Black lesbian poet
Pamela Sneed begins her monologue,
America Ain't Ready, beneath the projection of a famous photo portrait of Black lesbian poet
Audre Lorde.
You know the one: Lorde slightly lowering the professorial, thin-rimmed
glasses from her eyes, her Black Mona Lisa smile pleasant enough until
you realize that she's likely about to say something America Ain't Ready
for.
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| Pamela Sneed in "America Ain't Ready" (photo by Lisa Guido) |
Lorde's revered presence hovers over Sneed
throughout this marathon performance, inspiring, instigating,
protecting. And Sneed needs that strength right now because, as we
learn, she's performing through a world of pain. Not emotional
pain--which also could be the case, of course--but physical pain from
complex, enormously costly dental problems. She is an artist without
health insurance in an America that ain't ready for universal single
payer health care any more than it's ready to compensate artists for the
intense, dedicated and crucial work that they do.
Sneed begins by reminding us that Lorde insisted that "poetry is
not a luxury." It's a necessity. She invites us to imagine a world
without all of the arts and artists. Her itemization of our potential
losses is staggering. Here, at Dixon Place, through strain and rage,
she preaches to the choir, and you want to send her to Capitol Hill to
put the fear of God in those supposedly God-fearing Republicans (and
some Democrats, too). She's the woman for the job. And, while we're
talking job--
damn it--if you ever ask Sneed, or any artist, to do a job, be sure to pay her for it.
America Ain't Ready, adapted from a book-length epic poem,
diagnoses perhaps a few too many things that ail this society. However,
Sneed's performance, as real as it can get, sears its way into your
consciousness. Her aim: To wake up as many people as possible before it
is too late to achieve the America in which she still believes. We all have work to do.
Hot! Festival 2011--Dixon
Place's 20th Annual NYC Celebration of Queer Culture--continues through
August 6 with a mix of "theater, dance, music, burlesques, performance
art and homoeroticism for the whole family." Find out more and make
ticket reservations
here.
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(
map and directions)
