Edit: I wrote this little blurb on my thesis, “Arcana Monologues” [view here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ryzxna-74&t=2s ] and how my dance is currently interacting with the world it lives in now. Although my thesis was never fully realized due to Covid-19, it still lives on for me, perhaps in a multitude of non-physical planes. My thesis set out to physicalize the femme spirit; it was big, brash, it was unapologetic. I want to make this incredibly clear: my feminism and my artistic ideas can and should not exist without also demanding equality for black people in America. White feminism is null and void. All movements based in the fight for equality would not be where they are today without black and brown femme bodies leading the way.
To be femme is to be feared
But to be black, is to be damned.
Arcana Monologues set out to illustrate and viscerally physicalize the ways femme people are silenced, the way their power is so often taken from them, and to challenge traditional femme submission and benevolence.
There is no feminism, there is no egalitarianism, without intersectionality. Femme bodies may be taxed and marginalized, but today in America; black bodies are in critical danger. This piece should and could not exist without making this notion extremely clear.
White feminism is privilege. It is rooted in the very depths of American history. It is Amy Cooper, the Central Park Five, the Birth of a Nation. White feminism is an oxymoron, a logical fallacy, and has to be called out and delegitimized at every turn.
My dance and my voice would and could not exist without the black femme people who came before me. My ideology (whether conscious or unconscious) is rooted in the writings and contributions of Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and countless others.
There is so much work to do. I am ready to relearn, to challenge my own existing notions, and to continue to actively interact with my own white femme identity and what that means today.
There is no equality without justice. There is no peace without justice. Black lives matter. Black lives are critical. Black lives are beautiful. Black lives are celebrated.