club music. Oh yes they can. Prisicilla, i am waiting for day when your script contains more text than pop song lyrics.

And the annoying girls in the bathroom afterward set the tone for the audience interpretation for me. A group of 4 white skinned woman were chatting and laughing int he bathroom about how one of their mothers only told them it was a comedy, not that it was about drag queens. And thier friends said yea she probably didnt tell you that because than you probably wouldn't go. And they proceeded to make plans to go to a bar in the village....

sigh...