A Day's Work

A Day’s Work

I’ve been in a really intimate relationship with my food lately. Between my partner and I participating in Cedilo’s Fresh Produce Community Supported Agriculture program, and the large garden we’ve created in our backyard with a handful of neighbors and friends.  Most of what I eat is from the farm or the garden. When I’m sad or anxious, I go out and pick herbs for tea. When I want to relax in the twilight, I sit by the raspberry bush, and pet the cat while my partner relaxes near the tomatoes while the windchimes kinda plunkle in the quiet buzz of the city.

When The Syndicate opened up the possibility of completing A Day’s Work for them, it made sense to explore this intimacy more, and to encounter the intimacies people I care for have for their foods.  I wanted to maybe learn to cook a recipe or recipes, to practice sharing that kind of creative and storytelling in advance of a creative residency I had planned for the Month of August.  One month in Oaxaca with my creative partner Anna to create, cook, grow, heal, eat, and imagine. My friend Carolina suggested cooking rice; an Italian woman, she has a strong cultural relationship to rice, and offered to share her risotto recipes with me! That was a great idea.  Because I can think of several people I love who grew up eating rice for many meals and occasions, who could cook their rice without thinking, without measuring, just by sight, touch and heart.  What kind of memories do we associate with the rices of our ethnic histories, our childhoods, or cross-cultural encounters? How close are our ingredient lists, how far apart are our flavors? What do we remember of weathered hands in hot kitchens with canciones drifting out of la radio? 

For my Day’s Work, I cooked rice with friends in different places, from different places, and shared memories and musings with them as the sensory experience influenced our creative conversation. I wanted to teach someone the rice I always make, and be taught other methods.  I picked fresh ingredients from my garden, and set out to spend 8 hours on 5 different rices. 

They were, in order, 

Saffron Rissoto, via Carolina’s online cooking course Easy Medeterranean Cooking. 

Fried Rice, via whatsapp video chat with Earl T Kim

Mexican/Tejano Rice, via whatsapp video chat with Earl T Kim

Rice Pilaf, in person, with Sara Dickett

Garlic Fried Rice, in person, with Jonathan Kline

The rices used a lot of the same ingredients, sometimes with just one ingredient different, sometimes with a particular way of browning or heating the rice. Always fragrant as fuck, and delicious. 

True to my typical day’s work, there were meetings, obligations, commutes, and even a day between this rice and that.  So, 8 hours of Rice, but like many folks with careers like mine, there’s often a lot of details in the fabric. 

WED 28 JULY 21

5-7 AM, email admin for a longtime client

7-8 AM, Cermak for Jasmine Rice, a watermelon, veg broth, and some sundries

8-9 AM, I watched Carolina’s (at the time, un-released) EMC episode, learning about risotto, La Mondina, and texting her on Whatsapp (she was by the seaside). 

9-10 AM, cafecito, risotto with eggs, and a bit of rest and prep for the rest of the day

10-11 AM, work in the garden, then a shower. 

11:15-12:30, commute to Rivendell Theatre, where I am the new Associate Artistic Director

12:30-1:45, time with Rivendell’s summer interns, on their last day, to talk about how it went, their future plans, answer questions about my practice, or chicago, etc. 

1:45-3:00pm, commute back to the south side

3:00- 5:00pm, a whatsapp call with Earl, where I first taught him to make my rice, and then he taught me to make his.  An interesting term came up in this conversation, in regards to the experiences I had had thus far in the day, and how much intersection we had in our nostalgia for rice.  MotherRice. 

5:00-6:30pm, a rest

6:00-7:00pm. Rice Pilaf, with my partner, in our kitchen.  Pavy the Cat served as kitchen supervisor and chanteuse. 

Thurs 29 July 21

6:00-8:00pm, garlic Fried Rice with Jonathan, my upstairs neighbor. 

8:00-9:30pm, communal meal in the garden, joining many veg from our garden with tofu, and our garlic fried rice

How Do We Navigate Space?

BY KARISSA MURRELL MYERS
DIRECTED BY DENISE YVETTE SERNA

Mar 15, 2021–Apr 18, 2021

Pay-What-You-Can with a suggested amount of $15.

BUY TICKETS

Strawdog Theatre Company's will conclude its all-virtual 33rd season with How Do We Navigate Space?, a series of original performances inspired by the events of 2020, from the pandemic to social justice.

How Do We Navigate Space? will feature performances devised and performed by Yuchi Chiu (he/him), Terri Lynne Hudson (she/her), Josie Koznarek (she/her/they/them), Mah Nu (they/them), Gloria Petrelli (she/her) and Erik Strebig (they/them/he/his).

How Do We Navigate Space? is an original, devised hybrid of film and theatre. This work will explore the experiences of Chicagoans navigating through our current, drastically-changed world. The piece is inspired by surveys submitted by Chicago residents sharing their experiences during 2020. Combining movement, music, visual art and the voices of Chicagoans, the film will express a non-linear story of our diverse and complex city in the search for connection.

Director Denise Yvette Serna comments, "The places through which we pass, the areas we retreat to, and the spaces where we cultivate our safety have been broken open for examination. As the sun begins its next orbit we articulate what has been illuminated - the complicated depths of collective transformation. Artists know the greyest days can be transformed by color, the coldest places can be infused with the warmth, and our determined occupation of public space proclaims our existence and demands recognition of our humanity. Even the silence can be measured and manipulated when we want it to be. How we understand the space between us will inevitably inform how we dismantle the systems that divide and destroy us. We're excited to play."

The production team includes Kamille Dawkins* (director of photography), design), Kyle Hamman* (video editing), Jos N. Banks (costume design), Heath Hays* (sound design), Becca Levy* (movement design) and Karissa Murrell Myers* (casting director).

Following the production, Strawdog will share a portion of ticket sales with Black Lives Matter Chicago.

*Denotes Strawdog ensemble member

The Storefront Project

I recently had an incredible creative experience, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Prop Theatre. The Storefront Project asked six Chicago-based directors to choose anything but a typical play and devise a new project, tailor-made for both the MCA Chicago and Prop Thtr, demonstrating Chicago theatre’s uncanny ability to pop up anywhere. The prompt for this project was incredibly open - choose something, anything (that isn’t a script) from the Public Domain, and devise a performance. This project was the opportunity to really showcase my style, my method, and my heart. 

After spending a month sampling the texts in the public domain, I found myself fixating not on a piece of literature -- but an artist whose work I had encountered while immersed in an entirely different project.  Antonio Ligabue -- the wild man of the river Po. I was stricken by Ligabue’s tragic and passionate life, complicated by a troubled childhood and mental illness, displayed in violently vivid colors on traditional canvases, barn walls, and long-eroded tree trunks. Taking note of the symbols and themes present in his body of work, I turned back to the public domain to find something that I could structure a piece of theatre around. I settled on a children’s poem called The Nine Lives Of A Cat - A Tale Of Wonder, By Charles Henry Bennett (1860).

I visited Ligabue’s former home while on a project in Piacenza, Italy and gathered primary and secondary accounts of his life and work. I employed friends to translate texts and interviews from the local language into English. I shared this dramaturgical work with four artists whom I trusted to explore Ligabue’s life with sensitivity, beauty, and vulgarity.- a visual artist/designer, a composer/classical musician, a two-spirit Latinx poet, and a circus performer.  Together we created a complex piece of promenade performance that allowed the audience multiple access points into the mind and practice of someone who experiences neurodivergence, sensory sensitivities, and gender dysphoria, depicting how artistic expression can be a shield to process trauma against, and an anchor with which we can hold tight to our humanity.

I facilitated stimulating conversations with each of the artists for 6 months, and we circulated our ideas and visions for the piece.  We identified the moments in his biography we wanted to illuminate, and abstracted them into larger than life vignettes and dreamy waltzes.

I rehearsed with the artists mostly in pairs for three weeks, devising and staging along the way, allowing for sharp spotlights on their individual practices woven throughout the ensemble performance. I pieced together the script from improvisations, biographical information, verbatim interviews, and writing from the team. I visualized a human/cat playground with live painting of cat murals that the designer and composer helped breathe into life. I joined the composer in experimenting with children’s toys, kitchen utensils, and classical arias around which the movement of the piece could be formed.

It was incredibly challenging work, and we felt duty bound to create a piece that painted Ligabue’s life with compassion, dignity and beauty. I feel that to date it is the one of the most comprehensive snapshots of the tools I employ when creating new work, as well as a clear demonstration of the clarity and finesse that have come into my practice as a result of my directing and producing work in Chicago. 

Windy City Times "30 Under 30" 2018 Honoree

I'm very honored to have been counted among The Windy City Times 30 Under 30 Honorees for this year.  I was listed among some of the most talented, intelligent, and selfless individuals in the city.  These people are truly creating positive change in our city, and will continue to lead Chicago into a brighter future. 

Windy City Times 30 Under 30 Awards held in Bridgeport
The 19th annual Windy City Times 30 Under 30 Awards were held June 20 at Polo Cafe in Bridgeport. A diverse group of people from 18 to 30 were honored for their activism, cultural work, entrepreneurship, promotional work and more.

Windy City Times welcomed co-sponsors AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Chicago House, Center on Halsted, Howard Brown Health and Polo Catering.

See full list of honorees and their stories here: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/30-Under-30-to-be-honored-June-20-in-19th-annual-award-ceremony/63255.html .

And the Windy City Times Pride issue has a full review of honorees in PDF form here: www.windycitymediagroup.com/images/publications/wct/2018-06-20/current.pdf .