The topic for the panel was "How is a clowning agent of social change? Should that be the role of the clown? How can clowns help society?
I thought about this topic a lot, and I felt some extra pressure because I was expected to comment on it. Clowns can be agents of social change, and our organizations should play a role in that. That said, during the panel, I focused on how difficult change can be.
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As I played the music, there was a line of performers singing and dancing along. They all replied, "It's Alright "!. This started as my version of the Curtis Mayfield song "It's Alright." It's one of my favorite tunes to play in the hospital. At home in Georgia, people sing along. For them, it is a gospel refrain from the black church, and they are eager to join me in singing….
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After another show today, a group of young girls began to crowd around me. Music was playing, so I took out my spoons and started playing them on my hand and leg. As the girls saw this, they began to step closer to me.
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The older folks sat on the sidelines and laughed and smiled. The young adults sat closer to the children to tend to their needs. The children paid close attention to the show and quickly interacted with us.
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The site of young children and adults joining us in the parade warms my heart. In one of the parades today, a woman saw a clown balancing a juggling club. After seeing this, she decided to play with us.
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Later, it began to rain when we arrived at our next camp. We paused, wondering if we would be able to do our performance in the rain. We decided to continue the performance. Halfway into the show, the sun came from behind the clouds, and a rainbow appeared in the distance.
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Today, we finished our first day of clowning here in Turkey for earthquake survivors. I woke up in Istanbul at 4 o’clock this morning to meet the rest of the team for our flight to Gaziantep. We performed in five different locations from the morning into the early evening.
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The room was full of bodies moving, of people responding to the cues I gave them. They moved eagerly, without reservation. They followed the cues I gave them, each person interpreting the instructions in their way. It was like a room full of people doing the same dance, yet each person had a unique version of the movement. We were suddenly moving together. Suspended in a moment where all that mattered was our movement. We moved, experienced, learned, and shared our experiences.
Read MoreI've done a lot of soul searching about clowning over the past four years. The soul-searching is led me to question my place in the work. It's made me ask why I value the work I do and, more importantly, why I continue to want to do it…
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We've been in Freeport for a week. Since we've been here, we were able to make some connections in this community. One day we were riding to a show in the back of a truck. As we traveled down the road, we passed a woman who saw us perform in a medical clinic a few days ago. She waved at us and said," Thank you for making me laugh," as we drove away….
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The principal of the school asked for a volunteer. Many hands shot up in the air, eager to be chosen. After a brief survey of the eager hands in the air, the principal picked one. It was a young girl…
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"This is a bumpy road," the girl said. "Yes, it is," I said. "There's also a lot of traffic. Hold on tight". Our taxi made a sharp turn to the left, then turn to the right with more bumps in the road. Then we went up a steep mountain and down that mountain as if it was a roller coaster…
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“She’s crying because you are leaving.” We just finished our show at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School in Freeport, Bahama. Most of the students were making their way back to the classroom; however, there was one girl who didn’t want the show to end. Her teacher told us that she was upset because it was over…
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The audience arrived minutes after we got to the theater. We set up the space and did the show. We performed the show outside, in front of the theater, because the inside is flooded.
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The show Sunday morning was at a Baptist church. The church is in a rather remote area on the island. It took about fourth five minutes by car to get there. This is a small church with a beautiful view of the ocean outside their front door.
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We finished our week in Nassau Bahamas today. We taught several workshops this week, plus we ended our time here with a show on Thursday afternoon…
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Tuesday, Leora, Clay, and I worked on our show in the morning. We put pieces of our different acts into one cohesive structure. We still have some work to do to finish the final show order, that said we made significant progress working on the show…
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Monday, we went to the facility where we will be doing our shows and workshops. When we arrived, we were quickly greeted by the staff there. She took us on a tour of the shelter. It’s in a basketball gymnasium next to a bigger athletic facility.
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