Years ago, when we wuz cullid. . .No, that’s not how this story starts.
Seriously, though: I hope you guys check out Duriel’s Kickstarter campaign for her one-woman show Thingification that will to be presented next week as part of the 11th Annual Fresh Fruit Festival, NYC’s multi-disciplinary international festival of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer arts and culture. It’s a big honor for Duriel, no doubt, but it still requires support.
“Thing-ification” is a real word. As Duriel notes:
The term “thing-ification” originates in Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire, where he explains that colonization diminishes the humanity of both colonizer and colonized. There he states: colonization = thing-ification.
What she’s done is create a one-woman show that utilizes poetry, performance, music and dance as a means of combating “thing-ification” and gives voice and humanity back to characters in communities that have been traditionally objectified and marginalized.
Duriel is certainly prepared to pull this off. She’s a poet, performer, sound artist, scholar, and co-founder of the Black Took Collective. She’s received grants from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Illinois Arts, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Portions of Thingification have been featured at the Bablyon Theatre (Berlin), the MCA (Chicago), The Blue Note (Poznan), and The Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco). A MacDowell Colony and Pan African Literary Forum fellow, Harris is an associate professor of English and teaches creative writing and poetics at Illinois State University.
And, here’s some truth in advertising: Duriel’s a friend. Back in the day in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, we were neighbors in the same brownstone. She was good people then, as now, and I’m really proud of her.
So, yeah, please consider supporting. Her Kickstarter ends on Wednesday, July 17 at 10AM. She’s SOOO close to goal. Check out the promo video:
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