Help Wanted

It wasn't a moment for everyone. For some of us it was a gradual understanding that seeped into us before we were aware of it's power, before the beginning of our memories. For some of us it seems that we always knew. For others of us we were hit by a bolt of painful lightening at some early stage in our life. But we were all born in perfect ignorance without any knowledge of race. Race is not often something someone sat us down to explain guiding us toward a healthy understanding, but something that becomes part of our consciousness over time or through one major event that opens our eyes to the simple fact that in America people are treated differently based on the color of their skin.

I am currently developing an ensemble dance piece entitled "Stir". The work looks at early understanding of race, single moments or memories of awareness that changed the course of our lives and social understanding and beyond that consciousness to our actions upon awareness. The work begs the question, What do we do with racial awareness?, How do we choose to respond to those who are different from ourselves? If you are familiar with my solo work entitled: wake(v): to become roused from a tranquil or inactive state this new work builds on some of those themes in a more abstract and all inclusive way. Both "wake" and "Stir" are part of a larger project entitled The Wake Project. You interested? Want to be involved? Because you're needed :-)

In addition to creating the dance work, with the help of my amazing boyfriend Sean I am creating a sound score as well. It's possible that I have bitten off more than I can chew, but Artistic vision sometimes leads us in unexpected directions, and this is where you come in: I need stories that will probably become sound bites in a verbal mosaic. What I am asking is for written accounts or if possible audio files of you telling your story using the following prompt: Tell me a story about an event in your early consciousness when you were vividly aware of your skin color or ethnicity. I know that we all probably have a ton of stories but just pick one, the best might be the first one that comes to mind. It can be positive, negative, happy, sad, short, long, a big booming event that brought your world crumbling around on top of you, or a small moment among many that led to your understanding of race and it's role in our society. I'm looking for it all and whatever you come up with is perfect.

Unfortunately the deadline to audition the work for the Charlotte Dance Festival was announced last week and the application (with a video of at least a near completed work) is due June 15th. So my goal is to have a working draft of the sound score by June 1st. I plan to go back and re-visit the score again after I submit the application and hope to be able to connect with you directly and record you telling your own story. If you're in the Charlotte area I'd love to get together with you between now and May 28th to record you telling your story. I might even be able to make a quick trip to Greensboro. If you're technically savvy and can send me an audio file that would be great but if not just email me your story I may get someone else's voice for now and then try to meet with you after the June deadline to get you to re-record it.

I know you all have amazing stories to tell and I'm so looking forward to hearing/ reading them. If you're nervous about someone knowing a specific story is yours I will be happy to have someone else record it for you. Also please remember it's not going to be long sections of a story but just a few words at a time collaged with many other stories. If you're interested please contact me via email, facebook or here and I'll connect. Or if you're not interested in sharing a story but want to continue to be involved and possibly contribute please let me know. There will be more opportunities.

Please feel free to pass this on to people in your life that you think might be interested.

Thanks so much for reading all of my ideas and for being a loving supportive part of my life. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Peace,
Camerin Allgood McKinnon
The Wake Project
Creator and Artistic Director