Babli's Creative Response #2

Dear all,
sadly I am unable to tape and upload video as we are still setting up here, but here is my writing remix.

Forgetting the border

We are settlers

On land that is not ours

I sit, ass on concrete, wind chilling skin through clothes, the steady zoom and surge of cars at my back.

Forgetting the border

We are settlers

On land that is not ours

"It's not a pretty beach" I usually warn visitors, so their expectations are not too high. This is no place for bougie hipsters to drink overpriced coffee in the sun. 

Forgetting the border

We are settlers

On land that is not ours

I can't imagine the possibility that I might see boats, rafts, people coming in out of the horizon.

Forgetting the border

We are settlers

On land that is not ours

I exhale

As I stand here. As we do this. People are risking their lives to save their lives. Right now. Always. Pelican. Flies. Across. Sky.

Yet this government says no to refugees

No to the boats in the far north

No to the children

No to the parents

No to all who are not white

Many of us came in thinking we could live here

Just like them

We realised soon we cannot

But we pretend

Forgetting the border

We are settlers

On land that is not ours

Meena's Creative Response #2 - Borders Resurfacing

Sorry I've been sick and not feeling creative! I didn't "remix" the written material, just chose excerpts from each of your writing that stood out to me.


The sharks were sighted here just a day ago
But now we have the all clear
The bacteria was polluting the water five days ago
But now we have the go ahead
Human waste mixed with the ocean waters seven days ago  not safe
But now we can swim (PS)

Our 1900 miles of pipeline built on Tongva land (quoting a FB post from Jools) is a tiny reflection of the DAPL:  So much can be hidden under water until the inevitable moment of structural fail as human's imperfect creations backfire into spluttering bubbles of wing destroying sludge...It was there, at the edge of my adopted city, that a Pakistani-American I once knew, lost his import export business because his incoming crates were marked suspicious after 9-11, never again to be released. (SM)

It is hard to imagine those lost bodies, those child bodies, George Ow and Young Lee fishing steelhead trout, catching little frogs and river creatures: the way play looked before capitalism took over.  Wooden houses perched rickety on stakes above the water, so precarious, so precious, so easily swept away.  In the memory of my imagination, it is always summer, not this damp chill to the bone, concrete seeping cold into my ass, this winter of unremembering. (CLL)

Refugee life. Migrant life. Brown skin. Black life. The reasons why people make these journeys. Not to colonize or dominate. But for personal reasons. To save their life. To change their life. Roaring. Constant. Ebbing. Rushing. Crashing. Flowing. (MM)

That blissful forgetting changed when the Saalach became a site of hope and despair, when the border was closed, as thousands of people fleeing from Syria wanted to pass. (SC)

Gesture remix

https://vimeo.com/200594402

PW: waterborders2

Borders Resurfacing: Shyamala's creative response 2 remix

Poem re-mix

Stumbling onto this edge between sand and water.

Roaring. Constant. Ebbing.

So much can be hidden under water

no bridges

No one gets to cross over

Stumbling onto this edge between

beauty, and and and peace.

I exhale

yellow heart shaped leaves decomposing in the mud

Stumbling between

Patrolling the water from the air
For sharks...waste... people....

Stumbling

People are risking their lives to save their lives.

Right now. 



Untitled from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

password: resurface

Borders Resurfacing: Cynthia's Creative Response 2

Here is my writing remix and my movement remix!  For fun, I tried adding parts of Priya's poem as a soundtrack for the movement phrase after already choreographing and filming the phrase.  The first video is in silence, and the second one includes excerpts from Priya's writing.

borders resurfacing

stumbling at the edge of my adopted city

I don't have answers

it's all rigs and cranes and metal

frames that clog the horizon

his incoming crates were marked suspicious

after 9/11 never again to be released

hidden underwater 1900 miles

of pipeline built on Tongva land

lost bodies, child bodies

catching little frogs and river creatures

sludge oil backfire spluttering bubbles

my body alert unsure

people with their belongings strapped

to bicycles in trash bags

it is not beautiful here  

wooden houses perched rickety

so precarious so precious so

easily swept away

never again to be released

this winter of unremembering

in my imagination’s memory it is always summer

and and and peace

I exhale 

between sand and water

between Germany and Austria

I exhale oasis

the Salzach meets another river: the Saalach

pelican flies across sky

forgetting the border

the border resurfaces

a site of hope and despair

refugee life migrant life

thousands fleeing Syria

brown skin black life

roaring constant people risking their lives
ebbing rushing to save their lives

password: remix4

Borders Resurfacing remix from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.

password: remix4_priya

remix_priya from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.

Priya

Trudging up the paved road after finding a car park
Takes forever to get a parking spot
Kids are hot and irritated
Finally the cool sand beneath my toes
The sun is about to set and we have not missed it

The sharks were sighted here just a day ago
But now we have the all clear
The bacteria was polluting the water five days ago
But now we have the go ahead
Human waste mixed with the ocean waters seven days ago  not safe
But now we can swim

We feel safe knowing very few can cross
from Antarctica or Tasmania to flee here
This land with the red Center
The dry bush
The sacred fire
Of the original custodians who have everything taken from them
We are settlers
On land that is not ours
No treaty

Yet this government says no to refugees
No to the boats in the far north
No to the children
No to the parents
No to all who are not white
1973 is when they said yes
Many of us came in thinking we could live here
Just like them
We realised soon we cannot
But we pretend

2016 they say no
Now they say no to anyone on a boat
Unless they are white
Temporary bridging visas
Making them wait endlessly
On islands small islands with jails
There are no bridges
The visas never arrive
No one gets to cross over

While we have a big island
and so much space
The custodians say yes
Let them in
It is our way
They say no
Stopping the borders
Patrolling the water from the air
For sharks...waste... people....

Mimi Thi Nguyen's _The Gift of Freedom_

I came across this scholarly work on refugees and the gift of freedom by Mimi Thi Nguyen and thought it would be useful to our thinking about Borders Resurfacing.  There's a 30 minute podcast of Nguyen talking about the book's ideas here: 
http://thecriticallede.com/0116-the-gift-of-freedom/

The description of the book on the publisher website (https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-gift-of-freedom) reads as follows:
"In The Gift of Freedom, Mimi Thi Nguyen develops a new understanding of contemporary United States empire and its self-interested claims to provide for others the advantage of human freedom. Bringing together critiques of liberalism with postcolonial approaches to the modern cartography of progress, Nguyen proposes "the gift of freedom" as the name for those forces that avow to reverence aliveness and beauty, and to govern an enlightened humanity, while producing new subjects and actions—such as a grateful refugee, or enduring war—in an age of liberal empire. From the Cold War to the global war on terror, the United States simultaneously promises the gift of freedom through war and violence and administers the debt that follows. Focusing here on the figure of the Vietnamese refugee as the twice-over target of the gift of freedom—first through war, second through refuge—Nguyen suggests that the imposition of debt precludes the subjects of freedom from escaping those colonial histories that deemed them "unfree." To receive the gift of freedom then is to be indebted to empire, perhaps without end."

Borders Resurfacing - Creative Assignment #2

Create a movement phrase remix and a written remix integrating parts of each of our gestures and words from our creative responses #1.

We can add words/phrases/images/metaphors from our meeting minutes.

Post on blog by January 16th 2017.

Borders Resurfacing: Shy's creative response 1

3 movements: all passwords are "gesture"

Gesture 1 not a pretty beach from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Gesture 2 marked suspicious from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Gesture 3 backfire... from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

photos:  Long Beach, Dec 2016

Excerpt of my free write (I bolded the phrases I used for movement inspirations):

"It's not a pretty beach" I usually warn visitors, so their expectations are not too high.    My visitors first notice the well manicured island with palm trees and a few tall narrow structures that look like small condos.  Wealthy get away?  Theme park?  No, it's an oil island.  Long Beach is built on oil?  Guilt on oil?  Where does it go? We still buy imported gas!  Our 1900 miles of pipeline built on Tongva land (quoting a FB post from Jools) is a tiny reflection of the DAPL:  So much can be hidden under water until the inevitable moment of structural fail as human's imperfect creations backfire into spluttering bubbles of wing destroying sludge.  (I don't usually say that to my guests!)  When they look past the island, to the right, in the distance, it's all rigs and cranes and metal frames that clog the horizon.  That's the Port of LA.  It was there, at the edge of my adopted city, that a Pakistani-American I once knew, lost his import export business because his incoming crates were marked suspicious after 9-11, never again to be released.  Could they still be sitting there is some forgotten lot?

Resurfacing Borders Creative Response #1

https://vimeo.com/196229121

Freewrite:

I wonder I can't imagine the possibility that I might see boats, rafts, people coming in out of the horizon. Stumbling onto this edge between sand and water. What happens. Why does someone make that treacherous journey. Why does someone risk their life. I don't have answers. Except to those people who don't value human life. Refugee life. Migrant life. Brown skin. Black life. The reasons why people make these journeys. Not to colonize or dominate. But for personal reasons. To save their life. To change their life. Roaring. Constant. Ebbing. Rushing. Crashing. Flowing. Can I see people making their way from the horizon to where I stand. But it's happening. As I stand here. As we do this. People are risking their lives to save their lives. Right now. Always. Pelican. Flies. Across. Sky.

https://vimeo.com/196226837

PW: waterborders1

Borders Resurfacing: Cyn Creative Assignment 1

The following material is of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, CA, once the site of Chinatown (or nearby and essential to the life of Chinatown residents).

1) Video and Pics

San Lorenzo River from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.
password "chinatown"

2) Freewrite: Dec 16, 2016
I sit, ass on concrete, wind chilling skin through clothes, the steady zoom and surge of cars at my back.  The riverwalk.  A man walks by pulling a bag on wheels, another with arms tucked into his T-shirt to shield against the cold, a bicyclist in high tech gear whooshes by smoothly.  The river is brown and overgrown with scrub brush and fallen trees, the water fast-moving from yesterday’s rains.  It is not beautiful here.  This is no place for bougie hipsters to drink overpriced coffee in the sun.  My body alert, unsure whether it is “safe” here where I am perched next to a trashcan chained to a metal pole, yellow heart shaped leaves decomposing in the mud, people with their belongings strapped to bicycles in trash bags.  It is hard to imagine those lost bodies, those child bodies, George Ow and Young Lee fishing steelhead trout, catching little frogs and river creatures: the way play looked before capitalism took over.  Wooden houses perched rickety on stakes above the water, so precarious, so precious, so easily swept away.  In the memory of my imagination, it is always summer, not this damp chill to the bone, concrete seeping cold into my ass, this winter of unremembering.

3) Movements

Borders Resurfacing Santa Cruz from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.
password "river"

Resurfacing Borders Assignment 1: Babli's Response

Here is a video of the Salzach river near my house in Salzburg, filmed a few days ago, as well as photos from meeting point of the rivers Saalach and Salzach a few kilometers ahead, which I have taken previously.

The Saalach in that area is the border between Austria and Germany, the Salzach in parts as well. 

I am also added a link to pictures from the news in summer 2015 of the Saalach River and the border.

My video with gestures below is super simple. I am sitting, because sick.

Video: Password: Salzach

Salzach from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

Photos by Sandra: Saalach Spitz, where the two rivers meet:

Saalach, border river, when the border had not re-surfaced yet.

 

 

 

reconstructed freewrite:

Salzach- a body of water - so close to my  house, source of calm, source of beauty, and and and peace. I exhale when I cross the bridge from the station to get to my house a sign of having arrived. Most places I go in this town I get to walk or bike along the river, cherishing the beauty even as I transition from one office to another filing taxes.

About 15 minutes by bike up the river the Salzach meets another river: the Saalach. Saalach Spitz where the two rivers meet- a beautiful oasis. Forgetting  the border it signifies politically/geographically- between Germany and Austria..

That blissful forgetting changed when the Saalach became a site of hope and despair, when the border was closed, as thousands of people fleeing from Syria wanted to pass.

3 Gestures/Movements, password: Salzach:


Borders Resurfacing Assignment 1 from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

News photos: 

http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.de%2Fuserdata%2Fimages%2Farticle%2Fw468%2Ffd0d834aa08353ca76848a0fa62f8198f0477bdfe5b2b68426e45ce16d7957af.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.de%2F20160318%2Fbavarian-town-goes-back-to-sleep-as-refugees&h=289&w=468&tbnid=86j8utJXCOjUrM%3A&vet=1&docid=VXNoY-PWpXl6vM&ei=s51SWMnwCMnyUIjfjqgE&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=507&page=0&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=0ahUKEwiJlrv2qfbQAhVJORQKHYivA0UQMwglKAswCw&bih=671&biw=1343

http://cdn.salzburg.com/nachrichten/uploads/pics/2015-09/orginal/live-brennpunkt-saalachbruecke---fluechtlinge-harren-im-freien-aus-41-60183835.jpg

http://cdn.salzburg.com/nachrichten/uploads/pics/2015-09/orginal/live-brennpunkt-saalachbruecke---fluechtlinge-harren-im-freien-aus-41-60192845.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPCDXYDWEAA3LVo.jpg

Borders Resurfacing Creative Assignment 1!

1) Film a 30 second video clip of a body of water near you, OR take a photo series of 5 images of a body of water near you. 

2) Do a 5 minute free-write about that body of water.  Don’t stop writing for the 5 minute free-write and be at the body of water.

3) Pull out 3-5 images, words or phrases that seem important to you from your free-write and create 3-5 movements/gestures related to those words. Keep it as simple or complicated - as you're feeling! If this feels relevant to you - think about who is affected in our worlds by everything going on as something to keep in mind for our free-write (undocumented, indigenous, black, LGBTQI, specific people whom we have mentioned... etc)

Deadline: Post a few days before our next meeting - BY DEC 15th. Watch/read everyone’s posts and be ready to chat by our Dec 20th meeting.