Finding Stability Amidst Global Political Turmoil 2016
This work began during a fellowship in Berlin, Germany, the summer before the 2016 US election, as I read the writings of Audre Lorde and Aristotle, followed the news, and went on many museum tours. While touring art and cultural institutions, I was consistently confronted by historical narratives privileging an “imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy” (see: bell hooks). I looked for voices made silent, those excluded from the Western canon. I thought about Eastern philosophy, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, and tried to trace the beginnings of the word subjugation. I made remedies for friends. This performance was a gift to heal and deal with the state of the world - to transmute frustrations and anger into healing moments of connection. Rose is a heart opener and is medicine to help circulate stagnated emotions. Ashwagandha is a powerful and restorative adaptogen that helps regulate the nervous system. FSAGPT began in Berlin and has since been performed in Chicago and New York.