WHAT? A guided tour through the Norman Rockwell Museum led by singer songwriter JoAnne Spies that wove poetry, song, story and dance around a central theme of forgiveness using Norman Rockwell's paintings as the focal point.
WHEN? Created over several months for the Berkshire Festival of Women Artists, the performance took place on March 16, 2012
WHERE? Galleries of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA.
I wanted to explore the theme of forgiveness in a performance called Karaoke Confession and wanted to use earth based instruments, audience participation and the talents of poets and dancers in the community, as well as perform my own songs.
I was creating something from scratch for the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers and was fortunate to have the Norman Rockwell Museum as the site for this performance. In the photo above I'm starting the performance by inviting everyone to shake the percussion instrument that I handed out to each person before the show ~ a locust pod that was gathered from the front yard of the Mission House in Stockbridge, MA.
I've been leading musical/historical walks from this Stockbridge Indian mission to the burial ground a few blocks away to learn about the history of the Stockbridge Indians, the First People in this town, as well as experience rhythm, silence and melody as we walk the land.
It seemed fitting to use the locust pods from the Mission House as the basis of the performance. The steady pulse of the pods sounds like water and represented for me the Sufi idea of forgiveness available to all as a steady stream.
When I read about Ruby Bridges, the six year old girl who bravely walked through angry crowds accompanied by guards in Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With," I learned that she prayed as she walked:
'Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
I started looking at Rockwell's paintings from a different angle, and saw that some could be about acceptance, some about pardon as in the case of Richard Nixon's portrait, and so on. I went to the museum each week and learned from Tom Daly's excellent gallery talks and different museum guides' unique tours about Rockwell and his work.
I came to appreciate the myriad stories embedded in Rockwell's paintings.
What if the whole audience walked through the galleries with me for my performance?
"The Waking" poem by Theodore Roethke came to mind: 'We learn by going where we have to go." This experiential way of learning is true for the facilitator of improvisation as well as humankind in its evolution. It certainly referred to the walk I planned through the Norman Rockwell galleries.
I became enthralled with the idea of leading my own tour through the galleries with poets posted by different paintings. I looked around for poets like a character in a picaresque novel, to see who would show up.
I ran into the writer Mindy Dow at the post office and asked her if she had any poems about forgiveness.
I asked poet Jan Hutchinson for forgiveness poems, and she offered to write a poem about the paintings of the boys fishing when I told her that they reminded me of acceptance.
African storyteller, Kasiya Phiri, I met by walking up to his friend at Wild Oats in Williamstown... I was made brave by this mission to find people to help with this performance.
I brought the theme into my work for Community Access to the Arts with elders in health care settings to learn their thoughts. My favorite quote was, 'To forgive, I laugh and I forget.'
I used one woman's line in my song by the painting 'The Gossips:' - 'I mind my own business.'
I was also influenced by being a presenter at the Peace Conference sponsored by Center for Peace through Culture in September 2011 at Hancock Shaker Village.
How do we create a culture of peace?
Looking at different aspects of forgiveness seems a good place to start.
Thank you to these talented performers:
Mari Andrejco
Gracie Berry
Mindy Dow
Ben Friedman
Jan Hutchinson
Cheryl Luft
Rodney Mashia
Kasiya Phiri
Eric Reinhardt
Natalie Shiras
Nathan Smith
People asked where the name Karaoke Confession came from. I've had this title for years and led a workshop by that name at Kripalu during International Day of Peace.
I've always wondered what it would be like if we could walk into a bar or storefront and have deep-meaning rituals taking place as easy as karaoke.
I figured I'd call my performance for Berkshire Festival of Women Writers 'Karaoke Confession' to get myself to write something more on the theme of forgiveness. Little did I know that the title would lead me a lot deeper than I planned and in the company of many co-creators, especially the audience.
The word karaoke means 'empty orchestra.' I like to think that when we improvise in the simplest way, our senses become our own empty orchestra, each sense 'sitting on the edge of its seat,' ready to play with beginner's mind and a sense of wonder. My goal as facilitator, or 'museum guide,' is to lead people with this sense of wonder and discovery.
Instead of a well-known music track, at the Norman Rockwell museum we used the commonality of museum silence, call and response and rhythm as our soundtrack. The iconic images themselves were our soundtrack also.
The audience shook locust pods in call and response and also in affirmation to anything they heard that they liked.
I found a different variety of locust pods at the Stockbridge Indian burial ground a few blocks from the Mission House, and made an instrument for myself. (pictured above)
The seeds were closer together and looked like hearts.
Karaoke Confession is the official, full-blown launch of the Elemental Orchestra.
The elements represented with instruments:
earth: gourd four-string kora, locust jimmyjangle, st.patrick/joseph jimmyjangle, guitar
water: rainstick, plucked strings of kora
air: accordion, flute
fire: sunflower instrument, loud accordion, guitar
The audience and instruments comprised the Elemental Orchestra.
'We learn by going where we have to go..'
Most of my performances the past ten years have been based on walking. RiverMASS was a procession through a church, and on the land in its other incarnations. I've been leading musical/historical walks in Stockbridge, MA called 'Sounding Mohican Pathways' the past four years. My everyday work has been as a troubador for Community Access to the Arts. I walk from room to room in health care facilities to sing with people and share their stories with others.
All these endeavors share a commonality: there is co-creation, healing and a building of community.
It was fascinating to walk through the NRM galleries again and again and find new meaning with different lenses as I prepared the piece.
It was powerful to hear each artist by each painting and realize how much we need each person's perspective.
It was joyful to have a large audience participating fully as a chorus and walking along together in discovery mode.
What images in our own mental 'galleries' do we revisit? Which stories are ready to be re-written with the help of forgiveness?
We learn by going where we have to go.
We learn by going what we need to know.
