I got to immerse myself in queer joy yesterday!Taylor Mac and Matt Ray's newest show, Songs from Bark of Millions, was generously presented by ArtsEmerson in Boston.
What is "queer joy" and why does it matter for everyone, whether you consider yourself queer or not?!
As Taylor themself says -- we are really all "queer" in some way. We are all unique. And in many cases, our particular uniqueness at some point causes us to feel isolated/ostracized/left behind.
Of course for some of us the process of being ostracized has been more brutal and murderous than for others.
Can we acknowledge the brutality, fight to change it, and still live in joyful community?
What if the ability to create joy and community in dark times is part of the revolution we need?
I believe it is. Taylor believes it is. And we believe creating beauty and art is one way toward it.
Being flamboyantly out and proud is a revolution. Bringing people together to experience art can be a revolution.
Bringing people together in loving community can be a revolution.
When I came out in the late 1970's, we believed in the revolutionary power of re-defining our sexuality. Of not accepting the fates foretold for us, especially as women. Of not accepting the binaries, either: not having to be male or female, either/or.
Being able to choose who you are and finding others of like minds and hearts - this generous, expansive love is at the heart of revolution.
I still believe our gender and sexuality can be a choice, not defined by biology. It is possible one of the reasons I am able to believe so strongly in choice is because I was adopted: I was not genetically linked to those raising me. I could and did choose. And then it was expedient in the 1990's for the passage of gay marriage, in order to make the critical nature of our need for basic social justice more urgent, to soothe the fears of heteronormative america by saying it is not a choice.
But I believe in the humanity of choice all around. And I do not believe we are forced to be any one thing, including male or female.
It was once a principal of our feminist revolution to find joy in our female/queer bodies and in sex, one on which those in power (including psychoanalysts!) keep working to slam the door. It's OK to be "slutty" when you have the power to choose freedom and not conformity. When you are not forced into situations that demean yourself but are able to recognize and have agency in the choices and play and beauty of sex.
This is the queer joy, celebration, and revolution into which I came out and in which I have had the privilege of living, first in NYC and then through theater-making and art for half a century. I've been lucky: so many people continue not to have the privilege to recognize and live in these choices. Our patriarchal, heteronormative power structures wound so many of us. And the wounded in turn wound others.
I am very grateful to Taylor Mac, Matt Ray, and ArtsEmerson for giving me an afternoon to exult in the fantastical pleasure and community of queer joy.
Photos: Publicity stills.
But I believe in the humanity of choice all around. And I do not believe we are forced to be any one thing, including male or female.
It was once a principal of our feminist revolution to find joy in our female/queer bodies and in sex, one on which those in power (including psychoanalysts!) keep working to slam the door. It's OK to be "slutty" when you have the power to choose freedom and not conformity. When you are not forced into situations that demean yourself but are able to recognize and have agency in the choices and play and beauty of sex.
This is the queer joy, celebration, and revolution into which I came out and in which I have had the privilege of living, first in NYC and then through theater-making and art for half a century. I've been lucky: so many people continue not to have the privilege to recognize and live in these choices. Our patriarchal, heteronormative power structures wound so many of us. And the wounded in turn wound others.
I am very grateful to Taylor Mac, Matt Ray, and ArtsEmerson for giving me an afternoon to exult in the fantastical pleasure and community of queer joy.
Photos: Publicity stills.
