I remember how I got started with this whole poetry performance experience.

It was at my first “Les Femmes Artistes” and I was waiting backstage at the Spotlight Theatre, pacing.  I got what felt like a really wild idea.  You see, the first night I performed this woman complimented me for my poetry.

“Oh, honey – I loved your poetry, it was SO CUTE!”

Cute?

She thought my poetry was cute?

Something was wrong. My intention was not to be cute with my words. My intent was to be evocative, to connect deeply.

I accepted her compliment as an agent of change.  I picked different poems to perform for the second night of Les Femmes. 

I stood underneath a light in the hallway backstage and did an emotional map of my poem, “Tom, Don’t Go.”  I wasn’t sure where I would go with my map, I just wanted to have a very clear awareness of where my feelings and emotions should connect with my words when I was next onstage.

That night I came onto the stage one person and left a forever changed person.  I tapped into something with that first performance that I would be able to hold onto forever –

Several months later, I was able to perform at a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.  We did a preview of that show to a group of business leaders in the community the day before the event.

To say I was scared out of my shoes would be an understatement.

I didn’t need an emotional map anymore, the piece flowed and I flowed and the business leaders seemed to naturally understand it. I was complimented afterwards and not a soul said my poetry was cute. 

The next night I performed after a comedy troupe. I started my piece and I could just feel the audience was so ready to laugh.  There was a moment when I lifted them up over the ridge of the rollercoaster – I could literally feel them moving with me -- before we  plunged down, together, into the deep emotions of losing a friend to cancer, to experiencing that friend’s presence post death.

I could hear people emoting, I could hear sniffling and crying. I could tune into our shared connection. 

Claudia Aquino asked me to perform at “Les Femmes” again this Spring and I knew I didn’t want to be a one-poem wonder, so I started working on a new series of poems specifically focused on womanhood.

I went so far as to go to Los Angeles for a photo shoot specifically to dive deeper into my experience as a woman and because of that intention was catapulted into an altered state experience that once again, changed my perceptions forever.

The result of that shoot was the poem “Curvy Truth” that I performed at “Les Femmes” last Spring as well as several photo/poetry collages that are a part of the (burn the witch) art show which opens this Saturday, September 9 at the Empty Space.

Just like my performances of “Tom, Don’t” changed my being internally, performing “Curvy Truth” felt like nothing short of a miracle.  The audience was swept up and away with me as I rolled my curvy truth out on the stage for them to see, boldly speaking long unspoken truths.

I never knew a poet could get whistles and foot stomping after a performance. I didn’t know a poet could elicit belly laughter and then tears in the same ten minute time span.  Some people might have even labeled bits and pieces and chunks of my poems that night as cute… and it would have been just right if they did.

And now, I am ready to stretch again.  I am grateful to stretch again.

Curvy truth is ready for its next incarnation. And I am ready to bring it on.

(burn the witch) opens this Saturday, September 9 from 2 PM to 7 PM at the Empty Space. I will perform my “Curvy Truth” series between 3-4 pm, and my art is in the “adult only” section.  There is going to be food and beverages and music and oodles of incredible women artists. Look at my Top Friends list on Myspace for just a preview of the incredible women who are a part of this event – you’ll recognize us by the black background. The Empty Space is located at 706 Oak Street between Brundage and California behind Pizzaville.