Femolution: Personal, Powerful, Political

By Becca Sorgert
Staff Writer

Controversial Kimberly Dark may not be someone many venues would support in the Midwest, due to her presentation of “uncomfortable perspectives and views, deconstructing them and taking them apart, while using humor.” Spirit Room’s Executive Director, Dawn Morgan, says, “We are very fortunate to have her approach us at the Spirit Room. This is a perfect example of who we like to be.”

Dark describes herself as personal, powerful, and political – and she is nothing but, except busy! As a storyteller, poet, professor at Cal State San Marcos, pop-sociologist and parent, Dark has still found time to perform across North America and Europe over the last ten years.

You would think that big cities where crowds are larger would be Dark’s favorite. The fact is that smaller and midsized towns are. In our community, it is difficult to start dialogues regarding gender, race, and class and feel articulate. “It is great to me to visit places where these conversations are hard to start,” said Dark as she was getting ready to leave Hawaii after a spoken word performance. In venues such as Fargo, Dark’s work can be more effective. We have the opportunity to gain tools from her that we need to have these conversations and implement them within our family, circles of friends and community.

Dark is not your typical performer. Usually, as an audience, we are the spectators. Dark’s unique style engages the audience through provoking questions and chatting to create interaction. But don’t be worried about being put on the spot, Dark explains that she “keeps everyone in the conversation by humor. We don’t have to talk about you; we can talk about my life.”

Humor at this event is used as a way to defuse tension and view topics in a different way. “I don’t like fiction. Life is strange enough,” Dark eloquently avowed. Any situation in our lives can have a range of emotions from elation to anger to sadness. “I’m not really a comedian, I just weave in the funny parts of real life,” Dark continues, “We usually do not do this about the serious things. I don’t want to make light of a topic like violence against women, but there can still be pleasure in understanding one another.”

Dark uses Feminist and Queer values in her work in an applied sense, “If we argue for women’s rights on the basis of political, social and economic equality (a very basic definition, I realize), what I want to do is show the ways in which everyday situations can illuminate the existence of those rights or the absurdity of their lack.”

Having lived in controversy, Dark is dedicated to making sure that feminists and people who are marginalized are supported. The perfect example of this is when she made a speech at a university about violence against women and found herself being heckled before she even started to speak. Unfortunately, confident women such as Dark are faced with the stereotypical term that can make one fume before it is even articulated: FEMI-NAZI!

Dark didn’t want to leave or loose her cool; she was inspired. This inspiration came from a teary-eyed, female student in the front row that looked at the male hecklers and back at Dark for her response. “It was clear to me that attending the same school as those young men had silenced her. And we all suffer as a result of not receiving her gifts in the world. I am inspired by her – and those like her. I am inspired to use the privilege I’ve been given and the tools I’ve forged to try to create a world that includes her gifts. I do what I can, as activist Dorothy Day said, to work ‘toward a world in which it would be easier for people to behave decently.’”

These tools Dark describes can be learned at her workshop, “Courage in Creative Writing: Exploring the First Person Narrative.” An amazing value of Dark as an artist is that she is avid about sharing what she knows. At the workshop, participants will learn how to write their own story without it becoming a confessional, for example, a complicated childhood or perhaps a hate crime. This is a way that we can bring storytelling and conversation back to our community through public sharing while having powerful, personal writing time. “I’m inspired to live publicly in order to affect others,” is a powerful slogan Dark lives by. Living publicly will not only create trust, but make change. Dark’s skill as a storyteller gets to your heart by exposing hers through performing in the first person, making the environment of her events intimate and relatable.

Questions and comments: becca@hpr1.com

Kimberly Dark, “Becoming the Subject of Your Own Story,” in the MSCTC Auditorium on Wednesday, March 24 at noon, open to the public. From the MSCTC parking lot, enter by the South 1 door, the one by the flagpole. On Thursday, March 25, at 7 pm at The Spirit Room, “Feminist Fatale,” admission $15. Friday, March 26, workshop “Courage in Creative Writing: Exploring the First Person Narrative,” 9 am to 12 noon, $45, at The Spirit Room. For more information about Kimberly Dark, visit www.kimberlydark.com.

If You Go

What: Kimberly Dark
Where: MSCTC, The Spirit Room
When: March 24, 25, 26
Info: 800.426.5603, 701.237.0230