Sign O' The (Quarantine) Times
03/29/20
by Felicia Holman
“Ever since Prince died, shit's been weird" t-shirt. Sourced via Google Images
3.29.2020 prompts:
QT: "How are you getting through this?"
FH: INCREASED SELF-CARE (whatever that needs to be, now)
QT: "Where are you finding joy?"
FH: SPIRIT, ART, COMMUNITY (digitally, of course)
QT: "What are you saying yes to?"
FH: SOLITUDE (#flattenthecurve)
QT: "What do you need to communicate to future Chicagoans?"
FH: THE FIGHT AGAINST SEGREGATION AND GENTRIFICATION IS STILL ALIVE & WELL… JOIN IT (personally and professionally; #yesand)!
First and foremost, let me start by thanking the Quarantine Times team for quickly launching this new creative community support platform and inviting me to join the effort as a contributing writer. Honestly, it's been a bit of a struggle to get this autodidactic Gemini mind to clarify the focus of this piece because of the whirlwind of emotions and hourly (mis)information I'm processing about "Miss Rona." As I dug through my media archives for guidance, I reviewed another response platform I contributed to, in November 2016— a video interview by Chicago-based film production company On The Real Film called Transition to Power Ep. 1 - Livid & Motivated, centering Chicago's artistic community and our response to the election results of November 8, 2016. Then I remembered my 2013 co-creation of Honey Pot Performance's Price Point; an evening length multi-arts performance project exploring notions of fairness and balance (or the lack thereof) in today’s economic landscape through a mixture of the tragic and comic. Considering those past projects and my multi-hyphenate career as an independent cultural producer-programmer, I decided the best use of this space I'm privileged to occupy is to keep it 100 with y'all: I'm STILL livid & motivated, but I'm also STILL way more interested in channeling that energy into actions of self and community care (#inextricablylinked).
Pre-quarantine pic from "Crafting A Creative Career" workshop; March 11 at the Chicago Artists Coalition; photo by Felicia Holman
Anyone familiar with my artrepreneurial work knows my staunch advocacy for the agency, autonomy and mobility of Chicago's marginalized creatives… but now and for the foreseeable future, we've all been grounded. I've studied and presented info on the concepts of Work/Life Balance and Alternative Economies many times over the years. However, we are now in a time of uncharted global Economic & Labor upheaval; caused once again by our so-called leaders. This country's current crisis of “Idiocracy” was catalyzed by the emergence of a never-before-seen pathogen in the fucking 21st century, in the world's "last Superpower" nation (see the NYT article by Farhad Manjoo: “How the World’s Richest Country Ran Out of a 75-Cent Face Mask”)... but I digress.
For the remainder of this digital mind map, I share some of the nuanced resources which are fundamental in my own creative and self-care practices. I hope you find them relevant, interesting, even mildly entertaining…
Stay inside, stay healthy.
Things Helping Me Right Now:
Sleep
Hydration
Breathing techniques
Intuitive Movement
Social Media (webinars, online dance parties & DJ sets, vloggers, memes, etc.)
Frozen Membership Dues
Cannabis & other Anti-Inflammatory Herbs
Girlfriends with cars
Artist & Activist communities
Empathy
Critical Thinking
"How To Beat Coronavirus Capitalism" (webinar presented by Haymarket Books)
Ancestral Legacies (Mom, Prince, Audre Lorde, Fredrick Douglass, etc)
Things I'm MOST Grateful for during the COVID-19 Quarantine:
My health.
My home.
My sense of humor.
My years-long solitude practice.
My retention of post-secondary science.
My Gen X / Homeschooled Latch Key Kid skills.
My ability to work from home.
My keen ability to entertain MYSELF (comedy, song, dance, orgasm, etc).
My discernment.
My rations.
My walking-distance proximity to grocery stores & pharmacies.
My "framily".
Prince "Lake Minnetonka" meme, via Facebook
Lifelong Chicagoan/artist and Prince "fam" Felicia Holman is an independent cultural producer/programmer and facilitator, as well as a co-founder of the Chicago-based Afrodiasporic/Afrofeminist creative collective Honey Pot Performance (HPP).
As both artist and producer, Felicia presents and supports innovative interdisciplinary art that engages audience and inspires community. Her HPP credits include The Ladies Ring Shout (2011), Price Point (2013), Juke Cry Hand Clap (2014), and Ma(s)king Her (2016). In Fall 2019 Felicia served as City Bureau's Public Newsroom Series Curator (Chicago), was a featured artist/facilitator at Flux Factory's Must They Also Be Gods group exhibition (NYC), and joined the Co-Prosperity Sphere Programming Committee (Chicago).
Felicia's canceled 2020 projects due to COVID-19 include:
Cultural Exchange panelist at "Holding Common Ground" Dance Conference (April; Saigon, Vietnam)
"Getting To Maybe" residency at Banff Centre of Arts & Creativity (May; Calgary Alberta, Canada)
Featured presenter; "78 to 88: Prince, The First Decade" Conference (June; Minneapolis)
Artist residency at Ragdale Foundation (August; Lake Forest, IL).
Facilitating career development programming for emerging artists at Chicago Artists Coalition and Reunion Chicago (Ongoing).
Felicia still relishes her dynamic artrepreneurial life and sums it up in 3 words—”Creator, Connector, Conduit.”
Felicia Holman worked on this piece with Stella Brown, the Quarantine Times Sunday editor. Each week, Stella selects a Chicago artist to share a commissioned creative response to the pandemic.
