A beautiful room to launch my latest collection within, and in generous company, I turned out a performance with increasing levels of bear awareness, from a bear poster, to collaborating with my friend Emanuel the Bear, to bringing the room's bear to human ratio into line, to transforming myself into a bear. Very grateful to see so many friends there, to have Tony Frazer do such a fine job on my book and to read alongside the great John Hall. www.stevenjfowler.com/bearaware
A note on: performance videos from Soundings I & III, with Emma Bennett and Maja Jantar
Two highlights of 2015, amazing performers and artists both Emma and Maja. So excited I get to do 7 more of these collaborations in 2016 with the help of the Hubbub group in residence at Wellcome Collection and Wellcome Library www.stevenfowler.com/soundings
EVP Brighton
One of the nicest walks of my life, strolling of the Laines to Kemptown with my shamanic cloak on my left shoulder. Friday evening and 100s see me, only a few notice, and they speak to me, with warmth. I love your coat, sweetie, I get in Kemptown. A car of girls, on their way out makeup, beep and then stop when I smile and ask me what it is. When I tell them, they are impressed, but seemingly not surprised. ub40 back to back on my shuffle. earth dies screaming and don't break my heart. powerful throwbacks. i listen to the full songs, more than once, which is rare with my impatience.you shoot me down in flames / You put me down a lot / But I'm giving you my heart / Go on take it / Please be careful not to break it / Just remember it's the only one I've got / It's the only one I've The expected perished at the basement, but it was a joyful experience, a stop between points in terms of my work, but the Pit in the Basement is that, and the intimacy welcomed a lot of adlibs. Apparently I've done the Brighton fringe and the Great Escape festival now. I was gentler, more responsive. I came here, Brighton, to recover after a big car crash, have family I love in the city too. A place that has been generous to me. Despite what people (cynical people, like me maybe) might think of as a veneer of falseness, it is a genuine place. I went with things for the performance, and things went with me. Had 2 grubbs vegiburgers. Holiday. The hotel was beautiful too.
Shaman electrique - a poem for the tour as it is being toured - #EVP
Shamans were once essential for the survival and wellbeing of Arctic communities. Are we not of a similar climate now, that such a necessity has arisen? Shamans are men or women who have the particular ability to communicate with other-than-human-persons. These may be, for example, animals, for example, BEARS, or the personified forces of disease, or weather. Shamans are especially important in ensuring that animals continue to give themselves as gifts to hunters. Without a shaman to intercede and negotiate with these powers, a human community is vulnerable to disease and starvation, even self-inflicted death. I bought myself a gift to reward myself for being so good, it is a gift I am giving to you. Latex nurse. French maid. Lingerie. For your body is not needed, rushing out into the unknown, out of the human world
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