Issue #06

Spring/Summer 1993

Heros & Histories

Cover of Issue #06

We created this issue in order to provide a forum for people to write about sources of inspiration and influence, and to record alternative histories. We meant this broadly—historical moments, mass cultural icons, activists, political or cultural movements, a particular music piece or performance, a figure or an organization, a place or a time, a company or performer. It is important for artists to recognize and take responsibility for the role we have in history, and to insist that our stories, as they inform our art, our politics, and our culture, be told. We hope you enjoy the issue, and we welcome letters to the editor, and other commentary.

Editorial team

Editor-In-Chief

Cathy Edwards Esther Kaplan Guy Yarden

Photographer

Dona Ann McAdams

Design

David Thorne

Ad Layout

Audrey Kindred

Articles

4-4

Spock & Banana Childhood

From a childhood of Chinese-American identity, I became a banana (yellow on the outside and white on the inside) actively disavowing my heritage and people, and identifying with the oppressor...

5-5

On Burt Supree

I hate moving. I hate making Solomon-like decisions of whether to toss or keep my mountains of magazines; I hate going on archeological digs through molehills of cash receipts; I...

5-5

Kenneth King

In my teenage years I haunted the Martha Graham School, sometimes three or four hours a day after an intensive day of dance training at the High School of the...

5-5

Alison Chase

It may seem strange to cite a peer as the principal inspiration for one's career, but the most influential person in my case was Alison Chase, my collaborator now for...

5-5

Sentimental Sucker

All the stories that make me cry are about freedom & hope, & say that misfits & underdogs can escape & that love is possible & life can be joyful...

8-8

Untitled

In 1984 or 85, I walked into 8BC for the first time and Ethyl Eichelberger was performing. I don't think I had ever seen a drag queen—or at least, not...

8-9

Fueled by Ethyl

Ethyl Eichelberger committed suicide on August 12, 1990. The astonishing news and grisly details spread like wildfire throughout performance communities, leaving behind breathless shock, deep sadness, and the instantaneous recognition...

15-15

Cornerstones

Insights are a form of terror. They appear fleetingly, yet they leave an afterglow. Without being formed into any kind of content of permanent knowing, the sliver of their subliminal...

15-15

Katherine Dunham

I met Katherine Dunham in Haiti on the occasion of her 82nd birthday. It was late June 1991—three months before the coup that overthrew democratically elected President Jean Bertrand-Aristide, five...

15-15

Seeing Dancing

Once I taught a three-hour workshop for the Austin Circle of Theaters, in which I was reminded of how we suffer the loss of unseen dances, and that the world...

16-16

I Want Your Myth

For the sake of sanity I use "hero'' to describe both male and female idols, as well as those of blurred or dubious gender. Hero contains "he" and "her,” and...

18-18

Yvonne Meier

Yvonne Meier's Pommes Fritz (1991) was a revelation to me—a vision of domestic hysteria. By the end Yvonne had destroyed hundreds of china plates that were stacked neatly at the...

18-19

Dancing Post-Judson

History, like identity, is subjective, slippery and shaped by our conscious and unconscious desires. On one level, our histories are constructed from our memories of moments gone by... bits and...

19-19

Contact Junkie

As an undergraduate at Bennington, I fled the theater department: people drank too much and stayed up too late. I didn't have the temperament for it. I majored in creative...