On June 7th I performed an iteration of a new piece, “shortcrust” as part of The Feast’s (formerly The Williams Project) ARTIST DOING series. Dusty Somers spoke to Alyza and Ryan for an article in the Seattle Times. This weekend was the first iteration. There were 4 “Seed Artists” Nia-Amina Minor, Adrienne Mackey, Ryan Purcell, and myself. We arrived at the space at 9am knowing that an audience of about 200 people would arrive at 8pm. This happened in the Actualize art space in downtown Seattle. I knew it as the old Banana Republic. Many people know it as the old Coliseum Movie Theatre.
In it’s current state, the space is inviting. There’s a maze of individual artist studios. The basement is creepy as hell in a “I wanna make art, but not get trapped in here alone” kinda way. For my section I wanted to explore, repetition, time, and story. I pulled together some stories and sentences I’ve written over the years and asked DJ WD4D to collaborate with me. As an east coast baby of the 90s, New York hip hop is incredibly important to me. I wanted to have a performance relationship between a dj and an mc. Eventually, flautist Leanna Li Keith joined us. Leanna offering the idea of using breath to illustrate pain is exactly why I love collaborating.
“So, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of Jesus’ tomb came to visit me on my death bed. They asked how I was and if we could pray together. Now, I’ve been saved, sanctified, and filled the holy ghost hallelujah amen 14 times in my life. I learned how to read a beat transition in the four or more hour long Missionary Baptist church services where drummers kept drumming, (buildup of Black church music here) tongue speakers spek tonguing rumpumpumpumpum pumpumpumming.” -an excerpt from shortcrust
All-in-all I’m glad I did it. Up until the moment before I spoke I had doubts though. Even now, in the afterwards, there are ghosts beside me. I’ll have to take few days to hear them out then see them similarly. Taking a break for a few breaths.
Love you.
Jéhan
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