Looking forward to seeing what comes of this writing challenge when a group of talented local theater and music professionals take to the stage for a bit of comedy, a dash of drama in a cool dark theater. Lipstick and Lead was my second choice for a title.
Shay’s READING TONIGHT! Starts at 7pm
Hear excerpts from her new play Widows of America, Denton County and other works.
“When you uncover my body there will be a name for every heartbreak inked into my skin. Anyone who sees me naked will know it’s not just my body that’s vulnerable. I can still feel the buzz of a thousand needles.
Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. My mother gave me mine. Raise the cuff of my left shirt-sleeve three and a quarter inches and you will see, tattooed on my inner wrist, a long narrow instrument for scooping marrow from the bones of slow cooked meat dishes like osso bucco and oxtail stew.” Shay Youngblood from Broken Beautiful
Traveled to DC for the U.S. Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange. Keynote speaker Hiroshi Sugimoto shared his art, architecture and passions along with others who spoke about programs and projects leading up to the Olympics in Kyoto in 2020. The shinto shrine Sugimoto san designed on Naoshima changed me.
See my Japan Project page at www.shayyoungblood.com
Art Installation in Japan
http://www.dentonafricanamericanfilmfestival.com/
The Indiegogo campaign to support the technical production of Add Architecture, Stir Memory was a success! Over 130 people attended the performance at the UNT on the Square Gallery on a hot Tuesday night in Texas. Looking to continue development of the work in other venues in the region and ultimately take it to Japan. Thank you to everyone who supported the work. A soft cover edition of the manuscript from the performance is now available online. Eternal gratitude.
Add Architecture, Stir Memory: TX – JAPAN
A Workshop Production by Shay Youngblood
with special guests kt shorb and Lyndon Gill
Saturday, 28 June 2014 – 5-7pm @ Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin, Texas
Free and open to the public
What is the effect of memory on architecture? What is the effect of architecture on memory? How do our early memories of home shape who we become? I traveled from Texas to Tokyo in the spring of 2011 to ask these questions in the form of interviews with Japanese creatives, that would be the research for a novel set in Hawaii and Japan. Ten days after I arrived, Japan experienced the strongest earthquake in its history, which triggered a powerful tsunami and set off a nuclear disaster. In this multimedia performance I share my experience of home in Japan, my creative process and invite the audience to participate in shaping my work-in-progress.
*This workshop production is made possible with support from
ALLGO: A Texas Statewide Organization for Queer People of Color
“Impossible Landscape” artwork: Adrienne Brown
Listen to a brief RADIO INTERVIEW I recorded for Art & Seek on KERA my local NPR station. Click on the link to listen: My First Visit to Yaddo
18th Century Marrow Scoop
Inspired by the amazing Rob Walker’s Significant Objects Project, Carolyn Bess of Arts & Letters Live at The Dallas Museum of Art, commissioned four writers (I was among them) to create original short stories inspired by objects in the collection. (See Rob’s blog here Materially Untrue. ) We were invited into the vault where thousands of priceless artworks are stored in a massive underground city. It was overwhelming and thrilling. There were three compelling pieces that stirred my imagination. A painting by Mark Bradford, a woodcut by Käthe Kollwitz and an 18th century silver marrow scoop. Images swirled around in my head, but there was no clear story. In the week that followed my visit to the museum I learned that my friend, the artist Terry Adkins died. I wrote a draft of “Broken Beautiful” in less than 48 hours. His loss was an unexpected element. The story became a place to channel my grief and make peace with our unfinished conversations.
Winner of the 2014 Black Reel, Outstanding Independent Short, Black Girl Paris, the short film based on my novel was shown on HBO during the month of February. You can still watch it if you have HBO to GO.
Below is a link to a two minute reel for the film:
Trailer for Black Girl in Paris
