Still from “NO SHAME”. Photo by Jennifer Bennett
I’m in the middle of an East Coast tour performing my solo show, NO SHAME, I’m appearing in a few other shows, and teaching workshops along the way to help pay for food, gas and expenses. Like this blog, my message across mediums is about finding and owning one’s self. NO SHAME is a shapeshifting half-hour event where I tackle stereotypes, the metamorphosis of one’s character and identity over time, what it’s like to be institutionally afraid to be out in the world, and the intersection of these experiences with the power of thought and the force one’s words. The piece is essentially about the will to be.
Today more than any time in my life I think, the words that we dare to use, artist’s messages from all over, having conversations about taboo subjects, and the willingness of individuals to claim their space and speak up against oppression, against repression, and against the narrowing of ideas into boxes easily manipulated and controlled by the elite (political and/or wealthy), are enormously important. We must feed ourselves, as we would be further starved by the system. Continuing to gather reliable and objective intelligence, community building through acknowledgement of need and actioning to provide, choosing observation and action over despair or overwhelm, cultivating openness to new and different POVs, and the use of questioning instead of attack: these are tools for change, vital in this historical moment we are sinking into like the swamp of sadness… We must move our blood. We must speak, exercise, be!
I am teaching workshops in kink skills — a smattering of rope classes, my “Radical Gender Theater” curriculum, and an intro to various types of kink play pertaining to sensation manipulation. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching groups as well as privates; the classes are meant to empower people to better communicate with one another, and help navigate through the vulnerability that desire requires through fun, curiosity, challenge, and skilled playfulness. This “adult playground” we have matured into having control over (our bodies, emotions, and minds), is a gift we get only one chance to live well within.
Human animals are capable of far more than we recognise or are taught. Having been enculturated as a female person, and eventually finding kink — rough body play, needles, bites, whip marks, and scratches — has proven to me over and over again that my body is resilient and capable of processing pain and healing from damaging activity in a way my perceived gender is institutionally protected from finding or knowing. Having been surrounded by the sensitivities and open expression of emotions, pains, fears, and lostness of those enculturated within the masculine lie proves to me too that us animals are whole underneath. It is the powers that be, not the world which would have us be lesser than our true potential strengths and understandings.
I love my art. I love my audience and my students. When I act out or speak up, I learn so much about what people see and feel in response. I want to be an affecting force. I want to help people reach their inner truths and desires against the powers that be. I want to exercise this animal body, this universal intellect, this natural heart to their purposes while I live.
Play On My Friends,
~ Karin
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~Thank you.