from here
A work-in-progress in quarantine amidst an unexpected covid infection during a residency:
in a room with a floral wallpaper
with nothing but lamps to keep me company
with nothing but lamps to keep me company
i said to myself,
i am not from here
i am not from here
(Score: I put on all the clothes I own, one at a time while saying ‘I am not from here;’ an act of packing to leave.)
but you live here,
interjected me
but i am not from here
but you live here
and so it goes on
until,
you/i say
you are not from here
and you/i interject
but i live here
(Score: I take off all the clothes I am wearing, one at a time while saying ‘but I live here;’ as an act of putting down roots.)
but you are not from here
but i live here
you/i insist,
you are not from here
but i was born here.
The Field Center, Bellows Falls, VT, USA
June 2022
Made during Ishmael Houston-Jones and Keith Hennessey’s Performance Intensive
The performance was witnessed from outside the window standing under umbrellas in the rain as audience could not enter the quarantine space.