Climbing PoeTree's Hurricane Season

 "Are you ready to have your mind blown?" Frannie asked me. I didn't quite know what to say. 

"I guess so. Or else I wouldn't be here." Honestly, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had shown up to this Wednesday evening performance at the Pacific Northwest College of Art because a friend strongly recommended I go. Because it was free. Because I was curious. 

The day of the show, I had almost talked myself out of going. I was feeling like I might be getting sick (a common reason why I talk myself out of doing things) and it was a school night. Also I have just been super busy lately and a night at home has become a rare occurrence. But I had made it there regardless. Driving straight from a chiropractor's appointment where I had the muscles in my jaw massaged until I cried, I made it. 

When I got inside my friends had saved me a spot in the second row (bless their dear hearts). I felt pretty overwhelmed at first. A lot of people I knew were there and I was in a weird space. A weird, I'm not quite sure what to say to anyone space. I sat down and ate my $6 cup of roasted pumpkin soup from the restaurant next door. It was expensive, but it sure was good.

Getting some food in my belly helped me feel grounded and gave me a chance to just sit and absorb my surroundings. The stage set-up was elaborate built mostly out of bamboo with a rather large white screen in the center. There were photographs on either side of the screen, one of someone jumping through the air. Another of a woman with a butterfly over her mouth (note: the photographs were taken by Layla Love).

Shortly after 7, Alixa and Naima (the 2 fabulous women that make up Climbing Poe Tree) came on stage and introduced themselves. I was immediately impressed by how down to earth they seemed. They also both seemed really positive and genuinely excited, but not nervous or anxious. They thanked everyone for coming and talked a little bit about the performance. 

Their show, Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages of Water, is described on their website (www.hurricaneseasontour.com) as "a 2 womyn show about unnatural disaster and a great shift in universal consciousness... The Hidden Messages in Water interweaves spoken word poetry, sound collage, shadow art, dance, film and animation to explore critical issues facing humanity through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath."

In their introduction, Alixa talked about the powerful oak trees that survived the storm on the gulf coast. How did they do it? By spreading their roots far and wide, and interlocking with other oak trees in the area. "You can't bring down a thousand oak trees bound beneath the soil". Part of the mission of the Hurricane Season tour is to connect and inspire other oak trees to come together and resist injustice.

Alixa and Naima left the stage to get ready for their performance. While they were getting ready, Sallome Hralima came on stage to introduce herself and go over some of the logistics of the show. Sallome is another Brooklynite on tour with Alixa and Naimi, traveling around the country in a somewhat run-down white van run on vegetable oil. She gave a brief rundown of the timeline for the performance, reminded everyone to turn off their cell phones, and encouraged the audience to make a lot of noise during the performance so Alixa and Naima wouldn't feel like they were alone in their practice space, rehearsing. 

The first hour of Hurricane Season goes back and forth between audio clips of Katrina survivors, video footage interspersed with collage-style animation, and several spoken word pieces performed by Alixa and Naima. 

The material they are presenting is nothing short of devastating, addressing not only Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, but issues surrounding global warming, environmental injustice, gentrification, and over-consumption as well. Although this part of the performance is heavy to say the least, the amount of passion and energy that Alixa and Naima have when they are on stage together is totally inspiring, even when they are pointing out how the human race and the planet earth are entering in a time of "unnatural disaster".

After about an hour, the first half of the show concluded and they decided to give us a break. The lights turned on and the audience was encouraged to do whatever we needed in the next 10 minutes to take care of ourselves. The energy in the room had totally shifted. I was pretty much speechless. After spending a few moments just being held by my friends, I decided to go to the bathroom. 

The person I was next to in line was totally in tears. There was an incredibly awkward moment where were the only 2 people in the room (besides the 2 folks in the stalls) and I wish I would have offered her a hand or a hug. Even though I have done a decent amount of work on honoring my feelings, and have also done my fair share of crying in public spaces, I was taken aback by how uncomfortable I felt by this person's uncandid display of emotion, mainly because I was having my own emotional response to the piece and I didn't quite know how to reach out to this perfect stranger.

After intermission, Sallome facilitated what climbing poetree has deemed the solution-cipher portion of the performance, where they invite a handful of activists from the city the performance is happening in to come up on stage and talk about the work they are doing in the community and what the audience can do to help. There were 4 people on stage, representing local organizations including the Global Family Network (www.globalfam.org), Outside In (outsidein.org) and OPAL (Organizing People, Activating Leaders, www.opalpdx.org). The idea behind the solution cipher is to give folks examples of ways to get involved with local organizations that are doing work directly involving the issues brought up in the first part of the performance. 

After the solution-cipher, there was another 45 minutes of video, dance and spoken word. The theme of this portion of the show seemed to be on the power of transformation and liberation. We may be in an extremely dark time of history, but this should only inspire us more to find our own unique passions/gifts/drive and share it with the world. "We are all here for a reason." "There is no place where love cannot find you." These are two lines that were repeated during this portion of the performance. 

They also used images and audio clips based on Masaru Emoto's Hidden Messages of Water. Dr. Emoto's work involves documenting the formation of water crystals on frozen water that is exposed to different messages. Check out his book, The Hidden Messages of Water, or www.whatthebleep.com/crystals for more information about this. Basically, water that was "exposed" to positive messages (i.e. I love you, you're beautiful, etc.) formed completely different crystals than samples that were exposed to negative messages (i hate you, you make me sick, etc.) which sometimes didn't even form crystals at all. 

Okay, I know that this is whoo to the nth degree, but cynical judgements aside (which are usually, in my personal experience, a sign of fear in accepting new information, yet important to notice) this shit is pretty amazing. please look at the pictures before you make any final decisions. 

And on a continued side note: I often have a hard time with the amount of sarcasm and cynacism that has become pretty much a pre-requisite of folks of my generation, especially involving issues around spirituality. Yes I know, one could find something wrong with pretty much anything, but i think we need to try and find something to believe in, to be as positive and hopeful as possible, instead of turning everything into a struggle and falling into patterns of isolation and feeling defeated.

I am not the first person to say this, and this is pretty much what alixa and naima were getting at during the closing segment of Hurricane Season. All in all, this performance was satisfying in pretty much every single way. I am still blown away by the amount of energy, time and intention that was put into this show. Even though there was no cushioning or softening of the grim reality of the state of emergency that this world is in, I left feeling completely humbled, inspired and so fucking grateful to be able to participate in this event. Thank you! 

please check out www.climbingpoetree.com or www.hurricaneseasontour.com for more information. They are only about halfway through their tour and if their van makes it, they just might be performing soon in a city near you!