BIG GODDESS POW WOW III: THE EMPRESS PROVOKED
These are women with something to say, something disturbing, something that might not quite fit into a traditional play or cabaret act. These are the women who have to talk while standing next to their sculpture, to read their writings with a wry twist so we understand the layers of meaning. We all have to be in the same room for this one, face to face; this won’t fit anywhere else.
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Decked out in butch drag, Jenny Magnus offered up a new piece that questioned the dynamics between power and desire, optimism and fatalism. She was eerie, dark, and riveting. “I don’t know when or why the tide will eventually and inevitably turn, but it will,” she said, leaving us to ponder whether that meant we should expect light or blackness on the shore.
Wilkie’s piece, bittersweet but not sticky sweet, explored the connections between women, with all the contradictory emotions of love and hate, loyalty and resentment. Listening to Wilkie, who told it all so seriously, was like hearing a friend read aloud from her journal.
