Reclaiming Lost Histories in Lyrical Form

‘Woman [...] is unauthorized, illegitimate: she does not represent but is, rather, represented.’

Kate Linker

In analyzing the ecology of care Carron will present a diversity of people’s narratives in poetic form. The act of transforming one to one interviews into performance poetry as part of her civic performance practice maintains confidentiality of participants and transforms personal stories allowing for moments of deeper critical reflection. In presenting a diverse body of women’s stories composed into poetry the work presents transnational dialogues inspired by local contexts. The poetry addresses the complex issues of our times questioning the digital age, highlighting the politics of race relations and immigration policy to the health of women’s bodies. Carron’s research is embedded in the structure of language and creating linguistic structures that relate to each women’s unique voice and story. In this performance presentation, lyrical poetry inspired by personal narratives expand meaning that is relevant to our times.

In presenting these embodied performances inspired by ordinary citizens the work seeks to represent the unrepresented and tell the lost stories - the ones we don’t talk about. The project questions canonized traditions in representing women written out of history and challenges the formal notions of the archive. It complicates the narrative, and it seeks to address unspoken territories questioning what we value and how we care for women in our society today. The structure of poetic thought reconstitutes Cixous’s ideas of subjectivity in reclaiming language that embraces our bodies and the complexity of our empirical lives.