The Pavement Performance Festival was a meaningful, fun, and intense street event in Portland's Pearl District. It was curated by Tracy Cameron Francis, who you can see standing near me in the photo below. It was an honor and a pleasure to be part to be part of this wonderful festival!
 |   3 photos by Meg Nanna of me playing my homemade instruments at some choice locations at the festival. |
 Melody Erfani presented MOVEMENT, a piece inspired by recent interviews with immigrants and refugees in collaboration with NY based actors Muge Karaguille and Buket Gulbeyez, whose performances were riveting. |  This beautiful, piece started with the actors desperately trying to gain access to the outside performance space. It concluded with the actors and audience united with hands over hearts. photos by Meg Nanna |
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Urks Kurth: Purification of Corruption Process- "Led through the crowd by an Alchemist, a person with the power to transform bad into good- performers act as an embodiment of our social ills until purified": a very powerful piece!
  |  Laura Allcorn and Traci Sym- Insecurity Screening- A TSA-style security screening session set up on a sidewalk. In this piece audience members went through insecurity screening, putting their insecurities into security bins and then casting them away. A very creative, timely, humorous, hands-on piece!  Kushi Beauchamp- STORY TENT- "A 1-on-1 experiment in public vulnerability, intimacy, and story telling". |
 Teatro Calamari- WALK/DON'T WALK. A Love Story Inbetween the Lines. |  The story takes place on a crosswalk and is about the two white walking figures you see on automated cross walking signs, who sadly are never able to connect. |
 Above: Claudia F. Salleeby Savage, with John Savage- Thick in the Throat, Honey- After the Khadijah Queen line, "I heard a howling but did not run." two separate stories meld into one. Right: Wendy Allegaert- Red, White and Blue- A piece about panic and love. Love and panic. A clown in a window. photos by Meg Nanna. |  |
 |  !MICHAEL ESPINOZA – Burying Queer Ancestors: Leslie Feinberg, Jean Genet, Michel Foucault and Walt Whitman – "A ritual burial wherein the lives of remembered queer ancestors are forgiven, celebrated, and sent back into the ground with our offerings as ambassadors of our sadness". Michael read passages from these authors, then in a ritual performance, put their books in a casket, then closed the festival with a dance party- a nice ending to a great little festival! |
