#genderassignment

Gender Assignment Guest Blogger, Felicia Holman

Dedicated to the memories of Betty Holman & Prince Rogers Nelson (and to the future of Kendyl Holman)

“Sex isn’t all I think about, it’s all I think about U.”--’Shhh (Break It Down)’, Prince Rogers Nelson

An Origin Story

First, big thanks to Melissa Potter for inviting me to be a guest blogger for Gender Assignment. I am writing this essay (my first of four) on April 21, 2018---the second anniversary of the sudden death of my artistic and sexual muse, Prince Rogers Nelson. Today, I’m simultaneously elated and bereft; elated to be writing, bereft of both my Purple dearly beloved and the person who got me into him in the first place: My mother, Betty.

My mother, Betty / She was seeing me off on my first international flight...to Jamaica. This was '96 so she was actually with me at the boarding gate, even though I was traveling solo!

This month also marks the 10th anniversary of my mother's memorial service. As a single Black mother raising and homeschooling 2 kids on Chicago's Southside in the 1980’s, Mom was pretty unconventional. She was a working-class artist/ public intellectual/ entrepreneur/ urban gardener/ Columbia College film student/ championship-winning boys’ Little League coach/ etc... I’ll never forget how she championed my auditioning for the male lead in my 8th grade play because the female lead was too wispy (though I was ultimately cast as the female lead). Though strictly heteronormative in her own gender and sexual expression, Mom was sex-positive. She was my primary sex ed teacher and feminine wiles coach. *For Christmas during my freshman year in high school, Mom bought me my first lacy lingerie set; explaining “this is the type of underwear a young lady buys.”* Mom was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and as a result, devoutly nurtured her only daughter's sexual agency and empowerment. One of her no-nonsense metaphor resonates to this day: “You don't need anyone else to scratch your own itch!” *Which I knew to be true, ever since I’d learned how to covertly rub one out on the edge of my chair in Kindergarten.*

Erotic City, Come Alive

In a two-fold effort to break me out of my bubble gum “Michael Jackson phase” & put me on to something more subversive and avant-garde, Mom formally introduced me to Prince when she brought home the 12” 1999 double album and explained to me that Prince played all the instruments. However, it was actually the combination of seeing the Little Red Corvette video and then learning that he and I share the same birthday that cemented him as #foreverinmylife...Whereas Prince was contraband in the homes of most of my Gen X peers, those of us with “cool" parents /guardians were exposed to the crucially impactful carnal knowledge of His Purple Majesty during our tweens. *I’ve often described Prince’s cultural impact & influence as a result of his artistry grabbing us by the root and crown chakras (as his lyrics on ‘Sexuality’ clearly illustrate)!* “Little Girl Heat" (LGH) is a term I coined a few years ago during a generative rehearsal with Honey Pot Performance. I find LGH succinctly / viscerally encapsulates the phenomenon of tingling sensations and rise in core temperature I’d feel while listening to Automatic, Let’s Pretend We’re Married, Lady Cab Driver, etc. To this day, I still experience LGH when I’m overcome with desire...trust & BELIEVE!

Here & Now

As a grown-ass-woman-for-real, I am both looking back and ahead at my sexcapades. Sex has always been a ‘Quality (v. Quantity) of Life’ issue for me, but even more so for me in recent years...more on that in future posts. The candid memoirs of living legends Diahann Carroll, Grace Jones and Jenifer Lewis line my shelves as both salve and motivation. *Can’t WAIT for fellow Gen X-er Tracee Ellis Ross to grace us with hers!* Though I’m not a mom, I am a doting auntie who is determined to give my 8 y.o. niece (Kendyl) the gifts of real talk and agency that her paternal grandmother gave to me. Conversations with my niece have recently begun to include her questions about puberty as well as my ‘leading’ questions to find out what she does/doesn't already know. I find that sex ed resources tailor-made for little Black girls are still few and far between in this post-Obama 21st century, so my anecdotes and advice will be some of her primary resources. She knows that Prince is my favorite musician/entertainer/artist and that I wear a tribute button everyday since he passed. But I haven't formally introduced her to Prince music yet. I think his 2006 Golden Globe award-winning Song of the Heart (from the animated film ‘Happy Feet’) will be our entry point...it’s still years before her time.

*Bonus: If you haven't already, check out the just-released tribute video for Prince's original recording of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’...#lghonfleek

Canada Without Shadows: I am a Romani Woman - Kanada Bizo Uchalipe: Me Sem Romni is a small 24-page book featuring the testimonies and artwork of five Hungarian Romani women.

The very brilliant Suzana Milevska shares her second installment of Beyond The Roma Caravan with Gender Assignment! She writes at the intersection of feminist and Roma issues, which are so under-represented and yet have so much to bring to a conversation on the inherent nomadicism in geopolitical and climate crisis. “In the wake of the new global political conundrums...this project reveals how the ongoing policy of displacement and deportation of Roma refugees and immigrants is easily “smuggled” under the label of nomadic history and culture of Roma.”

I first met Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Hedina Sijerčić in Skopje, back in May 2010. The context of my first encounter with the artists was the first curatorial meeting with the short-listed artists for the Roma Pavilion 2011 which took place after the first round of the selection of applications (collected through an international call that was issued in February 2010). It’s been more than eight years since then, and in meanwhile we’ve met just a couple of times. However our first meeting was highly inspiring for me: it profoundly informed and affected my theoretical research and curatorial practice. Recently I was reminded to their artistic collaboration and was motivated to include their project in this series of posts because of the pertinent refugee crisis in Europe that also heavily affected the condition of Roma refugees in Canada – their project in my view was in a way anticipatory and still highly resonates with the current political situation of Roma across the world.

During our first meeting Lynn and Hedina presented themselves as two Romani woman artists comprising the artist collective chirikli. At that time they were working on their joint project Canada Without Shadows / Kanada Bizo Uchalipe. The project was not yet completed, but was definitely a proposal that attracted the attention of the international jury and was one of the projects that was selected unanimously during the first round. Canada without Shadows was however not a project that one could easily anticipate and grasp in its entirety and complexity without knowing much about its authors’ cultural and ethnic background.

Whilst Lynn was a descendent of Romanichal Lee travellers from Great Britain and was living and working in Toronto, Canada, Hedina was from Bosnia and Herzegovina, at that time living and working in Germany. Lynn is mainly a visual artist, and Hedina was first better known (at least until then) as a writer, journalist and educator. It was therefore not easy to understand how the two artists met and decided to form the collective and how they managed and would manage to continue the collaboration on joint projects despite the distance - most of the time they were based in different continents. Meeting the artists in person and discussing directly with them their artistic interests and collaborative research methods helped the confirmation of the decision to commission, produce and present their collaborative project at, then, forthcoming Venice Biennale in 2011.

The general meeting in Skopje focused on the ongoing issues of Roma  in Europe. Particularly relevant were the debates about the goals and results of the Decade of Roma inclusion (2005-2015) and how the differences and contradictions between different Roma groups across the world – their different languages, cultures, customs, religious beliefs and political aspirations reflect (and should reflect) in arts. We talked about the restrictive laws (both in Europe and Canada) regarding the free movement of Roma, about the difficult conditions of the deported and expulsed Roma as a result of these restrictive laws, and about specificity of Romani internal courts and laws. We talked about the difference between the cultural background and political situation of Romani Travellers and Balkan Roma.

We also talked about Ronald Lee, one of the most renowned and influential Romani Canadian writer, linguist and activist based in Toronto, who was granted an honorary degree in 2014 by Queens University. We talked about his significant contribution towards the development of a critical political discourse regarding Roma (e.g. his participation in the 1971 First Romani World Congress in Orpington and the historical and political decision to use “Roma” as an umbrella term used to encompass different Romani communities), about his participation in the Kris Romani (Romani internal judicial assembly), or about his theoretical contribution to the reader Gypsy Law, the book that inspired Call the Witness project.

What became clear is the need for solidarity of Roma and with Roma vs. the clash within Roma communities regarding the differences in understanding ongoing political, identitarian and gender issues. The tensions between the traditional and conservative values to which most of the Romani communities currently still subscribe and the effect of such politics on women was already then one of the most relevant issues discussed during the internal three-day meeting with the present artists and activists.

Aside from the socio-political context of Roma the project proposals that used different media, genres and artistic strategies while reflecting on such urgent topics was addressed as one of the major departures for the panel discussions. Lynn and Hedina were some of the most active participants in the general discussion who contributed a lot to the gradual shaping of the overall project’s concept with the carefully articulated questions and arguments (although the project was already titled and had a general theoretical concept it still depended on different artistic practices for its completion).

Hungary, in Practice, Lynn Hutchinson Lee, paper, konnyaku paste, rice paste, block print

We were also discussing (particularly during the slots with the individual artists and teams) how to present the content of their own complex research and oral history project in a form of art installation, and how to contextualize their collective’s project in the general frame of the curatorial concept of Call the Witness. After the long discussion about how to combine the content and form, the artistic research with the poetic and the political aspects of the work, Canada Without Shadows was gradually developed into a 4-channel sound-art installation Canada Without Shadows).

Most importantly their project had nothing to do with the usual stereotypes of Roma as nomadic people moving around in caravans and settling only temporarily in various cities’ outskirts. Their professional collaboration and friendship took place on the backdrop of the war in ex-Yugoslavia and was motivated and informed by the displacements, deportations, and exile of Roma (both in Europe and Canada) in the 1990s and 2000s. More precisely both Lynn and Hedina were invested in researching the contradictions stemming from the continuous pursuit of collective identity of Roma groups that are paralleled with the quest of new subjectivity and individual positions of Romani women within their conservative communities and families. Thus the form of urban and natural soundscapes used in Canada Without Shadows consisting of overlaying poetry verses, written and spoken by the artists, and spoken testimonies of five displaced Hungarian Roma women who fled Europe to seek refuge in Canada, turned to be the most appropriate for the artists’ aims. A result of this was 'The Witness Project', a small book of testimonies of five Hungarian Romani women in Canada.  

According to the artists the title of the project was linked with the assumption of the Roma refugees that Canada had no “shadows,” and thus it had attracted many Roma families to settle there (as did Lynn’s father long ago). However it soon became clear that the new legal hurdles prevented and still prevent many Roma from receiving the desired refugee status. In the wake of the new global political conundrums I feel that the Roma issues today resonate with the anticipatory results of this artistic research project and felt compelled to revisit it in this context exactly because this project reveals how the ongoing policy of displacement and deportation of Roma refugees and immigrants is easily “smuggled” under the label of nomadic history and culture of Roma. Canada Without Shadows went far beyond the stereotype of caravan.

NOTES

Lynn Hutchinson Lee (artist, Canada) (born 1946) and Hedina Tahirović Sijerčić (born 1960) together formed the chirikli collective (http://chiriklicollective.com/about-the-artists/). Hutchinson Lee is a painter, muralist, and multimedia artist based in Toronto. As a member of the artist collective Red Tree she has worked on various interdisciplinary, socially engaged, and cross-cultural projects: Scouring City, Brushing Sky (2009 – 2010), Shukar Lulugi (Beautiful Flower, 2007), and Loki Gili (Song of Sorrow, Song of Hope, 2006). She is also a member of Roma Community Centre. Hedina Tahirović Sijerčić is a writer, journalist, and educator. She previously worked as a journalist and producer for radio and TV in Sarajevo. Recent publications include: English-Romani/Romani-English dictionary, 2011 (forward Roland Lee); Romani-Bosnian/Bosnian-Romani dictionary (published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2010); and Listen, feel pain/Ašun, haćar dukh (2007), a collection of poems.

Sigal Samuel, “There Is a Perception That Canada Is Being Invaded”, The Atlantic, 26.05. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/theres-a-perception-that-canada-is-being-invaded/561032/

Lynn Hutchinson Lee (artist, Canada) & Hedina Tahirović Sijerčić (artist, Bosnia and Herzegovina / Germany), Canada Without Shadows / Kanada Bizo Uchalipe, 2010–2011, 4-part sound installation, total running time 25:07 min., presented at Call the Witness-Roma Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2011.

According to Lynn’s account of the beginning of their collaboration they first met in 1999 in Toronto, Canada. “Hedina had arrived here some months before we met, and had contacted Roma Community Centre. I was already on the board of directors of RCC. Hedina began to work on two projects right away: she was editor of our newsletter Romano Lil, the first Romani newsletter in Canada, and also edited Romane Mirikle (Romani Pearls, 1999), an anthology of poetry by Roma in Canada. I did the cover illustration for the book. She later used an image of mine for her subsequent anthology, Saro Paj/Like Water, 2009.” Quoted from a recent correspondence with Lynn Hutchinson Lee, 02 August, 2018.

Roland Lee, “The Rom-Vlach Gypsies and the Kris-Romani”, in Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture, Berkeley, Walter O. Weyrauch, Ed. CA: University of California Press; 2001, pp. 188-230. 

“The project eventually presented the results of the complex research in which the artists archived and juxtaposed various found and created sounds. The “whispering” voices convey the poetic transpositions of the promised imaginary land, Canada, starting from different subjective experiences of memories, cultural and ethnic displacement, precariousness, family joys and laments, and testimonies of shame. The sounds of the turning wheels of Lee’s family vardo (caravan) are intertwined with Sijerčić’s “dreams” of Romani children’s laughter, footsteps corresponding to elements in her poetry, and the sounds of bombs in the Bosnian Roma ghetto.” Suzana Milevska, Call the Witness (brochure), BAK: Utrecht, 2011.  

Roma Pregnancy Rap, by Mihaela Drăgan

I had several different ideas for the content and format of my first feminist “assignment” after Melissa Potter’s kind invitation to contribute to her feminist blog-project Gender Assignment. I’ve never met Melissa in person and although we communicated for several years already it wasn’t easy to decide how to contribute and meet her high expectations. While I was still contemplating which direction to take I attended Mihaela Drăgan’s presentation at District in Berlin and my dilemma has been resolved in a very spontaneous way. And not only did this encounter helped my decision about the first post, it also motivated me to conceptualise my “gender assignments.” 

Beyond the Roma Caravan is going to be a series of portraits of Roma women and a discussion about the potential impact of their work on contemporary Roma communities and European societal and political attitudes towards Romany women in Europe. In my four posts I’ll focus on Roma women who continuously contribute towards dismantling the patriarchy and the conservative gender relations, both inside and outside of Roma communities. Moreover in conditions of risen anti-Roma racism in Eastern and Western Europe I find extremely important to focus on positive examples of feminist agency. In my view these women’s work is ground-breaking in different fields: visual arts, social theatre, performance, video, film, curating, and most importantly their artistic practice goes far beyond the stereotypical folkloric representation of Roma communities as only nomadic, conservative, and uneducated.                                                                                                           

Beyond the Roma Caravan: Meet Mihaela Drăgan

The first post is not an interview, nor is an essay. It’s also not a formal review of an art event. I just want to share my first impressions after an exciting encounter. Hence here I enclose my written portrait of Mihaela Drăgan, an actress and playwright of Roma descent living and working in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. 1

I decided to write about my first encounter with Mihaela Drăgan and to dedicate my first post to her work as a kind of recommendation to others who might not know much about Giuvlipen - the first Roma feminist theatre company formed by professional actresses of Roma origins in Bucharest. Moreover not only did this meeting helped me to decide what to address in my first blog, but also it incited me for the future three contributions to think in a similar direction: to share this space with several strong Roma women (artists, activists, curators actresses) from my region that I had opportunity to meet during the last ten years. 

In the short announcement about Mihaela Drăgan’ talk in Berlin it was announced that “she will cover the discourse around Roma art practice, which has developed parallel to the escalation of anti-Gypsyism and increasing stereotypification of Roma women.” She did much more. 

She talked about the spontaneous formation of the unique feminist theatre collective Giuvlipen in Bucharest in 2014. 

She talked about the meaning of the name Giuvlipen (Romani: feminism) and the difficulty of translating the term in Romanese. 2

She talked about the organisational and working strategies in the theatre as collaborative and about theatre’s structure as “sisterhood”.

She talked about not having a proper space for rehearsing and performing, so it was made clear the theatre is not nomadic by choice (they perform in different theatres, open public spaces, and galleries).

She talked about their play Gadjo-Dildo (Not-Roma Dildo), about how humour helps them to address the most contentious topics as racism, sexism, body, sexuality, conservativism within Roma community towards LGBT.

She talked about patriarchy and self-empowerment, again with lot of humour and wit…

She talked about the limited budget, often amounting to “0” - particularly at the beginning...

She talked about the participatory performances that took place in public spaces or in galleries. Yet she made a distinction between theatre performances and art performance not claiming the later...

She talked about the unexpected local and international success (recently she’s been nominated for The Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award, granted by New York’s Women’s Professional Theater League.)

She talked about the surprise of the audience that the Romani actresses were professionally educated and trained… 

She talked about the issues with language because not all actresses working in the theatre, although Roma by descent, know Romani language, but they always try to insert some sentences or words as political statements.

She talked about the paradoxes in the conditions of Roma in Romania during the previous, socialist times and now: how some rights were lost and anti-Roma racism escalated, although Roma in Romania had been officially recognised as ethnic minority only after Ceausescu. 

She talked about the failed (fortunately) political initiative of the Romanian Government to bring back the term Tigani, Romanian citizens and to avoid the homonymy between “Roma” and “Romanian” 3 

She talked about Giuvlipen’s interest in addressing many taboos and stereotypes regarding Roma untimely marriages (Del Duma), as well as about more recent neoliberal phenomenon of forced eviction (La Harneală). She stressed on her documentary, research, and biopic approach towards playwriting although the final plays’ versions are fictionalised. 

She talked, although very shortly, with me. After her invigorating presentation and the long Q&A session I wanted to talk more, but we were all very tired. I just managed to tell her that I wish I knew more about her and the theatre Giuvlipen before, while I curated several exhibitions focusing on Roma issues or when I’ve written the text “Women Bear Witness”.  I am often criticised for over-theorising so I’ll just stop here hoping that theory will come anyway, as a critical friend and companion who inevitably joins us when so much has been done in feminist practice of Roma women that yet needs to be reflected.  

NOTES

1. I am not a theatre expert, but I followed Mihaela’s confident presentation in the context of the event “Producing Roma Feminist Art” with a great interest because of my long-term involvement in researching Romani artists and my curatorial projects dedicated to their art practice.  

2. In their own words: “Our performances are made by, about and for Roma women, with the goal of contributing to the empowerment of Roma women in their living communities. Our group creates theatre performances based on life stories of Roma women, about their difficulties living between a traditional patriarchal community and a demanded integration into the dominant (often racist) Romanian community.” Giuvlipen Theatre Company, Romania, East European Performing Platform

3. The strengthening of racist right-wing politics across Europe was particularly revealed and even fortified the anti-Romaism and racism in the case of the official Romanian Government’s initiative from 2010 for reversing the established name Roma to Tigan. Fortunately the Parliament didn’t accept the proposal. See: Rupert Wolfe Murray, “Romania's Government Moves to Rename the Roma”, Time, Bucharest Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2010 Last Accessed 10.04.2018

4. Milevska, Suzana. ‘Women Bear Witness’, n-paradoxa, Vol. 28, 2011: 58-64.

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