Free public artist reception this Thursday, August 15, 6-8:30 pm at The Cowles Center // I’ve been on a restorative hiatus for travel and reflection, but I would love to connect with my Twin Cities folx at Thursday night’s reception. The handknit scrim from my project NET/WORK, as well as an experimental movement video piece, is on display in @thecowlescenter lobby until August 22, alongside the other 2018 Emerging Artists with Disabilities grantees from VSA Minnesota & the Jerome Foundation: John Lee Clark, Mike Harris, Harrison Halker Heinks, Chris Juhn, and Sheila D. Nelson. Please join us for an evening of community, refreshments, and creative work, or check out the show another time. Audio description, ASL interpreting, and captioning will be provided; event is wheelchair accessible. If you can’t make it on Thursday but would like to meet up with me at the Cowles Center another time to talk about the work, please reach out. // I’m excited to share this textile work outside of a performance context, so that people can get close to it and experience it as an entity unto itself. I’m currently beginning work on another large-scale textile piece for performance and movement as a continuation of this project, so stay tuned for updates on that! Thank you to VSA Minnesota, the Jerome Foundation, the Mallard Island Artist Residency + my companions there, and @20percenttheatretc Q-STAGE fellows, collaborators, producers, supporters, and crew for your role in bringing this ever-evolving project into the light. // Image Description: D.’s 8x8 foot handknit mesh textile, off-white with a slightly lighter-colored binding around the edges, is stretched over the surface of a large metal grid. D. stands beside the textile leaning against their cane and touching the edge of the scrim. D. is wearing jeans, a lavender ballcap, and a tank top with the face of a leopard on it. // #TimeAsMedium #LargeScaleTextiles #QueerArtist #MultidisciplinaryArtsPractice #KnittingIsWritingIsKnitting #QueerDisabledAndPowerful #ArtistsWithEDS #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #EDSArtists #ConnectiveTissue #DurationalArtsPractice #NewWork #EmergingArtists #MultidisciplinaryPoetics
Today I make my way back home to Minneapolis after nearly two months away. I needed this time of deep reconnection with dear ones and dear places to recalibrate my own internal compass. It’s also time to settle back down, give my body a break from so much movement, and shift into another season of work on new and ongoing projects. Thank you, loves and mountains and trains, for holding me; thank you, home and house plants and community, for welcoming me back soon. // I’m a couple weeks behind, but the sixth stop on the #NewEnglandBathtubTour was so good for my soul. We baked all the sourdough things, did some excellent thrifting, started reading new books, watched the entire latest season of @rupaulsdragrace and caught up on the last couple years. Morgan & Jordan, I love you both to the moon and will be glad for more time together soon. Image descriptions: 1. Spa day with @ml.meyer and Smudge, soaking our feet in an epsom salt bath. 2. Jordan standing in the kitchen holding a kitty in his arms, with another kitty standing by his feet. 3. Morgan standing at the kitchen counter, getting ready to brush egg-wash on two braided loaves of sourdough challah. 4. Kitchen selfie of D. and Morgan, smiling. 5. Braided loaves of challah ready for the oven. 6. Challah fresh out of the oven. 6. Peaches & cream tart with sourdough pastry crust. // #QueerFam #ChosenFamily #SourdoughAdventures #PoetOnTheRoad #BakingAllTheThings #AvalonCoopAlumni
Belated appreciation post for stop 5 on the #NewEnglandBathtubTour —a reunion with dear friend @flamingointhebottle after twelve years. Love you, Joel! So good to be with you, Anna, and your sweet animal pack 💕 Image descriptions: 1. D.’s feet in a sunny bathtub; 2. D. and Joel standing in front of a stone wall, looking at each other and smiling; 3. Sweet pup Arbus Lamb rolling on her back in her dog bed and wearing a pink bandana; 4. Cast iron skillet with a batch of sourdough biscuits fresh from the oven, half cheddar dill and half maple cream + cardamom. // #QueerKinship #AllTheBiscuits #ArbusLamb
Stop #4 on the #NewEnglandBathtubTour was much too brief, but it was the loveliest to share space & time with dear fam @dandy__femme again after ten inexplicable years (?!?!). It was so good to catch up and see some of your fave local spots. Thank you to Jesselyn and JT @lookoverthayer for welcoming me into your home, having the best dog pack (@noteefnoproblem + Basil), watching Drag Race and eating perfect strawberries, and letting me bathe in the best rose-pink clawfoot tub I’ve ever seen. I loved every minute. And many thanks to wonderful bee witch @yardbirdsbees for welcoming us to your farm, introducing us to your bee community, and sharing your presence and wisdom with us. I loved being in y’all’s collective company. // Image descriptions: 1. D.’s blurry hands, tops of knees, and the top of their head emerge from the rim of a rose-pink clawfoot tub in a pale pink-painted bathroom, lit by afternoon light from a window beside the tub. 2. D. and Jesselyn standing in front of the Hillsdale church residency with arms around each other, grinning in the sunlight. 3. Ang and D. standing by the open back doors of Ang’s tomato-red van, both in beekeeping gear, smiling. 4. JT, D., and Jesselyn sitting at a dining table scattered with coffee cups, arms around each other and smiling, D.’s eyes are closed out of joy. // #PoetAdventures #QueerFamily #OldFriendsAndNewFriends #ChronicIllness #QueerPoet #BeeMagic #GoingSlow #SpendingTime
Third stop on the #NewEnglandBathtubTour was three weeks at @the_maple_terrace / @little_giant_jumps_the_moon courtesy of sweet friends Leah & James. Thank you for sharing the magical church of Hillsdale with me—it offered time and space to dream into a new book project, experiment and play, catch up on sleep and body care, reconnect with nearby dear ones, read, listen to plants and landscapes, and take epic baths. I missed being part of all the Pride festivities this month and it was often hard to be alone and away from my communities, but my country kid heart and senses were overwhelmed with appreciation for this respite from city life. Residencies are critical and life-giving for many of us, and having access to this time and space via a Jerome Hill fellowship and friends’ generosity is an enormous privilege. Until next time, y’all—ring the bell and eat some biscuits for me. // Image descriptions: 1. D.’s legs in rippling bath water; 2. D. and Leah grinning and sitting on the front stoop of the church, D.’s arm around Leah; 3. A beautiful, large, brown-patterned polyphemus moth resting on the window screen with wings folded, with D.’s hand held up for scale; 4. Sepia-toned mirror selfie of D. and Niko looking serious and ghostly in the style of an antique photograph; 5. Four video stills of D. doing pain-flare movement experiments on a made bed in a sunny room in the church; 6. A glimpse of the Green Mountains and verdant fields of North Bennington from the Park-McCullough Meadow/Mile-Around Woods; 7. Photo of D. and Kate seated with their arms around each other, not smiling; 8. A bright rainbow falling over a green mountainside framed by trees; 9. D. and Claire smiling inside the church, arms over each other’s shoulders, with Claire holding a colorful arrangement of flowers she brought over; 10. Video still of a clear, rocky stream framed by green woods, with D. perched on stones across the water. // #ArtistResidency #HillsdaleNY #TheMapleTerrace #MovementExperiments #ArtistsWithEDS #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #QueerArtists #NonbinaryArtists #TransArtists #DisabledArtists #MultidisciplinaryPoetics #HybridPoetics #MakingWork #RestIsWorkToo
After ten days of more stairs than I’ve climbed in a year, I’m leaning back into my tender affection for walls and corners. Thank you, slow. Thank you, steady. Thank you, holding. Thank you, sturdy. Thank you, no questions asked. Thank you, when you’re ready. // Video is a one-minute clip of D. doing a solo movement experiment in the sunny corner of a solarium with white walls, high windows, and a dirt/stone floor. D. moves slowly from light to shadow, leaning into the corner, resting hands against their stomach, turning to press their forehead into the wall. // #Queer #Genderqueer #Nonbinary #DisabledArtist #QueerArtist #MovementExperiments #MultidisciplinaryPoet #QueerDisabledAndPowerful #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #ChronicIllness #TiredAF #QueerAF #ArtistResidency #Slow
Stop #2 on the #NewEnglandBathtubTour was brief but filled with chill together-time with my twin @peterwallen1 and sister-in-law @laura_marie_allen in their new northeast home — complete with ice cream, pup snuggles, meeting the neighbors, a farmer’s market, gardening adventures, and tonight, a mini road-trip up to my sweet residency spot where we parted ways. Thanks for your hospitality, Pete & Laura & Bo! Love you all. // Images are: a photo of a low-light tiled bathtub faucet with water filling, a candle perched on the edge, and D.’s knees folded to one side of the tub; selfie of D. Sitting on the floor and kissing Bojangles, a sweet black lab mix, on the snout as he drapes his head over the edge of the bed; Pete watering newly-planted and mulched flowers by the white backyard fence; just-planted passion flower vine climbing up the corner of the fence in dappled sunlight; Laura bending over to admire the newly-planted foxgloves and yarrow behind a young peach tree in another corner of the yard; black-and-white photo of Bo with his head resting on D.’s lap in the backseat of the car. // #GardenMagic #SummerSpring #DogCuddles #Twinship
The first stop on my #NewEnglandBathtubTour was full of slow magic and joyful connection thanks to some sweet humans, dreamy plants, and a bathtub by a sunny window. Special appreciation and love to the magnificent @chokahnose for sharing time and space and presence, always. // Images: D.’s propped up on the corner of the bathtub while water pours, their legs bruised from train travel; Niko with a french braid grinning in the kitchen; a radiant kousa dogwood tree in Prospect Park; selfie of D. in front of said tree, eyes closed in pleasure; grainy black-and-white phone selfie of Trent, Ed, D., and Niko sitting on a bar bench, arms around each other, smiling; a yellow orchid at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens; selfie of D. reflected in glass with a giant cactus behind them; black-and-white polaroid of D. and Niko laughing; six polaroids of various configurations of friends laid out on a colorful rug; a color polaroid of D. and Niko standing close and looking cool. // #TakingTime #SlowTime #ChosenFamily #ArtistResidency #PlantsPlantsPlants
Me and my tired face are almost to our first destination of the trip. This spring was full of so much creation, connection, work, learning, and magic, and now it’s time to change up the pace. From now until the end of July, I’m stepping back from digital space to travel, rest, reset, spend slow quality time with some of my dear faraway people in real life, and begin dreaming into the next book. I’m deactivating Facebook, putting a vacation responder on my email, and won’t be as present here on Instagram. I won’t be unreachable, but I’ll probably be slow to respond in all forms. If we have plans, I can’t wait to see you; otherwise, I’ll catch you on the other side. Thank you to my beloved chosen fam who support me doing this every once in a while. Thank you to my fellow artists who model that it’s okay to take breaks, to pull back, to take good care by going inward or refocusing energy—I see you. The grind isn’t all there is. // Image is a color selfie of D. sitting in a blue Amtrak chair, wearing a mustard-colored button-down, a ballcap, and glasses. They’re smiling a little and look tired. // #NewEnglandBathtubTour #TimeToSlowDown #ArtistResidency #DreamingOfOtherWays #ChronicIllness #QueerDisabledAndPowerful #TrainTravelIsTimeTravelButI’mNotSureInWhatDirection
“The Rust Collection” (2017), District Lit // Poems, dictionary erasure, & gouache drawings
“On Material,” (2016), Black Warrior Review // Craft essay with text & images
“Autobodiography” (2016), Connotation Press // Lyric essay with dictionary erasures
“O Sister” (2017), Voices of Hope Choir & University of Minnesota Women’s Chorus // Poem written for choral arrangement