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.
Read MoreIn my experience, there has been a stigma surrounding mental health in the Black community. Many of us feel pressure to conform to traditional notions of masculinity, making it difficult to express emotions. I grew up in a society that enforced these notions of masculinity.
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It was an evening of Black love. Six black men on stage expressed love, joy, intimacy, masculinity, frustration, anger, longing, pride, and even juggling, yes, juggling.
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Clowns are known for not following the rules. It's one of the things we expect from clowns. Following this tradition is something we do in the hospital constantly. As medical clowns, we take the medical aspects of our work seriously. We are trained to function in the hospital as we do our work. That said, we are still clowns. We still find some norms to break as we follow medical regulations.
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Vincenzo Tortorici, a friend, and clown, passed away 10 years ago this August. He was an actor, musician, clown, and overall wonderful artist. Looking back on his passing, I can't help but ponder how so many things are different now compared to how they were when he died. I'm also aware of what remains the same.
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I'm always looking for new material to perform in the hospital. Usually, some of the better musical material are things right under my nose, everyday things, or songs I grew up with. It's just a matter of finding the right piece and seeing the opportunity to use it.
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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.
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In the morning dr. tiny and I approached one of the hospital rooms. Inside the room were an eight-year-old girl and her mother. Seeing us, the girl called out. She said, "Hey, are you clowns"? We, of course, said, "yes." The girl was surprised to see us, and she asked if we were "really clowns."
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As I sat in rehearsal listening to the music, I choked up. I've been listening to my mother sing and play all of my life, but this experience was different. My mom, Florence Gordon, passed away six years ago. Several years earlier, I made recordings of mom playing and singing gospel music. Listening to one of the songs in this rehearsal made me choke up and cry. These recordings of her singing…
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It's about to happen. I am at the airport waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. After that, I will travel to The Hague for the Healthcare Clown International Meeting, H.C.I.M. 2022. I've been looking forward to this conference for a long time. It was initially scheduled for October 2021. However, the COVID pandemic caused it to be postponed. I am glad it's happening. I'm doing two presentations at the conference.
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I was so happy when I looked at the screen. There were about 25 small squares on my computer. Each square had a person waiting to take the class. Some looked back at me, waiting to begin. Others were going about their business eating, stretching, or playing on their computers, It was an early Monday morning, and I wanted to start with something energetic
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There is a vibrancy in the image heightened by an almost 3-D quality of his body in front of a pattern behind him. Each time I visited the museum and saw this image, I noticed how the young man seemed to float in front of the canvas…
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It's ironic that amid COVID, a community has developed despite the pandemic. My favorite part of the experience is the after-show talk. Most of the performers stay on Zoom after the performance is over. It's an opportunity for the performers to hang out, chat, get acquainted with each other.
Read More….Sydney Poitier and Helen Donnelly were trailblazers creating new paths, moving us forward to a new normal. Both authentically shared their work with us. We are better because of their art and their lives.
Read MoreBeing visible… It is there if you find a way to see it.
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