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						B0%5D%2C%22uin%22%3A%2200%22%7D%7D%7D'Ok, being brave here and trying to raise my consciousness.
Confession. Something I have noticed in myself and been troubled by in a way that I haven’t acknowledged in the past. There is a house in our neighborhood that now has 2 Trump signs and a Trump flag raised on a newly erected flagpole. I have met this man only briefly, occasionally, in the past. Now, I find myself filled with rash judgments about him… his attitudes, his aggression, his beliefs about … and I am repulsed. I don’t remember feeling this way during a political season before this. I would, of course, see the signs of the opposing candidates in my neighbors yards without this feeling of enmity, understanding that the other has a viewpoint about how this country should be governed or the direction he/she believed was correct, but I would not notice such dis-ease in me.
I wonder what to do with this awareness in me?
Have I become that which I say I abhor? Do I stereotype, with a sort of gut response of fear/hatred, a person with a Trump flag in his yard as persons might also stereotype a man in a hoodie? or a woman wearing a burka? etc. Could it be then that I exhibit Trumpism? Have I essentially made an ‘other’ of him? What does that say about me? That we all contain that which we say we despise?
I wonder about the ways that our brains are conditioned… images juxtaposed with stories about those images, so that in the end simply the image itself brings this instant visceral response, so that we can no longer respond to the actual image/person that is before us, in the moment as they stand before us, without those feelings that have been associated for us to them rushing forth.
But I also wonder, when is disgust an appropriate response?
I know there is something about the flag that elicits this reaction in me. In my gut perhaps I link that flag with white supremacy movements, with demagoguery, with Confederate flags or KKK sheets. It feels like a statement, not just of policy preference, but of I don’t know what. Aggression? Bullying? Perhaps I need to extricate that association somehow, but I wonder where do we draw the line? If my neighbor decides to raise Nazi flag, as is protected by the First Amendment, is it then ok to view that as an intentional message? Do I then have the evidence to receive and to hold a certain understanding of his beliefs, ideals and assumptions? It feels like a slippery slope without a definite line.
I am trying to own these feelings in me, for now. Look at them. That is all. I wonder, how are you noticing these things in yourself?Details2019-04-06 08:30:00
Location Info:University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center
Aurora, CO 80045
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Or sign in with a social account:FACEBOOK GOOGLE + TWITTER YAHOO!The Somerville concerts and plays (performed on a makeshift stage of planks across 44-gallon drums at the beginning) would grow by the early 1950s into a full-scale festival modelled on the new Edinburgh Festival.
The first events took place in the university grounds in January, 1953, the highlight a production of Richard III directed by Britain's Michael Langham.
The festival has continued since them, its growth accelerating in the mid-'70s when Englishman David Blenkinsop was appointed artistic director.
Blenkinsop ran the festival for 23 years, plugging into international connections that brought arts companies from around the world. He took Perth's audiences on an adventure, often introducing them to art forms they had never encountered before.
When Blenkinsop stepped down in 1999, the reins were taken by Irishman Doran, who immediately put his own stamp on the festival with some spectacular acts, including the 18-hour Chinese epic The Peony Pavilion.
However, Doran's first festival, in 2000, was over-ambitious, and was left with a deficit of $2.6million. Since then, he has been clawing the festival back into the black with fewer big-ticket items, such as international symphony orchestras and big-cast theatre companies.
This year, for instance, there are plenty of edgy, smaller theatre companies, but no performances by companies such as the Royal Shakespeare - a regular visitor under Blenkinsop's stewardship.
A wary eye on the budget has not stopped Doran embarking on ambitious projects such as a concert performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung, as the finale on February 13 and 15, with an international cast under British conductor Lionel Friend. The free concert will be beamed from Perth's riverside Concert Hall to adjacent parkland, where picnickers can see and hear the performance on giant video screens. WA poet John Kinsella has produced an "Australianised" translation of the libretto that makes reference to the landscape of Perth.
One of Doran's more quixotic projects was to commission British sculptor Antony Gormley to be part of the visual arts program.
Gormley came up with the idea of creating 100 carbonised steel, stick-like figures to be placed over a 15 square kilometre area of saltpan just out of Menzies, 100 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, titled Inside Australia.
Gormley was hopingfor a budget of $1.8 million, financed mostly through private sponsorship. In the end, the festival could raise only $600,000 and Gormley had to cut his sculpture project in half.
Now 50 figures remain on the saltpan. Art lovers and tourists face a long drive in temperatures in the high 30s to reach them.
While installing the figures before Christmas Gormley aimed a serve at the lack of interest from Goldfields area mining companies in sponsoring his project.
"Australia has got to decide if they want this kind of work," he said. "And if they do, they should get behind it."
The festival's theatre program began last week with the American play Nixon's Nixon, a biting, political satire on president Richard Nixon's final evening at the White House before his resignation speech.
Keith Jochim gives a marvellous performance as the hunched and belligerent Nixon, with Tim Donoghue adding to the subtle blend of comedy, satire and farce with his portrayal of the egotistical and self-righteous Henry Kissinger.
Writer Russell Lees has imagined what might have taken place when Kissinger went to the White House that evening to ensure that in resigning to beat impeachment, Nixon would not also dump his secretary of state.
This production moves to Melbourne on February 11.
Still to come is the premiere of Beasty Grrrl, on February6, Scott Rankin's new play about Errol Flynn; Irish writer Marie Jones' one-actor show about Irish soccer and bigotry A Night in November; and Athol Fugard's The Island.
Fugard's modern classic about two prisoners on Robben Island in the early days of apartheid was first performed at the festival in 1976 with its original actors John Kani and Winston Ntshoni. This time, Black Swan Theatre has imported South African director Jerry Mofokeng to work with indigenous actors John Moore and David Ngoombujarra. Mofokeng intends to retain the play's South African flavour.
The 50th festival again promises plenty of broad-spectrum arts experiences for WA residents, who are justifiably proud that they led the way in creating the type of festival imitated by the other states.
Ron Banks is arts editor of The West Australian. The festival continues until February 16.
Printer friendly versionWyalusing, Pennsylvania, April 10, 2020-With the Coronavirus Pandemic shaking families to their core, physically, emotionally and economically – the need to combat food insecurity is more critical than ever.
The Tuscarora Wayne Mutual Foundation recognizes the urgency and has taken a position on the front lines by fast-tracking financial support to Food Banks throughout