http://www.alibi.com The Arts from the Alibi en-us http://www.alibi.com/rss PHP webmonkeys@alibi.com http://alibi.com/index.php?story=31057&scn=art Regret is a terrible emotion with which to live. It can gnaw at you for years, trapping you in a sad cycle of longing and self-recrimination. Do not let this happen to you. The deadline for our seventh annual Photo Contest is nigh. Go to alibi.com and click on “Photo Contest 2010” for all you need to know about how to enter. Get your submissions in by 11:59:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 14. Like most things that happen on the Ides of March, late entries are unlucky and will not be considered. The Photo Contest issue hits the streets on March 25. Don’t hate yourself for missing out. Erin Adair-Hodges http://alibi.com/index.php?story=31074&scn=art Juli Hendren may not have sought to change our perceptions of violent activism when she started composing Waste Her , her new one-woman show playing at Tricklock Space. But she clearly intended to explore how people move from enthusiasm to extremism, and why they come to view destruction as the only viable solution to the world’s ills. Inspired by the real-life exploits of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) between the early '90s and the early Naughts, Hendren conceived of Waste Her after reading Outside ’s September 2007 interview with Chelsea Gerlach. A pivotal member of ELF’s operations, Gerlach was seven months into a nine-year sentence at the time of the interview’s publication. She had been charged with arson, sabotage, aiding and abetting, and eco-terrorism. The judge found Gerlach guilty on all counts, and while terrorism carries a sentence of 30 years to life on its own, Gerlach significantly reduced her term by cooperating with prosecutors. When she spoke to Outside , both in writing and in-person over the course of many months, Gerlach explained, “The primary responsibility we have as activists and as human beings is to ensure that whatever action we take is based on love. In my involvement with the ELF, we didn't do that, and in that sense we failed.” Throughout the interview, Gerlach acknowledges a shift in her personal ethos—away from the ELF’s direct action methodology—and she extends an apology to those people affected by the group's exploits. Yet Gerlach concludes by saying that a “truly moral direct action” may indeed exist; that after “fully contemplating” one’s victims and the things they’re doing wrong (the things that make them a target in the first place), one may decide “that the most compassionate thing in the world is to light their buildings on fire.” It would seem, then, that Gerlach remains outside the sphere of nonviolence and pacifist dialogue, that she still finds a place for unilateral tactics despite her incarceration. When you read the entirety of the interview (here: tiny.cc/AbEnu), you’re racked with questions of how and why. Hendren’s fictionalized interpretation of Gerlach's choices is beautiful; her postulations are thoughtful, balanced and compelling. She explores the hows and whys of extremism through a fictionalized group called the Environmental Liberation Movement and the relationship between eco-saboteur Jessie and her straightlaced (except for a credit-card debacle) sister, Samantha. We are invited to follow Jessie’s progression from awkward youngest daughter, to nature-loving teen, to devastated orphan, to environmental advocate, to fire-wielding radical, to forlorn convict, to ... well, the Alibi doesn’t like to spoil endings, so let’s just say it’s a tear-jerker. Which is the second-most remarkable thing about Waste Her . Throughout Hendren’s narrative, Samantha expresses the audience’s discontentment with Jessie—often employing a comedic tone and providing a pressure valve for the story’s tensions. At the same time, Samantha’s love and devotion elicit feelings of solidarity with both sisters. Because we know Jessie like Samantha knows Jessie, and because we’re made privy to her progression, we feel bound to her. And so, no matter how abhorrent Jessie’s behavior, we can’t neglect her humanity; we’re unable to condone her actions, but we can’t condemn her, either. The first-most remarkable thing about Waste Her , then, is Juli Hendren. Her acting is chillingly powerful. In addition to playing the evolving roles of both Jessie and Samantha, Hendren is their father, Jessie’s boyfriend (fellow environmentalist Elijah Wells), Jessie’s attorney, a flighty sorority girl and a stern judge. Each character has its own persona, accent and mannerisms, and in many “scenes,” the characters interact with one another; coming out of one actor, this could easily feel schizophrenic and confusing. But it’s not at all. It’s fluid, clear and convincing. Between Hendren’s composition and performance and director Summer Olsson’s guiding influence, something brilliant has been born. It is truly—to use a term this writer has carefully reserved for nearly six months—a tour de force. Julia Mandeville 35.0887170 -106.6243860 http://alibi.com/index.php?story=31055&scn=art “Will I ever become a journalist or a writer?” wrote Anne Frank while her family hid from the Nazis in a secret annex in Amsterdam. “I hope so, oh I hope so very much ... ” Though Frank died just two years later at age 15, her wish did in fact come true. Her diary, published posthumously first in 1947, has since become one of the most widely read books in the world. More than 5,000 miles from Amsterdam and 65 years after the Holocaust, Anne Frank’s experiences still resonate. On a sunny near-spring afternoon, middle school students from Deming and Cimarron are among the 7,000 people to so far visit the Anne Frank: A History for Today exhibition at Coronado Center. Brought to Albuquerque by New Mexico Human Rights Projects, the display includes a maze of panels detailing Frank’s life and the history of the Holocaust. The exhibit comes from the Anne Frank House in the Netherlands and is supplemented with local contributions of film, art and a series of speakers. On this day, students crowd into a small lecture space and listen as NMHRP founder Regina Turner introduces the speaker, Holocaust survivor Evy Goldstein Woods. “Yours is the very last generation to hear the story of a Holocaust survivor,” Turner tells the students. Ms. Woods, who wears her hair in a pert pixie cut and lines her blue eyes in aquamarine pencil, is a native of Germany who has lived in Albuquerque for the last 20 years. Ms. Woods weaves her story, that of hiding in a tiny attic in Berlin similar to Frank’s and a youth spent in a Russian orphanage, with modern and regional parallels. “My last name was Goldstein—it means ‘gold stone,’ two nouns, just as with some Native Americans,” she says. “We bought our house in Albuquerque from a Native American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Running Water.” Woods correlates susceptibility to Nazi propaganda with America’s reverence for empty celebrity. “Don’t do what the TV tells you!” she says. She explains how children in Germany were indoctrinated by Nazi propaganda in schools, youth programs and church. “You’ve got to learn and train yourself to be an individual,” says Woods, motioning to her head, and then her heart. Afterward, the students examine the rest of the exhibit, peering closely at the art lining the walls. The show, titled Looking Through the Shadows: Interpretations in Art , features work by 10 local artists. The diverse collection includes “House of Democracy” by Steve White, an assembly of Pez dispensers refashioned as Bill Moyers, Jackie Robinson, Harvey Milk and a score of others. Nearby, classic dark oils by Brian O’Connor describe vicious, absurd human comedies: In “Hurry Up,” a man toils in a hamster wheel while a bicyclist rides on top of the wheel in the opposite direction. The formality of the painting amplifies the farce. Also on display are a series of somber pastel portraits of Holocaust survivors, including Evy Woods, by Leo Neufeld. As the kids check out the art, they scribble notes on scraps of paper, then drape the missives on a large tree sculpted from metal. The tree is an art project by Sandia High School students. Visitors are invited to write personal messages and hang them from the tree; the messages will be collected and published. Though the exhibit comes from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the nonprofit organization New Mexico Human Rights Projects coordinated a broad local volunteer effort to bring the exhibit to Albuquerque. The space was provided free of charge by Coronado Center, and various contractors donated their services to transform a wrecked former Halloween costume headquarters into an elegant museum. NMHRP formally employs just three people, but the group depends on hundreds of volunteers. The organization has, over the last 15 years, provided more than 200,000 participants with education countering prejudice. In 2000, the group brought one of Frank’s rescuers, Miep Gies, to speak. This year, the CEO Emeritus of the Anne Frank House and President of the Contemporary Holocaust Education Foundation in New York, Cor Suijk—a close friend of Gies, as well as of Anne’s father, Otto—will give a free presentation at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 20. As the students from Deming and Cimarron leave the exhibit and head to the buses for the long ride home, NMHRP founder Regina Turner reminds them to consider what they’ve learned today. Her hope is that these kids hear “the universal message” about the importance of respecting differences. “Carry this message to your class, your friends and family,” she says. “Because the story must be told.” Samara Alpern 35.1086400 -106.5770390