Through Pen and Lens

Okay, there's a lot to be said for the fluidity of identity, but I will be brief. The following is the assignment for today, a manifesto. What's great about it, I truly believe it. I hope it inspires you. We have policed ourselves into believing the definition of a Sexual Self imposed upon you by the Other – the Powers that Be. But we had forgotten two fundamental truths: Power is EVERYWHERE; and Where there is Power, there is RESISTANCE! Meet Your resistance : Sex and gender, male and female. Disavow these repressive limitations, these marginalizing concepts of your bodies. They do nothing to envisage aspiration. Therefore, there is no longer – there never was – an obligation to cleanse your Within . We have come from Within to celebrate your diversity Without ! We Queers as Folk will blur – NO! Obliterate those supposed lines. Break and remake their daily Implementations of Identity – one no more true or “false” than the last. But they will be Y our Own ! We w...

Ethnicity – Now there’s something that can truly fuck with your identity. Was that too harsh? Too bad cause it’s too true. Most of our identity is wrapped up in our ethnicity. Whatever your ethnic background, who would you be if it were changed or taken away? Really think about it for a while. Talk amongst your Selves. I can wait. Deep shit, aint it? I am so loving this class! But we didn’t actually meet today. There is a performance scheduled for Friday that we are to attend as a class, “Keeping it Real: Hip-Hop has Gone Gay” with Tim’m T. West. Unfortunately, I will be living one of my other identities down on the coast and will be unable to attend. But, we did have an assignment: a dialogue. Some of you might recognize a couple of phrases from your own lives. But let me remind you, everything I hear, see, etc. is up for grabs. And as always, names have been changed to protect me from possible suit. Let me know what you think of the dialogue. Scene: Brothers Edom (moved to Franc...

I seem to be doing that quite a bit lately, talking to myself. Perhaps it is the underweight white noise in the apartment. I’m used to birds and turtles doing it at all hours; dogs barking or worse: snoring; aquariums splashing; the washer and dryer continuously in motion; “beeps” from computers; and at least two TVs on, on different stations, calling to me. That’s home. The apartment in Dallas is my “studio,” and I haven’t quite got it right, yet. Maybe this weekend I’ll record the sounds of home, load them on my laptop, and play them on a loop when I get back. What was I supposed to be writing about? See, not enough noise to keep me focused. This is why I’m talking to myself. (Cue music!)  Who am I, anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don’t know. What does [she] want from me? What should I try to be? Apparently, I am the embodiment of Paul from A Chorus Line right now. And he definitely doesn’t what to know himself. Hmm. Wonder what that means? No. I have no...

… There was a girl named Charley who screamed to her self, “Damn it! What the hell were you thinking, going back to school?” Sorry, just had to get that out. I think I’ve figured out what has been blocking me from getting these projects to work. I know I say that almost every week, but I sat and thought about it for a long while the other day. I haven’t done that in years – no time for long periods of reflection with three kids, a husband, two-three jobs at a time, school, and a household to run, not to mention the menagerie that is trying to take it over. What I’ve been doing is reading the texts and highlighting the parts that stand out for me. Then I try to make those parts fit into the context of the assignment. But I have a tendency to add an additional layer, I’m beginning to believe, as a way to focus whatever it is I’m doing. I think it’s the challenge of the additional limit that I like. (Ooh, what does that say about me?) But I think I haven’t been looking deep enough into ...