AN UNFOLDING: Reflections on 花和霧 flowers and fog
by KAT GOROSPE COLE AND KIM IP | photo by RJ MUNA
Joy is in her 70s. She is a warm, thoughtful and caring person. She loves singing (yes, you’ll hear her in the show). She sang at public protests in NYC in 1989 in response to the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989, and the arrests and persecution that followed. She has sung at going away parties for coworkers, expressing the sadness that is unspoken. She diligently tends to her garden in Massachusetts and waters Melissa’s plants when she visits SF. She fed me (Kat) a dumpling by hand during a work-in-progress of this show. KIM: Melissa is 31. She is a mild-spicy Sagittarius that somehow always makes time to sit and have tea. She is 1/6 of Asian Babe Gang, Hapa, Queer, humble, and really smart. She has been regularly attending protests
Kim Ip and Kat Gorospe Cole are creative contributors for a new show by Melissa Lewis Wong, 花和霧 flowers and fog , made in collaboration with Melissa’s mother, Joy Chenyu Lewis. The performance is a kaleidoscope of dance, drag, Chinese traditional song and Broadway tunes, dumplings, tea and mahjong. The article below is a response to Melissa’s work, cap- turing a moment in-process during its development. Excerpts are from a creative discussion Kat and Kim had with Melissa and Joy. Tea was being poured and small winter melon cakes were being served on a sunny after- noon in Melissa’s apartment.
KAT: I first experienced Melissa’s project during the midst of shelter in place, stranded in my tiny bed- room in North Berkeley. The absence of people was a weight I felt in my bones. Melissa’s film version of 花 和霧 flowers and fog showed me a
tender and powerful way of connect- ing with loved ones from a distance. While staying in Hawai’i, Melissa had remotely collaborated with their mother, Joy, who was in Massachu- setts, to create a dance film about their relationship.
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