"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,Put aside your thoughts about the "pretty maids all in a row" and concentrate on the "silver bells and cockle shells." On many occasions, what evolves into a piece of art grows out of the juxtaposition of two objects that causes an interesting contrast. The contrast might relate to their shapes, sizes, colors, or density. It could also arise from how they appear against certain backgrounds, but if (as they say) beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the possibilities for stimulation may be far more than we expect.
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row."
That's where multiples come into play. When sufficient numbers of people develop a passion for something (paintings of clowns on black velvet, cat videos on YouTube, arias recorded by operatic divas), what begins as a trend can gain momentum until it is being cultivated and curated. During the process of acculturation, more and more people become interested in a trend which may someday explode into a fad. Don't believe me? Think about the pet rock, Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, and Pokémon crazes.
In recent decades, passions for the occult (numerology, tarot cards, Ufology) have led to the growth of identifiable subcultures. The viral potential of certain political and religious ideas (Scientology, anti-vaxxers, Trumpism, the Pizzagate conspiracy theory) can inspire cult-like behavior. Perhaps that's why Adam Gabbatt's recent article in The Guardian entitled "All Aboard the Flat Earth Cruise -- Just Don't Tell Them About Nautical Navigation" gave me such a chuckle.
Though it's easy to embrace today's vast LGBT media (in print and online), it's important to remember that the catalyst that launched many gay publications during the past half century was the refusal of The New York Times (whose motto has always been "All the news that's fit to print") to report news of the gay community. One of the focal ideas that helped throw open the closet door for many LGBT people was the rebellious message that "If you don't like the news you're reading, make your own!" Back then, no one could have believed that an OpEd piece like Evan Wolfson's recent contribution to The Washington Post ("Pete Buttigieg's Radical Normalcy") would ever be published.
The same applies to art. If you feel there is art within your subculture that is being overlooked and could reach a larger audience, do something about it. Create your own art (in the process you might just open up a whole new niche market for goods and services). If you're unsure about your chances of success, look to the the impact of people like Harvey Milk, Rachel Maddow,Taylor Mac, and RuPaul for inspiration.
Better still, watch the following two videos in which British tattoo artist, Zak Korvin, draws a giant freehand mandala on a wall at Pisac Tattoo's private studio in Sacred Valley, Peru. "This one drove me to the brink of insanity," he writes. "It was all done with traditional techniques (compass, ruler, protractor...) No digital. It took five 6-8 hour sessions. I thought when it was over I'd be excited but I couldn't look at it anymore. I was over it. Now it's been a couple of days and I love it!"
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For fans of the San Francisco 49ers football team, the final season at Candlestick Park (as the 49ers prepared to move to their new home at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara) was occasionally like experiencing a death in the family. Bennett Fisher’s new play, Candlestick, explores the experience through the eyes of a group of 49ers fans who have been holding tailgate parties in Candlestick’s parking lot for many years and are starting to feel as if they are being evicted from their second home.  |
| Donald E. Lacy, Jr., Brian Rivera, Britney Frazier, and Anna Maria Luera in a scene from Candlestick (Photo by: Joan Osato) |
Now entering its 23rd year, Candlestick is the 54th world premiere presented by Campo Santo since the company was founded in 1996. Fisher spent three years writing the play with the voices and talents of his Campo Santo colleagues in mind. The result is an intense drama about family, extended family, football, loyalty, and the changing demographics of the Bay area. Inspired by the impending destruction of the 49ers' stadium, Fisher describes Candlestick as “King Lear in a parking lot.” A native San Franciscan, he stresses that the impact of rapid gentrification lies at the heart of the drama.
“It’s about that part of San Francisco, the more bleeding-collar part in the Bayview, the black community (or even just an era where you could afford to have a house or an apartment). That’s gone. I don’t think it’s necessarily my position as an artist to say whether that’s good or bad, but just to acknowledge it and be a witness to that.”
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| Playwright Bennett Fisher (Photo by: Wonway Posibul) |
With costumes by Nikki Anderson-Joy, set design by Tanya Orellana, video design by Joan Osato, lighting by Maximiliano Urruzmendi, and music and sound design by Christopher Michael Vicente Sauceda, the audience is invited to make noise as if they were at a game. It quickly becomes obvious that the characters Fisher has created are diehard fans who live and breathe football statistics the way Callas fans thrive on opera gossip from long, long ago.
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| Donald E. Lacy, Jr. (Lyle) pays homage to the 49ers in a scene from Bennett Fisher's Candlestick (Photo by: Wonway Posibul) |
At the center of the action is Lyle (Donald E. Lacy, Jr.), a man in his early sixties who, like several of his friends, made his living as an electrician. Together with Hugo (Juan Amador), Karl (Brian Rivera), and Martina (Anna Maria Luera), attendance at a tailgate party is the equivalent of going to church. While Karl is the quiet hulk who catches every word, internalizes his emotions, and rarely voices his opinion, the others are more susceptible to distraction.
- The appearance of Lyle's daughter, Riley (Britney Frazier), who has flown in from Jacksonville, Florida, is triggered by a series of medical, economic, and family problems which Lyle is loath to confront.
- A burgeoning relationship with Louise (Lauren Spencer) -- who can trash talk football players with the toughest male fans -- draws Hugo's attention away from the 49ers.
- The suspicious new camaraderie that develops when Melvin (Florentino Gonzales) starts flattering Lyle and suggesting an offer of access to his company's private box at the new stadium causes tension among Lyle's friends.
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| Brian Rivera, Donald E. Lacy, Jr., Anna Maria Luera, and Juan Amador in a scene from Candlestick (Photo by: Wonway Posibul) |
While Lyle tries to bluff his way past Martina and Riley's concerns, his gruff stubbornness, ornery personality, and macho loyalty to the 49ers prevent him from taking care of himself. Suspicious of Riley's history as a teenage grifter, he is reluctant to let her move in with him for fear that he'll never be able to get her to leave. When Martina offers to help find him some contract work (Lyle used to work for her father), he refuses to take the bait.
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| Donald E. Lacy, Jr. (Lyle) and Anna Maria Luera (Martina) in a scene from Candlestick (Photo by: Joan Osato) |
All of the actors admit to the 49ers having played a huge role in their family life. Director Ellen Sebastian Chang (whose father was the first black man to play football at the University of Texas’s Memorial Stadium) states that “Football is a very beautiful thing in terms of how its fans come together, but I also saw it as a continued metaphor for a kind of exploitation of the human body, especially black and brown bodies. I saw what football did for my family and what it did to tear my family apart. People always wanted to talk to my father about football, but he wanted to talk about art and intellectual things.”
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| Britney Frazier (Riley) and Anna Maria Luera (Martina) in a scene from Candlestick (Photo by: Joan Osato) |
Chang and Fisher have transformed their performing space into something that resembles a tailgate party (with chili, chips, and other snacks being served in the lobby). What Candlestick does particularly well is capture the rising temperature of sports fans asserting their loyalty as they counter any insults to their team's players. One senses underlying elements of toxic masculinity that (were passions to reach a boiling point) could transform the fans into an angry crowd resembling Trump supporters.
I was especially impressed by Donald E. Lacy, Jr.'s bravura performance as Lyle, a cantankerous tribal elder who can't give up the fight but is afraid to face his weaknesses. He receives strong support from Britney Frazier and Anna Maria Luera (who shine during their bitter second act confrontation). Brian Rivera brings the stolid strength of an Army tank to the proceedings.
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One of the more curious films being shown at the 2019 SFIndie Fest is Rodrigo Dorfman's documentary entitled This Taco Truck Kills Fascists. Dorfman was inspired by Luis Valdez’s legendary Teatro Campesino shows on flatbed trucks that brought attention to the plight of migrant workers in California during the 1960s and 1970s. Since 2009, the filmmaker (who has collected nearly 100 personal stories from people living in the shadows in Houston, Tulsa, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C.) has been recording interviews with undocumented people under persecution whose real-life stories inform the "documentary theater" process. |
| A performance by Taco Truck Theater is captured in a scene from This Taco Truck Kills Fascists |
“By engaging a pop-up taco vendor in each community, our ArteFuturo Ensemble rolls out the Taco Truck Theater/Teatro Sin Fronteras to cross economic, geographic, and racial borders with a re-purposed truck turned theater,” he explains. “We challenge the dehumanization of immigrant communities with a radical ‘dinner theater on wheels’ performance driven by an eclectic live music sound-bed that stirs the soul and delivers powerful visual rituals, moving stories, comedic improvisations, and poetic truths of a diverse and bilingual collective.”
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| A performance by the Taco Truck Theater is captured in a scene from This Taco Truck Kills Fascists |
The documentary’s protagonist is New Orleans-based artist-activist José Torres-Tamas, a single father who is simultaneously raising his two young sons (Diego and Darius) while including them in the ensemble. Driven by his strong political convictions as well as a need to put his artistic talents to good use, his goal is:
“...to explore the human stories of a people fleeing economical and political persecution in search of the American Dream. Our theater without borders offers a parallel between Latina/no immigrants dehumanized as ‘illegal aliens’ and the historical struggles of African Americans with a national crisis of police shootings of unarmed black civilians. We aim to empower Dreamer and diverse immigrant voices across the country by having them take the Taco Truck Theater stage to perform their personal truths, to reclaim their humanity, and challenge the anti-immigrant hysteria. With immigrant poets and diverse artists in each community, the performance is transformed into an evolving scripted ritual each time, and speaks to the particular immigration concerns of the city in which we perform.”
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| José Torres-Tama is joined onstage by sons Diego and Darius in a scene from This Taco Truck Kills Fascists |
As Torres-Tama explains:
“As a performance artist, I’m a provocateur. I’m looking to deal (in a very poetic manner) with the anti-immigrant sentiment. We have a diverse ensemble of black, brown and white artists exploring this issue, and that brings a whole lot of different, powerful personal perspectives to the subject. Latin Americans have all dealt with U.S. supported dictatorships that have disappeared our people in Chile, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the list goes on. We proclaim that ‘No human being is illegal!’ We align with the Black Lives Matter movement to remember that people of color have never had equal justice and equal rights in the United States of Amnesia, which seduces you to embrace forgetting. Our new production addresses the current tragic but brutal cultural deportation of Latin American immigrants in the 2018 Tricentennial celebrations (where we have become invisible in the official program narratives of this tourist industry-driven event). We are here to remember.”
“The people of New Orleans know that thousands of Latin American immigrants have contributed to our rebirth and reconstruction, yet they face brutal deportations as they try to remain in a city they helped rebuild post-Hurricane Katrina. Our immigrant people are being excluded by cultural organizations such as the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. It's disgraceful, unacceptable, and beyond shameful for the Louisiana Endowment of the Humanities and its editors to publish a book (New Orleans & The World: 1718-2018 Tricentennial Anthology) that will be distributed throughout libraries across the country in which their exclusion of our immigrant community will live as the alternative facts and lies of our post-Katrina history.”
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| T-shirts sold by the Taco Truck Theater |
This Taco Truck Kills Fascists splits its energies between showing the power of free, counter-cultural theater to reach out to under-served audiences in minority communities as well as the patience with which a single father tries to instill humane values in the minds of his children (values which, alas, are not always mirrored in today's mainstream culture).
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