Alison Hart's Blog, page 2
January 14, 2022
beyond fences
Here is a sample of a collaborative dance work in progress where every dancer has a voice, based on poet laureate Jericho Brown's duplex poetry form.
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/47fe9e_25819a2924124cc3bd0506d9832c2ef3/360p/mp4/file.mp4We claim public space, choreograph together and create community one step at a time. Dancer/Choreographers include Haninah Abdullah, Sharon Coleman and Katherine Park.
What are you doing to stay sane during this pandemic? #duplexdancecollective #danceoutside #dancekeepsmesane #selfregulation #emotionalregulation #claimpublicspace #JerichoBrown #poetryanddance #writerswhodance #housingisahumanright #endgentrification
Below is my duplex poem:
beyond fences
this body called home
yank out fence posts honor 4 directions
what 4 walls bring security waves can't rush
feet in sand facing the ocean
sun, wind on face standing on the edge
I long for a duplex
duplicitous bidding got a million plus?
flip flap flop this building is my god
America's god from the onset
in the 90s there weren't any tent cities in the Bay Area
colonization recreates itself on city pavement
the Ellis acts to protect property at all costs
the cost of America's poisonous mythology
beyond fences this body called home
Copyright Alison Hart 2022
December 15, 2021
temp words poetry ebook is out!
click photo to order ebook
All we have is the moment the rest is fiction.
Impermanence saves me, betrays me, the constant flux of life. Sometimes I celebrate it, other times grief sets in like an immovable mountain.
These poems are journeys through states: grief, outrage, identity, temptation, and lastly transcendence. Published by Cosmo Press, 2015.
Back in the day when readings were live at Oakland Beast Crawl, 2016
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/47fe9e_bb7a52844f8f4c2c8afc9758d034553d/1080p/mp4/file.mp4December 4, 2021
album in the works
Here is single number 2 buildings or people singing it keeps me in an indigenous state of mind takes me to a place of holding the self sacred, others sacred beyond greed/ego needs. It is about self-love no, not the narcissistic kind, unconditional love. Perhaps when we hold ourselves sacred we can extend that to others and to the earth!
Woliwon (Thank you in Passamaquoddy)
CLICK PHOTO TO HEAR SONG
October 25, 2021
Chasing Ancestors
We found the house in Ipswich Massachusetts where our ancestor Peter Freeman was enslaved in the mid-1700s. He and his son John Freeman fought in the Revolutionary War, obtained freedom papers, and moved the family to Brunswick, Maine. They took the surname Freeman, as many Blacks did during that time. Hence began the Freeman lineage in East Brunswick Maine.
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/47fe9e_9d4449a8839e44a8b94d98bd07002602/1080p/mp4/file.mp4#mixedhistoryisamericanhistory #BlackNewEnglandHistory #chasingancestors #ipswichblackhistory #mostlywhitenovel #BlackRevolutionaryWarSoldiers #BlackHistoryisAmericanHistory #NativeandBlackAmericanHistory #BrunswickMaineBlackHistory
Most Blacks were mixed with Native Americans in New England as they were both enslaved by the settlers. Peter Freeman was most likely mixed Native and Black. Our mother who was born in Portland, Maine was a descendant of the Freemans. She always told us we had Passamaquoddy Native American, Irish and Black ancestry. It is time for this history to come out, we are all more connected than we realize.
October 21, 2021
My Single Surrender Is Out!
This is my breakdown and get back up song I sing to myself to release fear, grief, doubt and anger. Now I sing it to you. I describe my sound as spiritual with a splash of funk. Check it out on SoundCloud:https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/JaeLBZn...
September 27, 2021
FLASHBACK 90s
Happy Birthday to my brilliant, hilarious brother Scot (1967-1996)
Clip from Alison & Scot's Wacky World, Star Search Parody, 1993
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/47fe9e_03e84ae8d79c4c27a5ee50ed93bdc897/720p/mp4/file.mp4May 16, 2021
ceremony
bare feet pulse
piercing concrete
to the core
of the earth
we stand in silence
Mario gone
Mario gone
Mario Gonzalez
shells rattle
he enters
through the dancer’s
soles
to the top of headdresses, the tallest feathers
up, up, past the
mini van parked in the
driveway
the house closed with
curtains of fear
past the polite execution
in a small minded town that
holds up BLM signs in Victorian windows-
but when George Floyd happens here in Alameda
a high pitched silence
you can’t get out of your ears
the dancers turn
touch the ground
the drum starts and stops
they embody
power
invoking it
from Mario’s struggling body
knee on back
gasping for breath
“We’re going to take care of you Buddy.”
pressed
if he were white
they would have taken him to
Burger King
he rises
and what is left
is a circle
of heart minded people
transformed
in humility
connected to humanity
receiving
the flowers
To support Mario González‘s family go tohttps://linktr.ee/justice4mariog
Copyright 2021 by Alison Hart
May 10, 2021
Everyone Belongs Here
Do you feel safe now
that a brown man was snuffed out in your driveway
face down
squashed like a bug?
He made your eyes sore
Obviously he doesn’t belong here
too close to my white picket fence
he could stumble over it
smash it
what then?
The dogs don’t like him either
barking
barking
my whiteness so translucent—
even though we have a double lock
video cam
and alarm system
I know he can see right through me—
Do something!
He can’t exist next to our purity, our property, our legacy
doesn’t include him!
Look, he’s talking to himself
I’m so scared looking out my window
I can’t change the channel
He’s so big and brown
Do something!
911! 911!
a brown man is too close to my home
he’s scaring my wife
her whiteness is threatened she could be
getting darker
Do something!
This is Alameda.
These types don’t exist here
can’t exist here
that’s why we moved here
where we can see
only ourselves-
that’s what we pay for
that’s why we’re here
It’s alright honey
all white
they took care of him-
look, no blood
we can back up our minivan
over the spot he was murdered
like it never happened
like nothing
ever
happened.
Copyright 2021 Alison Hart
,To support Mario Gonzalez’s family: ,, https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-4-mario-family?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer ,, ,,
Copyright 2021 Alison Hart
To support family of Mario Gonzalez who was murdered by Alameda Police on April 19, 2021 go to:
March 20, 2021
Our Love is Stronger
I sing to regain equilibrium, to reclaim myself, to take up space, to remind myself who I am. I know love is stronger than any hate. #stopasianhate #blm #bipocwomenmatter #poweruponlove #endwhitesupremacy
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/47fe9e_25634c5b8b964ed1a46b081aebbfc1db/720p/mp4/file.mp4February 24, 2021
To Like or Not to Like: Re-Parenting in the Social Media Abyss
This is the year to re-parent myself. All my energy sent out to raise my son, teach countless children, nurture partners, friends, pets, plants− I can’t let myself off the hook, expect someone else to do it. I am capable, I can turn this mothering inward. Or not. I can continue to be deluded by seduction of self-promotion, likes, followers: “Look at me, love me, see me− “
entangled in the hypnosis of social media.
These envy producing machines design algorithms to hook you to stay on for the next pop-up ad. We are the bodies of profit selling: our own images freely given on the digital auction block. I have a need to share what I create but engaging in the toxic machinery of narcissistic promotion that turns participants into info-mercials of themselves, makes me pause. When I was a child I watched commercials, now we have become them.
Oh and let’s not forget how it promotes misinformation, conspiracy theories and emboldens white supremacist terrorist groups that led to the recent attempted coup at our Capitol. That’s problematic too. How can I willingly participate in this and keep my soul intact?
When I started to dream in Instagram posts I knew I was in trouble, that AI had infiltrated my unconscious, trying to pry it open. I deleted apps then uploaded them again, filled my home with plants so I wouldn't forget what’s real. Took long walks and gazed at the bay, the birds, felt my feet on the ground, the warmth of my lips on the edge of my coffee cup...
We represent images flashing on the screen, but we are not the images, though we may think we are. That’s what my mother once said about film, “It’s just flickering lights.” I take a breath, I am enough. I exhale, I am enough. As I contemplate posting this piece, I promise I will try not to care too much whether you like it or not.
#reparenting #healtrauma #hotflashesblog
Alison Hart Copyright 2020
