What could be more perfect, to uplift the world we
live in, than to laugh a little and express a lot (in
poetry)?
Below is a set of samples of my performance character,"The Bubbie Satvah." The Bubbie is part Jewish
Grandma, part suburban baby-boomer, part ex-hippie
meditator and hopeful ex-pat Artiste-in-residence in
The Netherlands, by way of Paris. She speaks for the
beauty in self-development, one pop-psychobabble
experience at a time. Freud is her "Daddy," Jung is
her "Uncle" and nobody tells her where to go.
She will stage a "happening" [this 60's reference
betrays her age] in the gallery space to relate her
travel experiences, read a few poems on the theme of
world peace and good nutrition, serve some of her
mother's apple cake and get the audience to write a
collaborative poem.
(1) &(2) Two photos of drawings from a series reacting
to terrorist incidents of recent years, starting with
the Trade Center destruction. These drawings depict
armless humanoid figures in furtive attempts to relate
to each other. After profound trauma, despite damage,
there is still the possibility of compassion and
relationship (emblemized by lively color and energetic
mark-making).
3) Poetry Chapbook "STOP THE WAR SERIES"
***
PROPOSAL FOR PERFORMANCE PIECE
For "Perfect World" events in conjunction with
showings of paintings and poetry readings.
SAMPLES:
1) POETIC COMEDY IMPROV
A Jewish Mother's answer to an Imperfect World:
"There's No Place Like OM!"
"Perfect World?" Who would want such a thing? It
would take away Bubbie's reason to live. She is a
not-so-typical Jewish mother with ideas of her own
about perfectionism, and she'll tell you a bunch of
them if you stand still for half a minute. Better yet,
take a seat, take a load off your 'dogs' and keep a
bottle of water handy, you shouldn't dehydrate while
listening to some of Bubbie's life story. It wouldn't
be possible to get the whole thing in two hours, so
she'll have to write a series of shows, like the
vagina monologues but nobody's been raped, yet. And
Bubbie has walked down plenty of dark alleys and weird
little off-the-beaten, not so touristic tracks. She
believes in the invincibility of the obviously insane.
No one would attack her. She's got to be crazy to trot
through Florence alone at midnight with an 80 pound
suitcase and a 40 pound backpack, catching the night
bus to Aix-en-Provence. Some nice Egyptian fellow she
met on the corner helped schlep the bag to the bus
parking lot and gave her the phone number of his
brother in Cairo, should she ever wish to travel in
that direction. She keeps all these contacts in her
diaries and expects to transcribe them all some day
into a huge database that will be her personal network
for global relations. She's promoting world peace, one
travel-contact at a time.
BUBBIE POETIC THERAPY: AKA "HAIKU! GEZUNDHEIT!"
[Bubbie's Life-of-the-Party Poetics, she should make
some use of her Ph.D.!]
This is a famous Japanese party game called "RENGA."
Each person will write a short haiku and we will read
them in sequence. We're just adding some schmaltz, to
make it ethnic. You see, normally, the most famous
American Jewish attribute is GUILT. Got GUILT? I'm
here to help you. We're going to make poems together.
Poems help make it better by getting at the
unconscious, through language. But you have to be
ready to do this without judgment! Really - only your
Jewish mother gets to judge you. Try to leave her out
of this. Bubbie is the GRANDMA. Everyone knows, you
can be yourself with your grandma. She only wants to
FEED you.
NOW for some of Bubbie Poetic Therapy. Write a Haiku
of YOUR FAVORITE JEWISH MEMORY: Haiku is composed of
three lines; 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.
Usually, there is some theme of nature, combined with
a human emotion.
Here's an example:
Something in the mist
relieves your deepest hunger --
Grandma's chicken soup!