Like a Lamb to the Slaughter, take II

"Night falls like people into love
we generate our own light
to compensate
for the lack of light from above
every time we fight
a cold wind blows our way

but we learn like the trees
how to bend
how to sway and say,"

 

 

One year later, when Jacob Faust was shot and killed on these same streets by police officers, my BodyMind screamed "Murder!" Like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, again and again, we fall prey to irrational fear.  I write all of this now not to rehash the past but, rather, to share the tale of a puppet show performance that was held in Jacob's honor last Tuesday at East Village's Space4Art.  "Golden West" introduced its audience members to the humble beginnings of 'slapstick' comedy in a loose parody of the events on that fateful, early morning of April 4, 2005.  More than just mere escape, art can also be "a celebration, an act of insubordination, against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life," as Azar Nafisi wrote in her Reading Lolita in Tehran.

However, art, much life, should have a birth and death cycle while experiencing a maturing process in between.  Fifteen years ago, Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" was a response to the historical misogyny that has enslaved and abused women for far too long now.  A heart-warming jaunt through the sacredly profane and around a sexual anatomy that has been denied, ignored, cut off and devalued, the Vagina Monologues were also a reclamation of the Divine Feminine.  The monologues, gathered from the stories of women of all ages found across this great planet, heralded the new era that we now find ourselves caught up within.  For, finally, she has risen.  Herstory has begun.  Ideally, it would have been wonderful to see last night's performance reflect this.  For example, the song and dance numbers, which bookmarked the beginning and end of the two-hour show, could have been performed by troops of Boy Scouts.  Dancing with the women and singing along to the women-centered tunes, this act alone would help to close the circle while really beginning to heal our collective wounding.  Because, as I like to say, the best part of Herstory is that it's OURSTORY.  Our men are just as vital and an important part of the now that we are crafting, of the future we are building toward.  WE ARE ALL ONE.  Our ability to endure what is to come resides in Each Other.  Let's Begin, Now.   

 

 

"I, I think I understand
what all this fighting is for
and baby, I just want you to understand
that I'm not angry anymore
no, I'm not angry anymore."

---A.D.