Currently: I am re-examining my relationship to my body–that forgotten instrument, a vehicle of my consciousness, an extension of self, my best friend and foe.

Question: How do we acknowledge our body? Recognize it, care for it, and love it with an honest tenderness?

I want to feel before thinking. I want to listen to the song inside myself before I cast judgement and silence it before it even has a chance to whisper.

Dedicated to my mom who taught me how to be brave.

Metadata

• Inspiration: Janelle Monae, femtech, programming languages, children and play, Tokyo and its extremes [hyper futurist-underground-tradition-contemplative-plastic-reservations]
• Places: Ezra’s kitchen counter, Shibuya cafe, alleyways and in-between spaces
• Music: I created the beat “MISSTEP” in London at Ezra’s kitchen counter, surrounded by playful and supportive loved ones. The second beat is “PYNK” by Janelle Monáe (Instrumental Remake By Roam FM).
• Technical: I edited the footage in Final Cut Pro, recorded the song in a tiny Tokyo hotel room using Garage Band. Eric Kim led the cinematography ((Lumix G9Pro + Leica 12mm f.14, 4k 24fps) and was my empowering creative collaborator.
• Poetry: Written in a Shibuya cafe while
  • softly gazing at the patterned footwork of pedestrians
  • thinking about my mom and her dreams of dancing
  • learning python
  • sipping overpriced coffee
  • tapping my feet to the rhythm of this mysterious city.

MISS READING’S Journey

My current projects MISS meditates on the meaning of all things deemed ‘mis-‘ –wrong, dirty, broken, ‘abnormal.’ From misfits to misreading, misunderstandings to mistakes, MISS/MIS confronts the categorical imperative of labeling things as good/bad, yes/no, men/women, appropriate/not. I pause, ponder, and ask why? Join me on this journey.

Chapter 1: MISSFIT  [Recognition]

I am tired of treading softly between glass boundaries of what is considered ‘appropriate.’ I am tired of listening obediently to the voices of Reason, the Future, and Others tell me that I must be more or less. I want to look in the mirror and see myself, not others.

Chapter 2: MISSTEP [Movement]

A celebration of the chaotic sublime of self.

A song in my stomach, twisted into computerized contortions
A wellspring of movement, made mistakenly malicious.

The way you make me feel, I make me feel, I make me me.
Seeps out, secretly through the meticulous cracks of caked fears.

“a two-step misstep to the clackety clacks of computer keys”

by Cindy Nguyen (Poem/Lyrics)

Command + A step here.
Control + Zipper. No, zebra. A zigging and zagging and surrender to the zephyr on my cheek.
Option + Alt you. You hilarious tease of forgotten functions.

//

Mavis Beacon, did you say something?
I can’t hear you between the patterned pecks of perfect precision.
Move/Be/Do Here, there. now. Everywhere. Nowhere.

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Return to

\\

A song in my stomach, twisted into computerized contortions
A wellspring of movement, made mistakenly malicious.

The way you make me feel, I make me feel, I make me me.
Seeps out, secretly through the meticulous cracks of caked fears.

An
inhale
exhale.

A nod. Then two.
A twitch of the finger
tips of the toes bounce in the tight space between.

>>> spam = ‘A mischievous literary litany’
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A sly smile, a knowing glance
to the Miss Step, who was always there,
here
everywhere
and nowhere.

+++++

—

Shibuya, Tokyo 2018

Written to the rhythm of Dirty Computer, Janelle Monae.