Creative Communities and Active Culture: At the Crossroads of Performative Competence and Social Change (part 2). A public conversation

2/20

another song....

Finishing up the week with Pat O reviewing where we are on construction, contracts, proposals,etc.

Tony L, one of the organizers of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. march for Peace and Justice, is looking for space for a concert. We look in Mc Alpin. Nairobey’s getting  ready for her evening performance of Animals out of Paper. (https://www.facebook.com/animalsout)  Despite building related issues and an unfortunate theft, she’s had a good run and got a solid set of reviews for a fine performance. An exceptionally high quality of theatre. She and Tony get into a conversation and exchange information.

The man who gave us a korg last year kind of materializes out of thin air looking for Stephen.

Tonight’s part 2 of the conversation  begins again with the singing circle. But ends sooner. Tonight we have an actual focused conversation. There are questions about the choice of music. Many initially put off by the explicit Christian language of the music. But over time, accepting it. Feeling its vibration.

Mario responds to a dancer that if you are dancing Romeo and Juliet, Juliet doesn’t have to be in love with Romeo to dance  their pas de deux. I may actually challenge him on that analogy. Because it is about performance and what happens with the open choir is more experience.

I offer Katherine’s response that she can sing  things she could never say. I point out that the music comes from a particular place. That it emerged out of an experience of oppression and provided a liberatory experience of being together. It emerged from struggle. What does it mean removed from that struggle? Is it enough that we all have our own struggle to live through? And also the reality that the African diaspora, wrenched violently from their homes and cast into slavery, translated their own gods into this new language that was forced upon them creating a deeper reality than what was observable. I have to ask Mario how he avoids a sense of cross-cultural appropriation or colonial acquisition of culture. Good questions.

Many of those participating describe themselves as not religious. So we talk about what Kristen Leigh had reminded me, namely that the distinction between religious and secular comes late in human history and is a particularly western phenomenon. In much of the world, there is no distinction, it is just living. Likewise, art is not a separate category. There is no such thing as art as a separate category from daily living.

What’s missing is a discussion of how this leads to an engagement ion social justice action. Although I do have a fascinating discussion with a woman who’s part of Dzieci and activism and a real estate agent. Hmmmm…I could probably add fashion to that list as well.

Again, the conversations  could go on all night. One man  lived through and experienced the genocide of Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

One of the garifona women from St. Augustine's in the Bronx brings a man to me. Pastor give this man a blessing, she says, this man needs a blessing. So I place my hands on his  forehead and give the blessing. 

But it’s time for a pot luck feast..Anan has made a wonderful dahl. And so many neighborhood restaurants…Barney Greengrass, the Gate, the Meatball Shop, Flor de Mayo, the organic food place, the macaroon place, Bella Luna…amazing what this band of  neo-diggers was able to come up with.

The feasting and conversation continues until one final song is sung. As so many of our historic institutions have lived beyond their project, the  questions being asked here are the right ones.

Creative Communities and Active Culture: At the Crossroads of Performative Competence and Social Change (part 1). A public conversation

2/19

In song and motion

Lee checking in about her rehearsals.  Marc has questions. Jeremy and friends getting set up for tonight’s event with the Open Center.

I’m off for a planning meeting of our Palestine film series.

I’ve actually managed to come up with a flier for tonight, based on who will be here:

Are you an artist?

Is your art an expression of your spirit?

Do beauty and justice go together?

Does your art affirm life?

Are art and community holy in some way?

Let's do it!

We are interested in finding a circle of artists who would be interested in coming together to explore in a lab setting what could be new experiences of  ritual/liturgy/shared performance in the context of a building with a deep and rich spiritual and social history. Open to the deep roots and flights of fancy, free to move where the spirit leads…

If you are interested, please leave us your information:

Name__________________________________  E-mail____________________

Discipline __________________________

The Center at West-Park:  Dream. Real. Hard.

West-Park Church:  Just. Love

When I arrive, the program is already in full swing. The deep and low songs of the African diaspora American south filling the front of the sanctuary the singers moving back and forth and towards one another  in an ever changing yet coherent circle. I’m happy to see all my Dzieci friends have joined in as well.The singing and movement goes on for nearly an hour and a half. Mesmerizing. Stirring.

Jeremy, Lloyd and I do brief introductions. Mine includes the socio-religious- artistic history of the church. Including my interest in the intersection of beauty and justice, ethics and aesthetics.

Then we broke for food and conversation.

What a series of conversations I had. These included:

* A young Mexican accordionist with a grant to develop theatre on the border and his dramatic dancer partner

* A young Ukrainian who is part of a choir who also collaborates with a Georgian choir that sings ancient church music who is interested in fundraising for displaced persons in the Ukraine. And who also was a volunteer with Bread & Puppet

* A couple working with Native Americans in choral and theatrical work, finding a group of Lenni Lanape, the original people of Long Island.

* A woman from Chile, doctoral student at Columbia working with indigenous people in the rain forest of Ecuador.

*Several dancers and choreographers

* Several clowns and puppeteers

* An accountant

* People from Italy, Brazil, Germany, Latin  America, eastern Europe…

ALL seeking a community in which to pursue spirit led ritual, community, spiritual and social transformation...And to my flier, I received 14 responses from the 50-60 gathered. I feel it was an important and good night.

Obviously what is needed is good follow up, but this illustrates that there is a market for the church and center we could become. All were here for the first time and all came as a result of word of mouth or social media. If done right, a revived church and center can come into being.

Kind of night that brings hope.

All things are lawful. Not all things are helpful....

2/1

The Open Choir and pastor Bob

Mario and Jeremy G and the Work Center Open Choir open our service with a series of 3 songs, circling dancing to the call and response.

This Little Light of Mine

We could easily be in fields in the rural south.

I open my sermon with these words from Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians:

¹² “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial….or put another way,  “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 

What we’re talking about is responsible living, free choices we make within freedom.

One of Dr. King’s close associates one tie  was asked about being surprised and he responded, 

…not as surprised as the first time  I saw Martin King with a cigarette…

It is not well known that in Memphis, Dr. King went out on the balcony for a smoke…and that is when he was  shot. An aide quickly gathered up the butt and  took the cigarette pack from Dr. King before the ambulance arrived. He had never wanted anyone to see him smoke both because of conservative black church practice and because he didn’t want to influence his children.

When I grew up, the thought was that you couldn’t be a Christian and drink and smoke. (Although my father did both and my Sunday school teaching grandfather did well into his 70’s…) I didn’t want people to think because I was a church kid that I wasn’t like anyone else.

I began my ministry in the day when  the urban minister…was defined by the coffee pot, cigarettes and a scotch after 5…a heroic fellowship of stress and commitment and suffering…we didn’t stop to think about what we might be modeling, if health and joy might some how be part of the picture.

Just because you are not forbidden to do something doesn’t make it a good idea.

Paul continues that that theme…in one of his typical hard to follow arguments…He proceeds by saying( I Cor.8: 1-13)  that ¹Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; ³but anyone who loves God is known by him.

So there seemed to be an issue regarding food sacrificed to idols…and Paul responds that since idols aren’t real, there’s no harm done, then eat away. But if there’s someone around you who does believe in idols see you, then you can’t because you will be leading them astray.

So Paul goes even further and says he’ll ultimately give up meat…altogether.

So the down side is we teach buy example and have to take responsibility for that. What we do always speaks louder than what we say.

But that is the upside too….what we show by what we do…When we sweep the steps clean, when we’re here at 11  to greet, when we’re awake…alert…we demonstrate how we feel about this place, each other and those who visit.

One other example, as we prepare to take communion today. There is no prohibition against wine, though I grew up with (Welch’s) grape juice. I loved the early morning tawny port at the Episcopal church I worked at. You’ll go to some churches where the wine is in one cup and juice in another. We know that some people have issues with alcohol. So we at this church have a tradition of one cup. We choose not to break fellowship, koinonia. The freedom to do something is equally the freedom to choose not to do something. It’s not about rules but about wisdom. And values. All things are lawful. Not all things are helpful…

The Open Choir in action

We finish our service with songs from our Open Choir again. And then our final circle of blessing.

Soon enough, the In2 Church people are filling the sanctuary. By the time they start, they will have filled the sanctuary. And the balcony. All in Korean.  All young. It’s pretty overwhelming.

...and you even get free music...

10/13/14

Jeremy G and Rishika stop in before their open choir to talk a bit about Marissa’s memorial. Rishika had a perspective I had not thought about. Marissa’s death was a tragic event for their small community. They took on the role of organizing and producing the time of grieving and remembrance for what turned out to be a very large group of people. Who needed to be together. Nevertheless, in some ways, it prevented the community from dealing with its own grief. Rishika’s own needs were  subsumed in the needs of the larger group. So there remains work to be done. Jeremy is still somewhat amazed at how this all came together and is sorting out its meaning. I look forward to talking with the Seed Group and processing this more. Questions for building a community.

The Session meets to review the latest news which seems to throw all the puzzle pieces into the air again. We need to keep in front of us all the work that is moving forward, the reconstruction ready to begin. Need to keep our eyes on possibility.

Upstairs in the Papp (balcony) theatre, Jessica’s production of Brian Friel’s Lovers has its opening night.

10/14/14

Stephanie J is a friend of Jeremy M. She’s looking for some space to hold some small choir rehearsals for a new project she’s working on. Turns out she has had some Grotowski theatre training as well. During Occupy, she collaborated with Jeremy trying to create chants and songs that could unite people while in the midst of demos and marches. She’s working on song as a force to unite people in work for social change. Creating then new world we are working on creating. Or at least new reality. She spent most of last year doing a series of house concert/conversation events across the country around issues of lgbtq inclusion. Her partner has moved on so the next step is still coming into view. (You can check out her work here: http://www.stephaniejohnstone.com/) I take the time to give her the full West-Park tour because I want her to understand what this place is and has been. And that what she is working on s very much at the center of what we are working for. So we’re talking about a trade of rehearsal space and time for sharing her work in worship and/or in other ways. I feel like this is a beginning of a conversation. Or another part of the conversation.

Karen is back from Hawaii. We haven’t seem her in awhile. She’s in the sanctuary,playing music. As she plays a piece from the classical piano canon, I say to Charles, …and you even get free music..He and Leila are hard at work on getting a grant proposal done.

Pat O is in and there is a lot of clean up work to be done in the wake of a city decision. Carefully. Very carefully.

Jessica stops in. The first night of Lovers went very well. She’s heard that the theatre she’s working in was created by Joseph Papp and is blown away to learn that it’s true. I share with her the whole story of Papp’s Shakespeare Center. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shakespeare_Center) Pieces of the Helen Hayes Theatre and the set of the Royal Shakespeaere Company’s Nicholas Nickleby went into building this theatre, later excavated and resurrected byteh Frog&Peach Theatre Company. (http://frogandpeachtheatre.org/) I look forward to seeing her production.