OK, this is not specifically NAAM-related, but I think it’s relevant to AdoptionLand and many of us at this crossroads in history. We have dark days ahead, which I’ll address in a few days.
But now this:
This extraordinary performance (below) by Laurie Anderson* of the C P Cavafy poems “The Barbarians are Coming” and “Ithica” was part of the 2023 weeklong Archive of Desire: A Festival Inspired by C. P. Cavafy. Performances, lectures, and other events were held at numerous locations in New Your City. This performance was staged at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in mid-town Manhattan. The celebration was created by the Onassis Foundation and you can watch a video of the entire festival here.
Although “The Barbarians are Coming” takes place in ancient Rome, it is a timely narrative of our own dysfunctional stagnant government, of our own politicians, their hangers-on, and our legacy media, where wealth, spectacle, special interests, favoritism, and cruelty trump (excuse me!) humanity, compassion, reason, kindness, and ethics. “Ithaca” takes us on a meaningful journey to a kinder ending.
The performance blew me away, ripping open our raw reality but also giving hope. Since I am a pessimist to the point of nihilism, that’s saying something! It makes me want to move back a bit to the art world where I hung out before adoptee rights politics ate my life. Art is power.
The text of both poems is here.
.*Accompanied by The Knights and The Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
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(No, it will never be X!)
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