Blessings Available
Blessings Available is a roving 1:1 performance piece affirming physical proximity as a fundamental aspect of “social contact”. It uses a Brat Bhríde (cloth prepared for medicinal use by Irish folk ritual) as both the binding agent and hygienic barrier between poet and audience.
Inspired by somatic theories of mental health, this intentionally simple performance grew out of my own efforts to rebuild relational skills and tame intrusive thoughts following Covid quarantine.
A typical interaction begins with 3-5 minutes of free chat, to establish connection. Participants then hold my hands with the Brat Bhríde between our skin while I ask three questions before improvising a blessing in the Irish tradition — that is, claiming no priesthood or authority beyond the universal human power to bless and to curse.
The personalized poems provide a focal point of interfaith diplomacy, however the real essence of the interaction is privately performed between myself and each participant as we feel each other’s “digital” reactions to the words spoken aloud.
For indirect inspiration I'd like to acknowledge Wendy MacNaughton's DrawTogether campaign, which invites strangers to draw portraits of each other, and the Omegle Bars series by freestyler Harry Mack, which highlights the energy exchange inherent to improvising for an audience of one.
