13 JULY
Working dinner with collaborator-in-chief Emily Hill!
14 – 15 JULY
Workshop days with Emily at the Living Arts Collective (hello, sprung dance floor 😍). We followed up our rehearsal on the 14th with a viewing of the Dana Ruttenberg Dance Group at the American Dance Festival. So playful! So clever!
16 JULY
Writing, writing, writing
17 – 19 JULY
Denver! The darling Julie Morris flew out with me to visit Kathryn Oliver and Brian Cox.
- Denver Botanic Gardens (gorgeous outdoor Chihuly).
- Rooftop dinner with new friends (bat sightings!).
- Vintage and local shops on Broadway (I’m looking at you, Hope Tank, Decade and Sewn…).
- SOLD OUT SYLVAN ESSO CONCERT AT REDROCKS! The most perfect of nights up in the Rockies. SE was super, super dreamy.
- I walked into Talulah Jones and immediately felt at home (hello, children’s section!). If I can’t be buried at Red Rocks, pretty please put me in a potted plant outside this most charming store.
- Denver Art Museum – I highly recommend the Jeffrey Gibson exhibit running through August 12.
- Acorn. Beautiful sunset and excellent food before Julie and I hitched the redeye home. Verdicts: Acorn Monkfish – yes, please and thank you. Redeye: never, never, never again.
20 JULY
I forced myself to stay awake after the redeye (did I mention never again?) and was deeply rewarded by lunch with Akiva Fox and Annie Zipper, followed by You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences at the NC Museum of Art. Now closed, this series of exquisite installations was home to very long lines (27 minutes for a 45 second viewing of Yayoi Kusama’s Light of Life – totally worth it, by the way) and visual and auditory stunners. Especially powerful for me were Do I Look Like a Lady? (Mickalene Thomas’ exploration of black female entertainers and their influence on black female identity), Intersections (challenging religious and gender barriers by Anila Quayyum Agha), Photo-kinetic Grid (a glorious questioning of fences by Soo Sunny Park), and Forty Part Motet (sonic experience by Janet Cardiff of a 40 part choir made possible by 40 separate speakers – one set of listeners held each other and wept).
21 – 22 JULY
Workshops with Emily Hill, joined on 22 July by Danielle Chelles, Jessica Flemming, and Rachel Klem! Rachel helped us shape some of the group pieces and Danielle and Jessica will come play with us for the workshop presentation on the 27th. I am incredibly grateful to these women who are flinging themselves so wholeheartedly into my weird little world.
23 – 24 JULY
Short working lunch with Emily and then back to Fayetteville to see family and play with my 7-yr-old niece.
I came back on the 24th for acupuncture and dinner/big conversation about hospitality with local badass Shea Broussard. Healing followed by healing, my dears. Truth.
25 JULY
EDWARD HUNT AND JEFF STORER! When I started compiling my list of folks to talk to about art and hospitality, these two were at the top. I was giddy to get to spend some time with them as they start on their new adventure helping other artists to realize their goals. Our conversation definitely helped me as I think about accessible and affordable rehearsal and performance spaces, the formation of a board, “casting” the various roles of theatre personnel, and about the circles of people I want to gather ’round for the ongoing life of whatever this project of mine eventually becomes. Thank you, Ed and Jeff, for being so open, transparent, and funny, and for letting me christen your office with bagels! ❤️
Babysitting for a 3 month old should not be as easy as it was for the little darling I kept yesterday afternoon. So good to get my hands on Olivia Griego’s baby and to play princess with and read to her eldest. Swoon! (Oh, and she’s not so bad, herself…)
26 JULY
Ahmagerd, y’all. Today? Tamara Kissane.
Tomorrow? Workshop performance presentation of There’s An Easybake Oven Where My Heart Should Be (Draft 1). I am not at all trepidatious…
Lightbulb Heart 