MULTI CULT

It is happening again. I'm putting on a show. Most probably a series. It's called MULTI CULT and the first one is Thursday, June 8th, at 10:30pm at Cinefamily, 611 N Fairfax in Los Angeles.

Tickets available here.

MULTI CULT is a 'ritual variety show' where diversity of experience and difference of opinion are celebrated as the true path to enlightenment. This event is the first attempt in a pointed effort to advance a way of thinking which demands mental and emotional flexibility and strength. I want to make multiplicity, doubt, and listening cool again by calling them out as sacred in an environment where they contribute to spectacular, fascinating entertainment.

I will do this by putting together an awesome and fun show that features as many different kinds of art from as many different kinds of people as I can reach and convince to work with me. I anticipate in the future this will become easier, and thus make MULTI CULT even more dynamic and complex.

The first MULTI CULT will feature performances and accompaniment by Adebukola Buki Bodunrin & Ezra Claytan Daniels; Ruji "Stargatekeeper" Chapnik; hollis j. hart; myself; Jason Ogawa; Vanja Smiljanic; Tyson Thurston; and Dav Yendler.

Check out the Facebook event for more information about the performances and links to work.

To master the ceremony of MULTI CULT, I am drawing on my experience conducting BRAIN FRAME, teaching Ritual Structure workshops, moving people with magical performance art, etc. This show will occupy the framework of a secular ceremony, with formal/experimental intention, grounding, casting, and communal altar. Tell your friends!

Danielle Chenette was kind enough to draw with me these images to promote the show.

Motivational Screaming

Life update: I've been preaching, by way of screaming, singing, and talking straight towards crooked subjects. I also moved to Los Angeles one month ago. Before we left Chicago, I executed an escalating number of performances, four in three weeks, culminating in a multi-new-media magic show. Now I'm here, and the roll I'm on has had to slow, even as the urgency propelling me mounts in tension. Somebody please, show me to a stage.

Brief respite: the footage of my performance at Helltrap Nightmare 9: Dinner with the Family is ready for you to watch! This happened on November 27th last year, when fear and grief over the success of white supremacy (the winner all along, let's be honest) was still fresh for many. I sought to galvanize my audience as well as exorcise some of the righteous fury that nobody should bother beating around the bush about anymore. I also debuted some new songs. Enjoy!



The songs are titled, in order, "Find The Tits," "My Vacant Friend," and "Floating Hope." Much, much better versions than the ones in this video are in process right now and will be available soon. Here, you can listen to "My Vacant Friend" and read the lyrics on my Soundcloud:



Thank you Emily Kempf for the awesome polaroid photo (captured at Cool Girls Show on December 7th, 2016) and for booking a great show!

Do Not Fear The Darkness

I made a book for anyone who's feeling overwhelmed by or afraid of the violence and divisiveness that is (for now) gathering strength and power, anyone despairing at their ability to make change or feel joy, and anyone who wants or tends to run from uncomfortable or uncertain situations. I guess you can call it a self-help zine. I performed it last Saturday at the one year anniversary of  Zine Not Dead.
[See above photo by Mary Beth Higgens. Documentation of this performance will be available soon.]

This book contains writing, drawings, suggestions, and exercises to strengthen your spiritual and emotional fortitude. These are exercises I use frequently, across personal, educational, performative, and ritual practices. They work.

Like many people I know, in particular many artists and creative people I know, my faith in the worth of my efforts, indeed, in the worth of humanity, has at times been deeply shaken, even absent. This is not one of those times. My favorite thing about growing older is lengthening perspective. I have lived long enough to see, over and over, the resolution of pain through process and time. Trauma heals; worth is found; sense of stability grows again - if the issue is addressed. Often, we are more frightened by the fallout from a problem than the problem itself. We must stop, turn, and face this difficult work.

I know that many of the scariest possibilities are imposed from outside and above in the hierarchy of power. I know that those with greater privilege must leverage it as a resource and be the front line of resistance. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this, this, and this.) I also know that every single living human being has baggage that hampers their efforts to make positive change.

So often, the smallest insecurities cause the largest efforts to crumble. When it comes to working and organizing together - which is essential to combatting systematic oppression and creating social safety nets - it is imperative that each individual in the collective takes responsibility for their personal well-being and moral growth. Nobody is perfect, but everyone can improve. Working on yourself is not frivolous. It's not lazy, because if you're really working, it's not easy. It is not narcissistic, because it requires humility. Evolution is spurred by diversity: of ideas, experience, and ability. That's why the exercises in this book are flexible and can be practiced by oneself, with a partner, or in a group.

You can read Do Not Fear The Darkness in full online by clicking here, or by paging through like this:


You are also more than welcome to hard copies for yourself (and others!) Click here to download the pdf with instructions for print and assembly. If you run a comic shop, book store, event space or whatever, you have my blessing to distribute Do Not Fear The Darkness to all who pass through. Do not sell this book, it is free.

May the new year illuminate further tools for transformation. Wishing you love and power.

remember / this / feeling

I recently gave a talk in a classroom where I focused on my interest in liminality, or liminal space. Briefly, liminal space is the time between states of being, between one solid idea and the next. Any ritual experience transpires in liminality. Any transformative experience requires liminal space. I bring up this point because it is a common thread throughout all of the work I do: creating narratives, writing speeches, teaching, entertaining, overwhelming with light and sound: activities which induce or require liminality in order to be successful.

About ten days ago I orchestrated the largest showcase of my work to date at Conversations at the Edge, a weekly screening and lecture series curated by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (where I studied) and hosted by the Gene Siskel Film Center (where I work). It went very, very well. It sold out. People had a really, really good time, from reports.

The three videos above were conceived as interstitials, intended to knit together the three disparate performance pieces that made up the bulk of the show. They were written and performed explicitly for that experience - although now I am quite pleased to have some short digital work I can toss about indiscriminately, in contrast to the arduous, precious distribution and projection of analog films which is my typical burden.

You can see in my notes the development of these liminal videos. I began with a sense of what I wanted to accomplish, and an assessment of the tools at my disposal. (Skills in leading trance, an intern with access to DSLRs, metallic makeup bought on a whim from Kryolan, etc.) I listed the intents of my three performances, and hypothesized the best directions for transitioning from one to the next. I listed out all of the activities I could imagine an audience acquiescing to at the behest of a pre-recorded video.

I wrote three scripts, spoke them out loud to make sure they lasted about three minutes, then traveled to the Magic Hedge (my Chicago place of power) and recorded myself speaking, in three different environments. remember was recorded on a pier; this was recorded within shrubbery; feeling was recorded in a dirt footpath stone tunnel.

I edited the recordings and then performed along to them while my utterly fantastic intern Hannah Kim recorded my hand motions in front of a black velvet backdrop. Pro tip: applying an opaque layer of makeup to hands and forearms takes a considerable amount of time.

So how did it go? These videos were well received, and helped facilitate seamless transitions between performances during the show, providing uninterrupted liminality. They gave me time to take a breath, collect my thoughts, and change costumes between pieces. My audience responded eagerly to every instruction. I could hear people giggling when they were instructed to grab their crotches. You can listen to the live recording of this by playing the track below. I love it.

Magic Chats

I am a radio host now. I started my own show, back in October 2015, at the invitation of my friends over at Lumpen Radio, a brand new wavelength soon to be actually broadcasting out of an actual radio tower in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. If you're in the area, tattoo WLPN 105.5 FM onto the back of your mind's eyelid please.

Magic Chats is a weekly interview show. I invite a different guest every episode to bring in some sounds that move them. We listen to the sounds (usually music; sometimes film clips, field recordings, text, etc) together, and then talk about it. I ask my guests what the sound means to them, how it makes them feel, where and when they heard it, and ultimately, what place that magical feeling has in their life. We often end up talking about spirituality, but not necessarily.

Every show begins with a Magic Moment. Listeners write in to magic.chats [at] gmail.com with a song that moves them and a written description of how or why. I play the song and read their story. Do you have a Magic Moment you'd like to share? Please send it to me! I need more!

Every show ends with the Mystery of the Week. This is one big, open-ended question inspired by the preceding interview. I collect responses to the MOTW on Facebook and via email, and read them back at the end of the following episode, before announcing the new question. You can find out and reply to the Mystery of the Week on the Magic Chats Facebook page. Please 'like' the page!

You can subscribe to Magic Chats on iTunes. Please rate and review! I have no idea how many people enjoy this labor of love (yet).

My plan is to record and release ten episodes per season. At the time I write this, seven episodes are complete and available, and four more interviews are waiting to be edited.

I started Magic Chats as one strategy in a broader effort to be more open about my own magical nature. The unseen has always been a huge part of my life, the way I relate to the world, and what I look for in others. The last Brain Frame marked the first moment I began to consciously incorporate ritual into my public performances. Magic Chats is a way for me to explore how a wide variety of individuals understand the inexplicable. It has been deeply fascinating and rewarding to conduct these interviews, edit and annotate them afterwards, and release them to be heard.

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Elsewhere: I wrote about my five favorite internet videos as the February guest curator at Video Video Zine. I'll be presenting them live on Sunday, February 21st at 8pm, at Giron Books, (upstairs) 2141 W 21st St. More info and full screening details can be found on the Facebook event. FREE!