D. Allen

NET/WORK: wheelchair bound (remix)

More information about the NET/WORK series from 2018-present is available on my website, thebodyconnected.com, and Instagram @thebodyconnected. I invite my audiences to tell me your impressions of this show and offer words of support via both of those channels. Many, many thanks for holding this work. 

I give thanks to everyone involved in producing this show, and to my communities near and far who have been doing extra care work this spring as I recover. I wouldn't be here without you. Many of my beloveds also contributed their voices to the reading of "Entanglement Prayer":

Chaim Kokhleffel

Jabari Sellars

Hannah S Barco

Andrew Barco

Mercy Barco

Niko Tsocanos

Leila Awadallah

Merle Geode

Sun Yung Shin

Lamisa Chowdhury

Jonathan Damery 

Sumana

Emma Peterson

Halee Kirkwood

Admiral Wieland

Morgan Meyer

Jordan Schuster

Music credits: “Unholy” by Sam Smith; “S&M” by Rihanna with tempo edits by D. Allen. **I do not own the rights to these songs**

Narration, field recordings, and instrumental music on lyre and Appalachian dulcimer by D. Allen

All text, video, and movements by D. Allen

"Entanglement Prayer" written by D. Allen and read aloud by those named above

Entanglement Prayer

6/1/23

We are bound together
I am to you
We are to them
I am of you as you are of me
We are with and within
Our ties are boundless
By choice or circumstance
We are bound up in each other
Paths shaping paths infinitely
Bound means binding
Tricky, tangled, tumbling
Hurtling and hurting and healing
Where I go you will someday follow
(Where you go I will someday follow)
Our constellations, our scars
A light leading home

D. Allen is a multidisciplinary poet, performer, and artist living in Minneapolis. Hybridity is central to D.'s creative practice. Their works typically interweave elements of text, image, movement, performance, mixed-media objects, and/or sound to explore themes of disabled embodiment, queer and trans identity, kinship beyond blood, and intimacy with place and the natural world. Their first book, A Bony Framework for the Tangible Universe, was published by The Operating System in 2019. These days, D. is writing a book-length lyric essay and making new material for their ongoing performance project, NET/WORK. After Isolated Acts, their next public performance will take place in Minneapolis at the Center for Performing Arts on the evening of September 23.  www.thebodyconnected.com

Alys Ayumi Ogura

Do not assume anything. Things may not be as they appear.

Collaborator: Akiko

Before or after the show, please remember: the Yumi-verse is a universe ruled by Yumi/Alys Ayumi Ogura where she tells her stories. You are trapped in the Yumi-verse for 30 minutes if you are sitting here tonight. Don’t worry, though. It’s a fun, safe, and joyous place for you to explore. Welcome to the Yumi-verse!  

The significance of the night, a.k.a, Isolated Act, “Do not assume anything. Things may not be as they appear” is my first commissioned work to include the “Yumi-verse” with a collaborator. The Yumi-verse usually has only me, but this time I’m working with Akiko.

This work is my first attempt to highlight and celebrate the differences of people who appear to be East Asians. We all may “look the same” to others, so people tend to put us into the same box of having the same cultural background. But it is not the case. We are all different, and each one of us has diverse life experiences that make us unique. Our identities are highly layered and complex, but we can all coexist as long as we can celebrate our differences. 

I would like to thank the fabulous and marvelous Akiko, my collaborator who endured my craziness and chaotic rehearsal processes. Also, thank you to everyone who gave me opportunities to keep telling my stories, especially the folks at Red Eye and Laurie Van Wieren. I finally re-watched the video of Laurie interviewing me in early 2023, and everything I hoped I could do artistically came true during the process of creating this piece. I should share my ambitions more often without hesitation like during the interview. I also want to thank Chris Pommier, who originally came up with the name “Yumi-verse.” He actually thought I should make a “Yumi-verse” t-shirt. I instead created performances around it.

Accompanying music:

• “Brussels” by Jacques Brel, from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

• “Shock” from Attack on Titan season 4, by Yuko Ando. Guitar cover by WEN. 

• “Watashi No Aoi Tori” (My Blue Bird). Sung by Junko Sakurada, lyrics by Yu Aku and composed by Taiji Nakamura.

• “Pepper Keibu” (Inspector Pepper). Sung by Pink Lady, lyrics by Yu Aku, and composed by Shunichi Tokura.

• “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” by Leon Jessel, a.k.a. the theme of the 3-Minute Cooking Show

• “Hey Mickey” covered by Gorie

• “Keiko no Yume wa Yoru Hiraku” (Keiko's Dream Opens at Night). Sung by Keiko Fuji, lyrics by Masao Ishizaka, and composed by Yukiaki Sone.

• “Kitano Yado Kara” (From the Inn of the North). Sung by Harumi Miyako, lyrics by Yu Aku, composed by Asei Kobayashi, and arranged by Jiro Takemura.

• “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper

• “Be Sweet” by Japanese Breakfast

• “UFO.” Sung by Pink Lady, lyrics by Yu Aku, and composed by Shunichi Tokura.

 Cultural references:

• Pochita (two of them): Characters from the Chainsaw Man anime based on manga by Tatsuki Fujimot.

• “Taro Kaja and Jiro Kaja”: Reference to Kyogen (Japanese theater), these are names of characters who appear in several different plays. “Kaja” refers to an adult man.

• “Antarctica Story.” Taro and Jiro are names of the dogs from the movie Atlantic Story.

• “Mizushima”:  A main character from The Burmese Harp, a 1956 Japanese drama directed by Kon Ichikawa and based on a novel by Michio Takeyama.

• “11 Nin Iru” (They Were Eleven!): manga by Moto Hagio.

• “Hanshin: Half-God”: manga by Moto Hagio.

• “Kuchisake Onna” (Slit-Mouthed Woman), a Japanese urban legend/folklore

Alys Ayumi Ogura is a storyteller through her movements, voice, and quirky humor. Growing up an only child in Japan gave her enough room to develop a strong imagination. After trading Japanese rice fields for Iowa corn fields, Ogura saw that dance and movement are the best outlets for her to share her ever-percolating stories from her life experiences. Ogura’s movement and choreography are most influenced by her first two mentors, the late Mika Kurosawa, godmother of Japanese contemporary dance, and Rob Scoggins, her former college dance professor, each of whom offered boundless encouragement. Ogura has worked in the Twin Cities since 2010 with more than 30 artists—near and far—including Hauser Dance, Emily Johnson/Catalyst, Emily Gastineau, Sandrine Harris, Kata Juhasz, Pam Gleason, Pramila Vasudevan, and Laurie Van Wieren. She has toured with April Sellers’ ASDC and with Sarah LaRose-Holland’s KEDC, and she has performed her choreography at various Twin Cities venues, including the Southern Theater, Walker Art Center, and the Cedar Cultural Center. She has created more than 10 works, and she has shown her improvisations in various places, including the St. Paul skyway and the Mississippi riverbank. Ogura is a former Arts Organizing Institute Fellow (2017-18) through Pangea World Theater, and a Naked Stages Fellow (2021) through Pillsbury House Theatre. She serves on the DanceMN steering committee and she supports MN Artist Coalition efforts.

Akiko Ostlund is a Twin Cities-based interdisciplinary storyteller, teaching artist, curator, and activist. The mediums she most commonly works with include poetry, music, dance, collage, and puppetry. Her work often includes themes of anti-oppression and social change. A native of Osaka, Japan, Akiko tells stories that reflect the narrative of immigrant women of color that are often underrepresented in white eurocentric society.

New Works 4 Weeks Continues!