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Pirate.Jenny : I.AM.Radio #PirateRadio

4/7/2015

Thesis Approaches. Install is next week. All I can do is look back and just think about how far I've come and how long I have to go.

As I reflect on PJ I'm thinking about what she represents. Never thought I'd leave my MFA with this incredible alter ego who stands for my experiences - triumphant and traumatic, as well as this meeting point of slaves and piracy as an Afro-Caribbean woman immigrating to the UK. Last december, as I was still fleshing out PJ as a pirate/timetraveller - I went to a studio lecture on Sound. I was sick as a dog with sinus issues in the middle of installation tech nightmare for Fall Show, but managed to get enough to solidify some key thoughts about Pirate Jenny, sound, territory and boundaries.
Just as pirates defied the boundaries between land and sea - PJ is navigating the airwaves.

My newest inquiry into Pirate Jenny is #PirateRadio. I wanted to embody the idea of looking, tuning, seeking. She is, I am searching, tuning, dialing, navigating, always. For something, for home, for Mother for justice for vengeance. She is, I am Radio. I'll be chartering some new and experimental ground with words, music and conversation with wonderful local baltimore artists and activists.

Specific to Baltimore, I'm also interested in exploring the working relationships of pirates and slaves especially in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland, and seeing how those relationships are present in social justice work today. Of course, I had to have it at my favourite radical space Red Emmas Bookstore & Coffeeshop. I've got a beautiful line up of artists and activists including Josiah Morgan, Sydney Spann, Mark Gunnery and Paul Rucker...

IN the meantime, check out my thesis process and ideas - Hopefully you'll get to make out to MICA's thesis show opening for thesis Spring 2015 (April 17th - May 3rd). Stay tuned...

Shola aka PJ

#LovePJ
#PirateRadio
#IamRadio

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Pirate Jenny, Piano Exercises and Keeping Time (travel)

4/4/2015

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I've been feeling the need to have Pirate Jenny help me confront a lot of things. Around February of this year - I started using aspects of piano in my installations. Since the age of 6 and well into my early twenties, I trained heavily in classical music - mostly piano, a moderate amount of trombone and I had experimented with violin, and clarinet. At some point in my undergraduate days, the identity I had built around myself as a pianist was sticking, but subconsciously i couldn't deal with not knowing anything else. Learning, practicing and performing piano no longer became the safe space I would go to and eventually became traumatic. The learning environment I was in also didn't serve my emotional needs, especially as I was dealing with uncovering my sexuality, identity while being away from home for college.

What has evolved, is a series called Pirate.Jenny.Scores in which PJ is confronting, or facing those things that have affected me (Shola). The idea of scoring, scores - as music, as record as getting even sits well with me, and as PJ has been developing, I have been using her as a means of confronting events in my own life as well as social injustice in the world. Earlier, I had been working around the piano, putting it in my installations. Almost unavoidably, I had to start physically working with it, just so I could embody what I had been dealing with. Piano excercises/etudes such as having Pirate Jenny Pushing, pulling, dragging, leaning against this thing felt interesting. Setting up spaces/installation where I experimented with items and artifacts let me feel like I could insert her in them and give her tasks, or give her regimens that she had to receive.

Piano Exercises:Etude No 1, Video still (2/15)

Piano Exercises:Etude No 2, Video still (3/15)

Piano Exercises:Etude No 3, Video still (3/15)

The last etude in Pirate Jenny Scores involves a video performance of Pirate Jenny leading a funeral procession as she decides to find a place to bury her piano. There is a first time for everything. Producing the third piano exercise of Pirate Jenny Scores required: getting a cast, having a pre-production meeting, creating a storyboard, doing costume design, making sculpture, costume accents and props, rescheduling, scouting and locating a site, hiring a videographer and production assistants... among other things.

And it all happened. In Branford, CT - West woods Trail. It was cold, but I had some warm hearts helping to make the majic happen.

Stay tuned,
Love,
PJ

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Pirate.Jenny : I.AM.Radio #PirateRadio

Pirate Jenny, Piano Exercises and Keeping Time (travel)

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