Artists Reach Out: Becca Blackwell

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Becca Blackwell

Becca Blackwell
(photo: Max Bernstein)

Becca Blackwell is a NYC-based trans actor, performer and writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun "they," Blackwell works collaboratively with playwrights and directors to expand our sense of personhood and the body through performance. Some of their collaborations have been with Young Jean Lee, Half Straddle, Jennifer Miller's Circus Amok, Richard Maxwell, Erin Markey, Sharon Hayes, Theater of the Two Headed Calf and Lisa D'Amour. Film/TV includes: Ramy, High Maintenance, Marriage Story, Shameless, Deadman's Barstool, and Jack in the Box. Becca is a recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award, Franklin Furnace Award and the Creative Capital Award.

Becca Blackwell
(photo: Kevin Yatarola)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

I was in the middle of performing a new solo show called Schmermie’s Choice that was a bit of an extension of my prior show They, Themself and Schmerm. And the tour of Half Straddle’s show that I had worked on with creator/director Tina Satter, Is This a Room, had all the tours canceled (or postponed? Nah...most likely canceled).

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice. 

I got an in-school suspension and my drama teacher (I took that elective instead of journalism because it was less work) said I should try being in a play. I loved rehearsal and realized I had horrific stage fright. My college counselor, L’Tanya Evans, pushed me to audition for theater, and I got a little scholarship at a small liberal arts college and went. I realized in 1991 that Ohio theater was not something that knew what to do with me and came to NYC where I eventually found more queer people to make art with. I joined Circus Amok in 1999 and blessedly have found more and more community that I connected with. As there became a more opening of queer work that could be in larger formats meant that I could start to figure out how to make a living in the arts. That and grants I have received have kept me in the game.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

I am using this time to get to the root of all my beliefs, no matter how uncomfortable. And then envisioning a world where deep self love can allow us to let go of a lot of concepts that limit us. Realizing that micro and macro are right there together. I am prioritizing the things that my work to maintain a career never would give me the time to do. More music, more reading, more learning languages, skills I always wished I had the time to cultivate. Listening to my body and not my mind. Thinking about a world where health and connection to nature is considered the baseline not the first thing we need to give up in order to survive. Deep listening, not to figure out but to allow myself to truly see. Also, I would like to re-enact every Murder She Wrote episode with my favorite people. Word for word. Gesture for gesture. That is sometimes all I think about. It might save some part of the world if I made that.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

That is the biggest goal...to actually see what I want to vision in my practice! The more I can truly love myself and offer the same compassion to myself that I have been trying to offer to others, the more I can actually truly love others. I am realizing the art I am curious about is reaching out and expanding. And most of what I do is rooted in humor because, when we laugh, our hearts open up. I am trying to find that line of cracking things open and seeing the filth as a gift. And as a way of finding many ways to see things. Our perspectives are all we have...so how do I want to see the world? It goes back to what my beliefs are, that is how I see the world. That’s the circle I am in. And I’m unpacking it as best as I can, learning and learning and (fingers crossed) also growing.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

I wake up every morning knowing that this is the biggest obstacle...my mind. My mind likes to take the train to "panic town" and "self doubt town," sometimes to "you’re an asshat and a has-been town" and ALL kinds of other mini stops along the way. I know that the world now is one in a lot of emotional crisis. Myself included in this.

So, that is what I am deeply trying to rewire, that instinct to go to the worst case scenario, but instead SEE the future of each of us expanding. That this time even in its deepest, darkest place can lead to a place of possibility and SEE myself in a world/community that reflects that, encourages that and embraces that.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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