August Update! (Patreon)

Hello, fellow strange & wonderful creatures!
It's been a busy few weeks since we last spoke – and I'm so excited to write all these details out to you that I'm tripping over the keys, somewhat. You all get to know first what the freshly decided topic for Issue #2 of WRITING THE CIRCUS is going to be, where I'm going to be at the end of the month, & other fun things in the following.  Here's what's been going on!

• Writing the Circus Issue #1 – I re-printed about 75 copies and already 20+ or so have made their way out my door, into a shiny red Canada Post mailbox, and out to many different corners of the world. So far, the work you've supported is also being enjoyed by readership in Finland, Australia, Costa Rica, Brazil, England, and more. CIRCUS NERDERY WORLDWIDE! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
  
  
• THIS IS TOP SECRET STILL, SO I TRUST YOU TO KEEP MY TOP SECRET, SECRET: I have officially signed a contract to perform VACUUM on Das Supertalent in Bremen, Germany on August 31st. Supertalent is something akin to 'Germany's Got Talent'. I've been creating an adapted shortened version of the act (they have a 3 minute max), & hired the original composer (Greg Harrison) to shorten his excellent composition. They've sent letters to prove I'm being hired, I've been testing negative on COVID tests, and I'm generally holding my breath to see if myself and the technician/vacuum operator, Tiffany, (a) get onto a plane, period, at Pearson Airport, and (b) are allowed OUT of the airport in Germany. I have some friends who have been contracted to work abroad on film things and they had no issues – but a not-small part of me sort of can't believe that I'm actually going to ... get on a plane and go do a short contract in Germany in COVID-times ...? STAY TUNED.
  
  
• I've known from the top that Writing the Circus needs to be an intersectional project. The last issue took a close look at a particular corner of Disability studies and ableism as it shows up in the world of circus (in ways that we don't really read as related to disability, and our feelings towards it). But I want Issue 2 to be focused on issues of racism within the circus community. I also felt strongly at the start of Issue 1 that I want this project to give back to the community in different ways, but I was waiting for my muse to show up. It finally did, at about 7:32pm, following a day of weird and varied stress in which an arrow of swift clarity whistled through my brain fog and struck a bullseye in my brain.
  
  Since this is me, I'm not going to just write an essay on racism in the circus industry. While the content of the zine is going to continue to evolve, I can say for sure that there will be 2 main writing pieces again in the October issue: the first is going to be an essay on the myth of the 'world family' in circus; and the second is going to be a focused look at how contortion works as visual metaphor / builds narratives of race and racism in the work of Marco Motta (if you haven't seen Marco's, do yourself a favour and take 5 minutes out of your day to watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlSOhUzWWU
  
  I've been in touch with Marco and have scheduled an interview with him for early September, along with enlisting the help of a local dancer here to assist with Spanish translation for the interview to make sure no meaning gets lost along the way. You can also watch an interview he did with awesome Montreal aerialist Noeli Acoba here, on the issue of racism within the industry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA37VBalU60
  
  I'm hiring a translator to take the English essays/writing and translate them into Spanish: Issue 2 will be a double-sided issue, with the work in both English and Spanish; and – 
  
  Finally, any profits from zine issues sold after you, dear patrons, receive yours, are going to be donated to a charity of Marco's choice. He's been a strong and vocal advocate for several non-profits that work to help migrants and humans declared "illegal" in Spain, against which many varied human rights violations and atrocities are being committed.
  
  Phew. There. I think that's it.  
  
  GOT QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? HOPES? DREAMS?
  I want to hear them.
  
  I'm going to be inundating you folks with rehearsal updates in the lead-up to this Germany contract again, and/or as things move along with Writing the Circus Issue #2.
  
  In the meantime, stay strange & wonderful, and/or drop me a lil' heart below (you might have to click through from your email inbox) – it lets me know I reached ya ;)
  
  XO
  
  ess