Working the Ancient Technologies

The Cascadia Poetry Festival will be in town Nov 1-3 (buy tickets and get details at the Cascadia Poetics Lab website), and we've managed to snag a few of the performers to join us on October 31 at Hugo House for a night of poetry and rituals to ward off the many INTRUSIONS that keep us from being present and in our bodies, whether that be the circus show of a US Presidential election, the ongoing genocide on the other side of the world, or the endless string of snake oil cures, anti-culture War soapboxes, and faux life "hacks" that the artificial stupidity of Silicone Valley lobs at your attention every minute of the day.

US Halloween, while it can be a fun time to let off steam and play with identity, has appropriated and de-contextualized some of the practices of indigenous and other pagan cultures from around the globe. Jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treating, masquerades all have long traditions connected with evading or warding off intrusions from the ancestral realm. The day or two around the end of October and early November have since prehistoric times been regarded as a time of winterization, when all the food is packed in the storehouse. As such, these days were held sacred for their seasonally analogous connection with the threshold between life and death. We thought this would be a great time to re-contextualize and use the ancient technologies of ritual and poetry to reclaim these ancient ways of connecting to the earth.

We're thrilled to have CA Conrad, poetry's nomadic High Priestx, on hand to lead us in ritual and read some of their poetic divinations. They'll be joined in the somatic and poetic arts by Meredith Quartermain and Jami Macarty, who'll be in town from BC, and local poet, activist, and Redmond Poet Laureate, Ching-In Chen. It's going to be a great night you won't want to miss!

On Accessibility and Inclusivity:

Costumes are more than welcome, though do keep in mind that MarginShift and Hugo House strive to create an inviting and welcoming space. One of  the goals of the night is to ward off evil spirits of all kinds. Costumes that exhibit any racist, transphobic, homophobic, sexist, ableist, ageist, or otherwise disrespectful and disenfranchising messages may be asked to change or leave.

Hugo House is an ADA-compliant facility.