Kimberly Dark
APAP SHOWCASING ARTIST - 2008
NACA SHOWCASING ARTIST - WEST LECTURE SHOWCASE 2006
Performance Programs:
"Stripped and Teased: Scandalous Stories with Subversive Subplots"
In this award-winning show, Kimberly continues to challenge the audience's concepts of sex and gender roles via smart and vibrant story-telling, passionate poetry and intimate audience interaction. More like "stand-up story-telling" than a traditional theater show, the audience will laugh, think and be amazed that an evening of theater can be so intimate, thought provoking and entertaining all at the same time!
"Becoming the Subject of Your Own Story – Rather Than the Object of Another’s Gaze"
This spoken word performance uses humor and first-person storytelling to uncover the various ways that women (and men) cheat the world of fabulous human potential by focusing too often on appearance, sweetness and popularity, rather than living full lives. This show was born of interactions with real college women and does not preach or instruct. Rather, audience members discover their own methods of empowerment through Kimberly’s funny and personal tales of life as a modern woman.
Spoken Word Performance and Poetry Slams
Kimberly can tailor a spoken word performance to fit your audience and topical needs. Or, let your students BE the show, by having a hosted poetry slam. The event can include a preparatory workshop if you choose, or have a specific focus (women’s lives, queer issues, etc.). Students become the performers of their own lives and experiences while providing an entertaining and thought provoking event for the audience.
"The Butch/Femme Chronicles:
Discussions With Women Who Are Not Like Me (and Some Who Are)"
This is an intimate and compelling piece of theater. The audience is allowed to see into the family album of lesbian gender, laughing at some of the snapshots, shocked at turns and endeared at times as well. Each story in the collection reveals a bit more about each of us as we negotiate relationships - whether as lesbians, as women, or with women. The show, which can include a follow up discussion, or further lectures on intra-gender gendering, focuses foremost on the everyday ways that women construct gender with one another. These aren't the butch/femme roles of the 1950s, but the stories do shed light on the powerful role gender plays in our lives - even though lesbians are, supposedly, only one gender! As quoted in The Southern California Gay and Lesbian Times: "The Butch-Femme Chronicles explores the always tricky and sometimes thorny territory that lesbians inhabit. Dark charts the distances between self and image, butch and femme, and the cultural stereotypes of pretty and ugly. She maps out the journeys that we take as strangers, sisters and lovers in private and public. Dark expertly weaves together her backgrounds in poetry, performance and social science to present a beautifully wrought and highly informed account of how lesbians negotiate the heterosexually coded world."
Lectures and Workshops:
"'Is that a Dude?' Lesbian Gendering: It’s not as simple as you think!"
Butch and Femme roles in the lesbian community are often seen as a way for one woman to “be the man” while the other is “the woman.” While it is true that couples often take on traditionally male and female roles in their partnerships, Kimberly Dark argues against the simplicity of this analysis – that gender is dualistic – especially among lesbians. Using a combination of autoethnographic story-telling, performance poetry and lecture, Dark explores the ways in which lesbians have re-created gender in response to personal urges, misogynist culture and the social construction of gender. And, the profound nature of this recreation of gender among lesbians has something to teach all of us about how limiting gender roles can be and what we can do to disrupt gender as a constricting force in our lives.
"Gender, Race, and Money"
One great American ideal is that we can work hard and become wealthy – and some do! However, many people work hard to meet basic needs and feel as though they are somehow personally to blame for their lack of prosperity. The gap between rich and poor in the United is widening and this trend is particularly evident for communities of color and for women. Because women often work in economically marginalized professions, sometimes lack credibility and bear unequal responsibility for childrearing, pulling out of poverty can be particularly difficult. The reality is that poverty is not just a personal problem! During this engaging and interactive 90 minute lecture, Dark teaches participants about trends -- both historical and current day -- in the distribution of wealth in America that effect all Americans. From this general understanding, Dark focuses in on how acutely these trends effect women and people of color and how growing numbers of children raised in poverty may continue to widen the gap between the rich and poor in America. Dark leads participants through exercises to help them understand their own financial wealth, how it is influenced by the privilege of birth and circumstances and how those who lack wealth are not as personally deficient as some believe. The content of this lecture is applicable to each person who uses money – and participants will leave with the tools for making connections with others to work toward a more just economy.
"The Social Construction of Race and Gender"
Race and Gender are biological realities, right? Not so! Says Kimberly Dark. While each individual has at least one, and sometimes many races and genders, it is not the possession of specific attributes that affect our lives, rather, the social meaning those attributes are given. And the amazing thing is, each of us participates in the creation of that social meaning. Using herself as an often humorous example, Dark exposes the invisibility of gender while exploring the ways in which we construct race and gender on a daily basis, creating, denying and subverting privilege along the way. Through a combination of audience interaction, humor and well-reasoned historical analysis, Dark delivers the incredibly hopeful message that social change becomes possible when we de-stabilize the idea of objective conditions and start creating the reality of fairness.
Courage in creative writing: Exploring the first person narrative
Writing in the first person (using “I”) can feel very vulnerable and self-revealing. This type of writing is sometimes called autobiography, memoir or autoethnography. In this workshop, we will explore the power of first person story-telling and practice writing in the first person. We will work with the nuances of telling enough of the story – knowing when to stop! Kimberly will also help participants understand how to use personal stories to write about broader themes. As she often says “Every story is about me, but I am not the subject.” Participants will leave the workshop with greater courage and skill at storytelling in the first person and will have started a few different stories for completion at home.
Getting Started With the Writing Life
Participants will explore the writing life through activities and writing exercises designed to subdue inner critics and allow friendship with the writer within. Through brief guided meditation and fun activities, participants will get to know each other and themselves as writers and leave with the tools to begin the writing life.
Kimberly Dark
Performance Artist, Poet, Speaker, Sociologist
Gender Studies, GLBT, and Women's Issues
Kimberly Dark continues to work tirelessly on her abilities as a mother, poet, professor and an engaged, authentic soul who can unfold the world through performance, smooth out the crinkles from folding, read the legend and say "You Are Here." Someday she will even be able to re-fold the world and fit it back into the glove-box. Her progress on these abilities has included going on really long RV trips with her child during summer vacations, winning a bunch of poetry slams, doing performances in venues ranging from sandy playgrounds to fancy theaters, galleries to train stations and school classrooms. Some of these things qualify her as an artist; some of them just qualify her.
Kimberly's writing and performances have delighted and incited audiences at theaters and universities across North America and Europe. In addition to her full-length theater shows, her spoken word performances can be customized for various audiences. Her frequent themes are gender, sexuality, abuse, poverty and education. She is also a popular workshop leader on a variety of topics in addition to teaching at the university level when her schedule allows. Her work blends humor, poetry, story-telling, education and social research in order to stimulate a critical analysis of the culture in which we live.
Would you like to receive an additional $500 off of the price of your program?
"Stripped and Teased: Scandalous Stories with Subversive Subplots"