Dread Scott performing “On the Impossibility of Freedom in a County Founded on Slavery and Genocide” under the Manhattan Bridge (photo by Hrag Vartanian for Hyperallergic)
So I know a guy. Where I live, everybody knows a guy, but this guy I went to high school with, and stayed in touch with off and on over the years– we’re both art school refugees, looking at “America” in very different ways.
The work he’s done over the years has been controversial. But it’s his latest stuff that I’m thinking about– yeah, I know, I missed it: he’s always scheduled for when I’m at Fort Moonrise Kingdom, or, you know, tearing my life apart and rebuilding it.
Dread Scott. Images of Oppression. After a whirling dervish of a weekend that culminated in some fancy early-morning driving in Boston, I’ve almost forgotten why I was thinking of Dread Scott and living history, but here’s the short version:
Why do we choose to reenact or enact the moments or events we do? We are, by default in our selections, limiting our characters because of the script we choose. In the main, we continue to choose to re-tell and enact the dominant stories that align with common myths about the founding and history of the United States. Until we choose to enact other stories about our collective past, we will continue to enact the same arguments that Our Girl History and I have made in the past. That’s too meta even for me.
As a friend asked a few weeks ago, “Why do we commemorate massacres and not Mondays?” Let’s commemorate some Mondays, shine a light on some moments, and reimagine what enacting history can mean.
Kitty Calash 
Yes, let’s reenact more Mondays!!
Better than some Wednesdays I’ve had! In any case, what would Monday be like in [pick your year] for [pick your person]? Your Monday right now is very different from mine even as it is similar. Not to be too pop culture about it, but Freaky Friday is a possible model. (The book! of course, the book!)
Ideas, in no particular order: The most enjoyable events I go to are ones with compelling narratives to them. What is the best way to build “Monday”s with strong story lines to them, do you think? Use diary entries? Newspaper articles? Is even that too based in what is considered noteworthy? Do we aspire to recreate the truly hum drum, or just stories that are told less often?
Well, I’m actually the organizer and proponent of more Pinter-esque events, I guess. Diary entries and newspaper accounts. All of the GW1790 event came from the Providence Gazette; a People of 1763 event would’ve been better if we’d hewed to the newspaper account.
But if you really want narrative, you have to write a script. and for that, you need a Big Idea. A Theme. It’s like developing an exhibit script: it is, in fact, exactly that.
Recreating the humdrum and the hoi polloi will likely be the same as recreating the less-told tales. Traditionally female crafts make me a little crazy, with all due respect too the awesome laundresses and spinner and soap makers out there. Where it gets interesting is in the context. Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money. Take that soap maker or candle maker and instead of talking about tallow and lye (process of making) talk about charging for the finished product vs the cost of the raw materials. Talk about the jerky guy across town who’s undercutting you on price. Talk about how if you could *only* make enough damn soap and sell it, you’d finally be able to …. live in a better place? Send your son to school so he didn’t have to spend his life all greasy, burned and hot? I dunno. But if we talk about dreams, aspirations, goals- the WHY instead of the HOW– we will have a better narrative and better history.
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