BRATTLEBORO — Three nonprofits are collaborating to bring a unique Haitian artist to perform for the first time in Southern Vermont.
Next Stage Arts Project and Green Mountain Crossroads have joined forces with Sandglass Theater to kick off the 2013 “Voices of Community” series with the residency of poet and theater artist Lenelle Moïse.
Moïse will present her one-woman show “Womb-Words, Thirsting” on Nov. 2 and 3 at Sandglass Theater in Putney.
Moïse is a powerhouse of a performer, says Kirk Murphy, administrator for Sandglass.
A poet, playwright and solo performance artist, Moïse explores her Haitian-American and lesbian identity through what Moïse describes as “the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, memory and spirit.”
She characterizes “Womb-Words, Thirsting,” the solo show that she is bringing to Sandglass, as “an illuminating, empowering and hilarious evening of theatre about growing up immigrant, working-class, politicized and queer(ed).”
Moïse mixes up what she calls “a brew full of womanist Vodou jazz, queer theory, hip-hop, spoken word and song” in an interactive performance of patchwork poetic storytelling “delivered, slam-style, from the gut.”
While in residency at Next Stage, Moïse also conducted two workshops for the community. Her first, “Spoken Word, Self-naming and Resistance,” combined what Moïse describes as “live demonstrations, writing prompts, theater exercises, audio recordings, and group discussion to explore performance poetry as an activist art-form, building on the notion that 'the personal is political.'”
Her second workshop, “Radical Voice and Movement,” is “an interactive and highly physical performance workshop for actors, musicians, dancers, poets or anyone interested in radical self-expression, during which the voice and body are explored as political texts that compliment the written word.”
From Haiti to Cambridge, Mass.
Moïse says she was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, “but I grew up in Cambridge, Mass. I embraced feminism at age 14; I wrote my first play at age 17. I won my first poetry slam at age 19, the same year I started kissing women. Today, I'm a traveling poet and a current Huntington Playwriting Fellow.”
She says she writes verse and dialogue “under hand-painted paper stars. I use loop machines to meditate and to layer all-vocal melodies in live performance. I listen to a lot of be-bop and Stevie Nicks, and in a parallel universe, I am scatting. Do you know the collage painting Falling Star by Romare Bearden? It is the tea-drinking story of my life!”
Moïse can safely be called a Renaissance woman in the arts. The 2010-2012 Poet Laureate of Northampton, Mass., she has seen her politicized poems and essays featured in anthologies such as “Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution” and “We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists.”
She earned an MFA in playwriting from Smith College in 2004, is the author of many theatrical works, and her two-act play “Merit” won the 2011-2012 Ruby Prize.
At age 20, she co-wrote “Sexual Dependency” about Western media influence on the youth of the global south, Bolivian director Rodrigo Bellot's feature film debut which won the International Film Critics' Award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Moïse also wrote and starred in Mara Alper's short experimental video “To Erzulie,” and has completed her own experimental shorts: “Blue Passersby Eyes” and “Atlantic Soul.”
Moïse has released two CDs of her music, the latest, “The Expatriate Amplification Project” features playful, poly-rhythmic, all-vocal music about love, homeland, flight and freedom. She often incorporates original music into solo performances.
“My solo performances are staged collages,” says Moïse. “'Womb-Words, Thirsting' is an interactive coming of age tall tale. It's an act of collective remembrance. It's working-class rhythm and bi-cultural blues. It's spiritual, queer and carnal. When I perform this show, I feel the audience is meeting my most bold, inviting, alert and flexible self. I conjure stern parents, mean girls, first crushes, old souls, a closeted uncle, and my revolutionary ancestors.”
She says that “Womb-Words, Thirsting” reminds her “that talking about race, class, gender and sexuality can be a lot of fun. Collective laughter is a bridge to collective understanding, so I lace the painful truths with humor. I've shared this piece in major cities all over the U.S. I've done it in a chilly basement in Geneva, N.Y. I've done it in a fancy 862-seat theater in Arcata, Calif.”
Sandglass marks Vermont premiere
She says she's thrilled to perform “in the lovely and intimate Sandglass Theater. Plus this is the Vermont premiere. Please bring someone you'd like to hug. Or someone with a one-of-a-kind laugh.”
“Womb-Words, Thirsting” marks Sandglass Theater's ninth year of “Voices of Community: A Performance Series on Diversity.”
“The Voices of Community series began as a series that addressed issues of racial diversity in our predominantly white community,” says Murphy. “We have had shows exploring autobiographical experiences involving race, gender and sexuality. We also have had variously disabled people exploring their special concerns and adventures.”
Over the last several years, in combination with a partnership in the National Performance Network (NPN), Murphy said Sandglass “has been able to bring several nationally celebrated artists to our community for week-long residencies. These residencies which have greatly enriched our connections with the community.”
Murphy is particularly excited about teaming up with the Next Stage Arts Project and Green Mountain Crossroads. His partners share that sentiment.
“This collaboration with Sandglass and Green Mountain Crossroads in presenting Lenelle Moïse speaks to the essence of our mission at Next Stage,” says Maria Basescu, executive director of Next Stage Arts Project.
“Eric Bass [co-founder and artistic director of Sandglass] has a vision of making our area a Theater Row,” says Basescu. “With Next Stage, Apron Theater and Sandglass becoming more visible, we are showcasing how Putney is a happening place for theatrical arts.”
It was through Basescu's initial outreach that Moïse's residency was arranged.
“I contacted an inventive theatrical troupe called the Theater Offensive in Boston, which brings LGBTQ performers to its stages from all around the world,” says Basescu. “Its Executive Artistic Director Abe Rybeck suggested Lenelle. Getting support from the Samara Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, we were able to bring Lenelle to Vermont.”
At first, it was unclear where or even what Moïse would perform.
“Lenelle had her choice of venue,” says Basescu, “but when she stepped into the intimate space of Sandglass she knew it was perfect for her one-woman show.”
Although performances of the one-woman show take place at Sandglass Theater, her workshops were at Next Stage.
“Lenelle's one-woman show is exactly the sort of performance we want to see succeed in reaching as wide an audience as possible,” said Deborah Potter, executive director of Green Mountain Crossroads, an organization dedicated to the support of its the rural LGBTQ community in becoming stronger, healthier, and more visible in this area.
Performance and the arts are a strong aspect of GMC's community-building work.
“We want to promote the voices of our LGBTQ community members and make sure they are heard. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to have Lenelle perform locally,” Potter said.