Developed in collaboration with Liat Berdugo, our Nov. 29, 2018 performance of HEAVY TIMES responds to a spate of alt-right hate comments we received after our political work in 2016 -- including suggestions that they were simply "angry buff women." Buff we will become!
This performance was part of Almost-Public/Semi-Exposed 5.
Blue Wave / Red Tide: Election Night watch party with 100 Days Action /
As the First Female President of the United States, I was honored to join the great crew of 100 Days Action for Blue Wave / Red Tide, their election night watch party at the California College of the Arts’ Hubbell Galleries.
A window into the Oval Office /
From 10am to 5pm, join me, the First Female President, at Artists’ Television Access as I watch the results of the Nov. 6, 2018 election in real time. As part of my commitment to serving as the people's president, I’m is inviting the public to share in the suspense, the boredom, and the emotional roller coaster every sitting president endures during the mid-terms. Say hi, celebrate, or commiserate @1stfemalepotus.
Interview with Pete Lee in Wolfman New Life Quarterly /
Photo: Peter Dowling
I had a great time interviewing local filmmaker, photographer, and community builder Pete Lee for Issue 3 of New Life Quarterly. Check it out in print or online.
Sometimes, Pete told me, he needed to ask his crew, “White people also do this, right? And they’d all be like, ‘Yes.’ As an Asian-American filmmaker, you’re very wary of someone not getting your culture right.” Pete didn’t want to turn around and do the same thing even if, we agree, white people are over-represented in popular culture. “I still feel like I have a responsibility to reflect things honestly.”
SF Neo-Futurists at Yerba Buena Night /
The SF Neo-Futurists are thrilled to be invited back to Yerba Buena Night on Oct. 13, 2018, for a very special 30-minute set of two-minute plays from The Infinite Wrench, performed at 7pm and 8pm. Swing by Yerba Buena Lane and catch up jumping for numbers at this free, family-friendly event!
I'm teaching Intro to Neo-Futurism /
This fall, I’m excited to teach a seven-week course, Intro to Neo-Futurism and Non-illusory Theater, as a collaboration between the SF Neo-Futurists and Endgames Improv. We’ll use movement, storytelling, and task-based exercises to write, direct, and perform own two-minute plays, written from your lives and direct experiences. We'll close the class with a showcase of student work in the Neo-Futurist aesthetic. Full details and sign-up at endgamesimprov.com/classes
SF Neo-Futurists' at foolsFURY: FURY Factory Festival 2018 /
Presented by foolsFURY's FURY Factory and the San Francisco Neo-Futurists, Infinite Resistance: 30 political plays in 60 liberatory minutes will present thirty plays interrogating, lampooning, and wrestling with contemporary politics, national and local. Plays that rage at injustice, celebrate the struggle, and champion community. Plays about immigration policy, microaggressions, self-care, gun control, queer politics, and more. Plays that dance, question, shout, and hold your hand. Three nights only at The Flight Deck, Oakland.
100% Open Immigration: Welcome to our nation's borderlessness /
Lively music by Citizen’s Jazz, followed by a press conference with special guests Surabhi Saraf and Faluda Islam, in which I announced the new U.S. immigration policy of 100% Open Immigration:
“That’s why today, I’m dissolving Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, entirely. I’m also disbanding U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and introducing U.S. Customs and Border Elimination, a diverse organization responsible for inspiring civility, admiration and respect, and facilitating legitimate trade and unfettered travel. U.S. Customs and Border Elimination will be the hosts of our Nation’s borderlessnesss, America’s unbounded, unlined, de-demarcated extended welcome. Together, we will erode the walls that were built before, dismantle the fences, and erase the lines.”
Gorgeous posters screenprinted by Joanna Ruckman. Stickers and brochures designed by Justin Carter.
All photos: Tommy Lau
I'm on vinyl /
I don’t even have a record player, so I don’t know how I’m going to listen to this: Nonethesless! I’m hella stoked to have an excerpt of my writing on the new Turk & Divis album. Catch me on the track “at the guardrail.” Big props to Evan & the Quiet Lightning crew on this latest effort.
Join me for 100% Open Immigration at the YBCA Public Square /
I’ve spent the past year in the Public Imagination Fellowship cohort at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, exploring the question Where is our public imagination? Together with groups exploring How do we find and empower truth? and Can we make creative dissent matter? we’ll present the results of our questioning at YBCA’s Public Square event on Saturday, June 2 from 2-6pm. I’ll be giving a press conference on 100% Open Immigration at 5pm. Join me for this free event!
Interview with Andrew Evans in Wolfman New Life Quarterly /
I had a total blast talking magical illusions and non-illusory theater with local magician Andrew Evans for Wolfman New Life Quarterly Issue 2. Check it out in print or online.
And this brings us to the two audiences that are awful at magic shows. Children under a certain age are a terrible audience; they don’t know what’s impossible, and everything is already magic to them. More surprising to me, Andrew tells me that people who are high can be good at seeing through a trick. “For folks who are stoned, their mind is going, I’m just gonna get lost in this, the world is magic, right? But that’s actually when you start figuring it out. I’m designing these tricks with the knowledge that people are trying to figure them out. So the second somebody’s not in that mindset, they’re not picking up those cues, and then they’ve arrived at a completely different—and sometimes accurate—conclusion that no one else has.”
New writing on Poets Reading the News /
I wrote a short poem attempting to find the right metaphor for the corruption of Scott Pruitt. It’s published over on Poets Reading the News.
California Dept. of Emotional Regulation at Klanghaus /
The California Dept. of Emotional Regulation was available for emotional license applications at Fleahaus at Z Space. Here’s what the organizers said about the event:
CASH ONLY EVENT?! (WAIT THERE'S MORE)
This month we are bringing together art, installation, dance, theater, crafts and goods from local makers of all types, for what will surely be one of the most bizarre markets you will ever experience!
Performers and vendors alike will be setting up shop and vying for your KLANGBUX.
What are KLANGBUX?
FLEAhaus will be operating on a REVERSE CAPITALISTIC MONETARY STRUCTURE. Here your good old fashioned American green is worth more or less depending on your social-economic status. Therefore the most disenfranchised person’s dollar is worth the most. In order to make purchases at our market you must exchange your CASH for KLANGBUX at the door or on the market floor with one our ROAMING SOULESS BANKERS.
DUE TO THIS MARKET'S EXPERIMENTAL NATURE THIS IS A CASH ONLY EVENT!
CASH ONLY EVENT!
ARE YOU EXCITED!?!!!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?
Infinite Bitch: 30 plays for Women's History Month /
On March 16 & 17, 2018 at 10pm, an all-female performing ensemble will stage Infinite Bitch: 30 plays for Women’s History Month, at PianoFight, celebrating what’s glorious, grotesque, and galvanizing about saying ‘No thanks!’ to the patriarchy.
Power and Failure with the Center for Artistic Activism /
On Friday, February 23 join me, the First Female President, and the Center for Artistic Activism for a conversation exploring power, failure, and the rewards and challenges of being a first-time politician. The Center for Artistic Activism is a research and training institute dedicated to making activism more creative and art more effective. You should definitely check out their work.
A recording of the webinar is available here.
Interview with Jessie Alsop in Wolfman New Life Quarterly /
I had the great joy of interviewing Jessie Alsop, and the equally great joy of having that interview published in the gorgeous first issue of Wolfman NEW LIFE Quarterly:
“We provide each other with a framework, and accountability. So a lot of the work that we’re doing is separate. I send her lyrics, she sends me lyrics. And primarily we’re trying to write pop music that we feel good about. I guess it’s feminist pop music, a lot of it. Pop music that isn’t damaging to ourselves or the future generations.”
Now available at a book store near you (if you are in the Bay Area), or online.
Let's Talk at Pro Arts /
On November 16, 2017, I was delighted to sit with Liat Berdugo and discuss feminism, collaboration, and art-making at Pro Arts in Oakland.
Curated by Leora Fridman and Ellie Lobovits, Let’s Talk is a three-part live conversation series that will explore and amplify collaboration through a feminist lens. This final part features artists, Liat Berdugo and Margaret McCarthy.
Liat Berdugo and Margaret McCarthy co-created Anti-Trump Aerobics as part of the Bay Area’s 100 Days Action, and have performed the Aerobics routine at locations including Alley Cat Books in San Francisco, and covered broadly by media including Mother Jones, Fusion and Allure. In this conversation Berdugo and McCarthy will debrief the fallout of the online harassment that followed their performance, as well as the responsibilities and repercussions of presenting as women/feminist bodies in action in public and political spaces.
CA Dept. of Emotional Regulation at Meta Market /
On October 29, I debuted my new project, the California Department of Emotional Regulation, at Meta Market in Oakland. Organized by Metaphyiscal Twin, Meta Market was an artists' sale for artifacts & experiences. Kind of like a craft fair, except for experimental art, I found myself saying. Over the course of three hours, I issued 22 new licenses.
SF Bay Guardian: SF Neo-Futurists win Best Theater Company 2017 /
Hooray! The San Francisco Neo-Futurists have been voted "Best Theater Company" in the 48 Hills/SF Bay Guardian readers' poll. We won last year, too!
Performing at Klanghaus at Z Space /
At July's Klanghaus:Quiethaus at the beautiful Z Space theater, I performed a participatory experiment in attempting to recreate different kinds of silence. I started with 19, then 38, and ended with 44 different kinds. Thanks to all who came and were quiet together. Shhhh!
