Posted by Cate on Monday, April 30, 2001 at 10:50PM :
Dear friends,
I was deeply saddened by the events that transpired Saturday night around the
Mystic Family Circus. Then Cinnamon Twist emailed, touting the event as the
pinnacle of artistic revolution. This event could have, should have been the
mystical, beautiful event that it was intended to be, and that Cinnamon Twist so
eloquently describes in the email/web posting. It was to be groundbreaking,
setting a new standard for performance art, meaningful gathering, and dance. It
would have opened minds and hearts to levels of creativity and expression that
are humanity - creation, beauty, poetry, theater. Art.
Instead, because of problems with permits and poor organization, the event
was shut down shortly after tai-chi, by local, militant LA police.
This organizational blunder hurt a multitude of people. Performers put months
of time and resources into costumes, sets, travel to LA, and rehearsal. Although
I was not one of the performers, my lover and I made a huge monetary
investment in coming down to support friends and family in the Circus, planning
it as the climax of and sole inspiration for an extended trip to central-southern
California. We arrived in LA on Thursday, and at the party Saturday night just as
the police had cleared the building. We found a baffled crowd (perhaps 100, that
was rapidly dwindling) on one side of the street, and equally baffled performers
segregated forcibly by motorcycle police to the other side of the street. A
helcopter circled ominously. An hour later, the handful (not several dozen) police
allowed the crowds to mingle, and I was delighted to see the energy levels
rising! Wherever it happened - in the warehouse, or in the street, it seemed that
art was going to prevail!
I looked at the crowd - they were not united in resistance, they were confused by
the collapse of the event, and frightened by police intimidation tactics. Even
performers wandered around, wondering what was going on. It was not long,
that a militant LAPD officer raged his car past the edge of the dancers, almost
colliding with a dancing woman and her poodle before screeching to a halt a
short distance away, leaping from the car, and rushing toward the crowd,
billy-club held high. At this point, motorcycle sirens turned on, the police
seemed to move into full terrorism mode, and we opted to leave, fearing
violence (from the police.) At our hotel, we commiserated with some of the
Circus participants, who had spent the day setting up sound, only to find that
they would have to tear it down before anyone could re-enter the building. One
last note - the cops were not enlightened by the events. They insulted the
performers, they insulted the organizers, and they thought the whole thing was a
joke that it was their job to dismantle.
For three days, as we worked our way back up the coastline, we could not get
the Circus off our minds. We couldn't believe that the efforts of so many people
could be left up to chance regarding permits. Heartbreak and disappointment
only *begin* to describe what we felt, leaving the party Saturday night, and
through the beginning of the week. The circus promised to be an event like no
other, a pinnacle of free thought and creative energy. The DJ lineup was to be
spectacular, everything was vibrating, ready to coalesce into an event that would
rise above, pulse, and explode with light. What a dream!
But to pretend that this perfect vibration, this transcendence of all things, really
happened, is to omit such a huge part of the story, as to not reflect truth. The
party was shut down by a gestapo police force because of a deficiency in
permits. Hundreds, or perhaps thousands of dreamers, dancers, participants,
were heart-crushed. This part of the story is not the comic triumph of art, but the
tragic loss of what could have been. Lost because of beaurocracy, lost because
of mismanagement.
The web site mentions expectancy of 2000 people at the event - accounts say
that the warehouse was full at 10:15; I don't know what the official count was.
Whether it was 400 or 2000 people, those are individuals (beyond the scope of
the performers) who invested time, love, effort to participate in the celebration.
Most of these people were terrorized by the police, and left the party. When my
lover and I left the event shortly after 11:30, about twenty guests remained, a
portion of the original circus participants, and cops were beginning to attack,
brandishing weapons. The sound was being torn down, and even some of the
DJs left the scene.
As I mentioned before, we were baffled and shocked. How could this have
happened? It was a dream of perfection, crumbling, and reduced to, as
Cinnamon Twist describes, the performers and about 100 people, from a
*different* party, dancing to DJ monitors.
Yesterday, the receipt of the email below was infuriating, and perhaps a
reality-check is called for. Some people surely needed to have some sort of
performance or party prevail, to feel that all was not lost. But many people are
extremely hurt and angry about the events that transpired this weekend. For all
of these people to put months of hard work and preparation into making a reality
of a dream, and then to leave everything to chance because proper permits
were not procured, is maddening.
The email celebrates the party as a huge triumph for the elite few performers
who stayed, condescending to the guest-participants as "normals", excluding
even many original participants, and toting the event as a breakthrough of
culture. To post it on the web site as an official description of the party: as
resisance, as triumph, as what dance and performance events **should** be is
infuriating. The email was a deep *wound* to us who also invested, who also
dared to dream, who also wanted this event to reach new heights. Furthermore,
it omits the dramatic terrorism of LAPD against a peaceful gathering of
performers - artists, dancers, musicians.
The circus had limitless possibilities that should be shared with many people,
not just a hundred folks trying to have a good time. This event *should* have
been all the things described below, it should have been epic, transformative.
Melissa, Carmenchu, Paradox, Tirza, etc worked their asses off to realize this
event, and we feel awful that it crashed so hard. That it was shut down at 10:30
by police is something that merits serious consideration, and that hundreds,
perhaps even thousands of individuals experienced it as a lost dream deserves
deep reflection. It is not the "process," the promise of what can be that always
matters, sometimes the "product," what *is* also weighs heavy. Pretending that
the event was a breakthrough success only adds insult to injury, because for
the majority, it wasn't.
Respectfully,
Your sister and brother
Cate and Paul
-- Cate
-- signature IaAb/.
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