Notes From Project Meeting: Unlisted:Second Steel

I will be participating in Unlisted: Second Steel on September 28th.  My team's site is in The Hill District.  We will be asking:

: WHAT DOES “REVITALIZATION” MEAN?
: HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN AN AREA OR CITY HAS BEEN “REVITALIZED”?
: WHAT ROLE CAN THE ARTS AND CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS PLAY IN EXPLORING “REVITALIZATION“? 

THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS WE WILL INVESTIGATE USING PERFORMANCE THROUGH SECOND STEEL IN PITTSBURGH, PA.



Here are some notes from our first full production meeting.

/~/ Beginning /~/

there are stories in the dirt.  everything which has ever drawn 

breath whispers its echoing aches and ecstasy back to the dirt... 

the more I  break my fingernails. sift and dig, 

my eyelashes spell the words, 

"W h e r e  a r e  y o u?    

in crimson coals applied like kohl 

to the inside of my eyelids

W h y  c a n ' t  I  s e e  y o u?"

maybe nsibidi, adrinka, heiroglyphs,

the dirt only speaks the truth

to those who see the smell alkali with river silt scorched mouths. 

it has been speaking… in tongues that were once in the mouths of others.

open wide. I will pack your orifices with mud and rue laced salt. 

light golden

seal them shut. dry and harden, it will. the memory

keloid lovely. like me a hard imagined future memory

~ an amputated limb itching ~ now. remember. now. 

now. feel me. now. remember. I carried you.

dirt grows stories. What we know is that nothing stays

the same.  our ancestors tell our children their history

must be scraped from under their parent’s fingernails

lest they become infected by scratching off the present.