Spiderwoman: "Material Witness" to violence against women

Gloria Miguel of Spiderwoman Theater
in Material Witness at La MaMa
(photo: courtesy Spiderwoman Theater)

I leave the door open for the spirits to walk about freely.

I welcome all the guardians to our space.

--Gloria Miguel in Material Witness

I never saw Spiderwoman Theater's original Women in Violence--the first production by this legendary Native American troupe, premiered in New York in 1976. But, last night at La MaMa, I got a good look at its rambunctious offspring, Material Witness, a piece designed to reach out to today's young women. It aims to remind them, and all of us, that physical, sexual and emotional abuse has not been eradicated from Native communities and that silence about it remains a deadly force.

Material Witness is directed by Spiderwoman co-founder Muriel Miguel, co-written by its six-woman cast with Miguel, and co-presented with Aanmitaagzi, an indigenous, interdisciplinary troupe from Nipissing First Nation, Ontario.

The 90-minute work bears all the hallmarks of Spiderwoman--communal, community-minded theater, story-based exposition, rollicking physical humor often reminiscent of vaudeville and slapstick comedy, and strong musical drive. The 1976 tune from AC/DC, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"--its chorus cheekily woven into a narrative about deeds most dirty--meets up with Lady Gaga's "Til It Happens to You." But, of course. And its new generation--the radiantly charming and kickass Cherish Violet Blood, Penny Couchie (choreographer), Donna Couteau, Ange Loft and Tanis Parenteau--share the stage with veteran Spiderwoman Gloria Miguel who serves as witness to their struggles and stories, setting and holding the space for them, collaborating in their honesty and victories. The music is dance-club loud, Soni Moreno's costume and decor colors and combos are eye-popping, and the performers' energy rocks the house.

Let me issue a standard trigger warning:  Some stories related here can be uncomfortable for anyone, especially survivors of violence, to hear. But I must also leave you with this laughter trigger warning: Spiderwoman's commitment to humor as a disinfectant has not and will never quit.

Material Witness continues through May 29 with performances Thursday to Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm. Panel discussions are scheduled following certain performances. For information and tickets, click here.

La MaMa

74A East 4th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), Manhattan

(map/directions)

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Randy Gener

La MaMa's February 12 presentation of Lloyd Suh's The Wong Kids, performed by Ma-Yi Theater Company, will be a special fundraiser to help cover medical expenses for Randy Gener. The theater critic suffered severe head trauma in an attack in midtown Manhattan on January 18 and has been recovering in the Neuro ICU. All net box office proceeds will go to The Randy Gener Fund.

Read more about The Wong Kids (full title: The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!) here.

Activate your own superpowers by getting tickets for the February 12 (7pm) performance! Click here.

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(map/directions)

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A note from Todd Shalom (Elastic City, Willing Participant) and colleagues:

Everybody, Willing Participant whips up urgent poetic responses to crazy shit that happens. Last night, about 20 people met with us to consider the death of Trayvon Martin. From that meeting, we have decided to create a response that invites the public to show greater respect for the lives of young black men.  We have decided to make a slow-moving sculpture in Times Square that will morph our bodies into various versions of the hoodied self.

Tuesday, July 23rd at 10:15pm

Duffy Square in Times Square

Duffy Square is the northern triangle of Times Square. It is located between 45th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

Duration: 30 minutes

Admission is free. No RSVP needed. All ages welcomed.

Yours,
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Willing Participant is a labor of love and grrrr. An all-volunteer project created by members of non-profit participatory walk organization Elastic City.

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Participate in Art = Ammo

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Saturday May 18, 2pm

(rehearsal 12:30 pm)

in Newark, exact location TBA

For more information and to see an example of the performance: http://www.artammo.org/ {listed on site as soon as we clear the location}

To participate, please email gguncontrol21@gmail.com.

It started on February 24, 2013. Almost 200 artists and activists met in NYC’s Times Square. We held our hands up in a surrender position for 26 seconds, 26 seconds to honor the 26 victims of Newtown. Vulnerable to opposition in a very public place, we singularly sank to the ground and dropped into a lifeless position as our partners traced our outlines with chalk. An exponential crime scene emerged. We wrote a word inside each chalked body image­ the name of a victim, their age, a statistic, 'senseless,' 'loophole,' 'mother,' 'son,' 'enough' and then...walked away. Left on the ground was a sea of literary and visual reminders of lives lost." 

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In the words of Brecht, ‘Non­action is a tragic flaw’. As artists, we have the responsibility to act.

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From Tucson forward

In a time of trauma, a well-delivered presidential speech can reassure, inspire and draw the nation together, and it should surprise no one that President Obama, master speaker, rose to the occasion last evening in Tucson, Arizona.

Being presidential also includes action:

• to protect the American people (gun control)
• to fight systemic racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and transphobia and to foster and protect human rights
• to seek justice for victims of hate crimes
• to ensure adequate funding for mental health resources and universal access to quality mental health care
• to acknowledge that true civility rests upon a foundation of truth and trust and requires the defense of truth, not the promotion (and passive acceptance) of untruths as differing, equally valid points of view

We need a clear commitment from President Obama and our political leadership to fight for these things so that our healing as individuals and as a nation can go deeper and, in the long run, be more secure. We will move forward from Tucson with courage if we take action to address each of our problems at the source.

Filmmaker Brack remembers Sakia Gunn

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Project -- Charles B. Brack, producer-director. Co-produced with Third World Newsreel. (58 minutes, 2008)

Charles B. Brack opens his hour-long documentary appropriately with clips of brief statements by people--presumably LGBTIQ folks--most of whom do not know who Sakia Gunn was or only vaguely remember what happened to her. Run her name by anyone you know, and most will give similar responses.

Try the same experiment with the name "Matthew Shepard," and you'll quickly see the need for Brack's project, which won the Best in NewFest award in its premiere run.

"It saddened me deeply that this 15-year-old Black lesbian had been murdered on the street, and I hadn't heard about it," said an activist in San Francisco. 

Like the white gay college student in Wyoming--whose grisly torture, brain injury and subsequent death in 1998 got widespread media attention and inspired worldwide protest--Gunn, a resident of Newark, was murdered for being who she was. On a spring night in 2003, after a trip to Manhattan's Christopher Street piers, Gunn--who identified as an "aggressive"--waited with her girlfriends at Newark's Broad and Market Streets bus stop. A couple of men drove up and taunted the kids, propositioning the femmes in the group. Gunn told the men that, as lesbians, they had no interest in them. A fight ensued. Richard McCollough stabbed Gunn, and the teen later died of her wounds.

Dreams Deferred zooms in on the principals involved in the trial of Gunn's 29-year-old murderer, including showing the testimony of Gunn's family members and of the activist Laquetta Nelson, whose group, Newark Pride Alliance, arose in the wake of the tragedy. It is a completely unvarnished, unsentimental portrait in grief and outrage. But, beyond offering these personal statements and some brief views into the milieu of Gunn, her kin and her friends, the film aspires to be a teaching tool. It highlights Gunn's promising life and unacceptable death, yes, but sets her story squarely within the context of American society's homophobia, gender conformity, racism, classicism and sexism as well as our disregard for the needs of youth of color, in particular LGBTIQ youth. Moreover, it does not let queer community off the hook for the ways in which Gunn and other youth like her have been ignored.

This documentary is best approached as a corrective to our collective lack of consciousness and best used to inform about issues, to foster open discussion and to stimulate action.

(Available through Third World Newsreel)

See Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project at Anthology Film Archives on Wednesday, September 29. Click here for information.