Image courtesy of Jean Oei
Late Summer Greetings Friends,
What a full and blossoming summer this has been for me and for KINSHIP! Below you’ll find a calendar-sensitive update, as well as glimpses into what I’ve been up to this season. Please also stay tuned for a follow-up newsletter announcing Autumn events.
Enjoy & In-Joy,
Jeni
September 12th: KINSHIP event update
Thank you to all who have put this event on your calendars and held space with me as year two of KINSHIP draws to a close! I wanted to share the news that the 9/12 event has been cancelled in order to make way for a larger unfolding of KINSHIP to emerge at a future date.
In the meantime, please enjoy the following glimpses into what’s making and being made alongside friends and fellow artists this summer season…
SUMMER KIN
I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles in which vital and transforming events take place. ~ Rufus Jones
June — Invited a small group of dancers & artist friends to share & explore KINSHIP within movement, sound, play, and Rest. We tended the elements of fire, field, mountain, sky, river, and our own tender bodies and hearts. Gathering hosted through the generosity of Blue Deer Center. My heart is restored.
July — With wonder and gratitude, I am in the process of bringing into form two land-based sculptures on behalf of KINSHIP. I can only do this through the relationships in my life that make this possible. One friend has gifted cedar, another gifted basswood fibers and the skills to make cordage. Friends are joining me alongside various bodies of water across this region as we weave cordage and conversation together. Eventually these many strands of cordage will be woven onto the cedar posts (and what this will all become is a surprise that I’m holding close for now!). These fruitful beginnings nourish life. My heart is full.
August — The processes set in motion in June steadily continue….and the second land-based sculpture begins to form. With this piece, I am working with clay for the first time, as well as continuing to work with stone and fire. Delightfully I participated in a beautiful Wild Pottery workshop through Wild Earth, facilitated by my good friend Dustin Lamberta and his co-facilitator Michael Reganschi. Over the course of two weekends, we harvested and processed clay from the region; worked with simple hand building techniques; and pit-fired our pieces…amongst so much more. I feel myself within the continuum of humans who have been making vessels for daily use and beauty since our early relationships with earth and fire. My heart overflows.
Joining me in KINSHIP are also all those whose presence, gifts of skill, monetary support, and friendship accompany me daily. I am moved with gratitude for this ever-widening community. Your participation and support means that I get to bring long-held visions into reality. What a soul-fulfilling gift!
Special thanks this season to:
Donor: Jessica Becker
Videographer: Mace Fleeger
Dancers: Tessa, Lillian, Hilary
Artist/Collaborator: Jean Oei
Fire-tender: Jonathan C
Materials & Skill-shares for Land-based sculpture 1: Talisian, Katie Grove, Kate Banner
Materials & Skill-shares for Land-based sculpture 2: Dustin, Michael, & Wild Pottery friends
Levon and Mary D.
Blue Deer Center
Sacred Fire Community
To the practitioners assisting me in the health and wellbeing of my body in recovery from Lyme and more: Chrissy, Dylan, Ari, Rich; to Anna-Lena for your deep care and wise counsel— Thank you.
To my parents, siblings, and extended family; my dear friend La; and my amazing neighbors who have helped me in a thousand different ways so that I can take on the robust nature of all life hands me — Thank you.
And to each of you reading this today — Thank you for your presence here.
If you would like to support my heart-work as an artist through a tax-deductible donation, it is much appreciated!
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
~ Khalil Gibran
It is a sweet pleasure being here with you,
Jeni
KINSHIP: Bodies of Belonging
is an interrelational dance work that engages landscape, community, and seasonal cycles, featuring three sculptures conceptualized and designed for this project.
KINSHIP is developed in responsive-relationship with two primary places: the sacred land stewarded by Blue Deer Center in the Catskills Mountains, and daily life as place, allowing the artist to create within the spontaneity, rhythms, and relationships of day-to-day habits and cycles.