Exerpts from a conversation between
Kitten - founder/organizer of legendary Burning Man camp "Comfort & Joy" and community cross-pollinator extraordinaire
Lucille - former president of Nomenus, star of "Aliens Cut My Hair," and outrageously talented photographer
Chickpea - creative director of Gay-Glo performance group, former Grand Duke of San Francisco
Randarella - construction manager of Comfort & Joy, primitive skills teacher, builder, weaver, spinner, clothing designer
Once a year, thousands of utopian dreamers gather in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create a temporary city of what "Might Be" where magical art & mischief abounds. They call it Burning Man. When: August 31st - September 7, 2009
More information: www.burningman.com www.playajoy.org
Kitten:
The spiritual part is the wind coming, and my shit is blowing away
because the storm is coming, and I’m okay with that. I can deal
because I have no control. Here comes the wind, and it’s gone.
I think there’s a lot of commonality between Faeries and Burners, and I would love to see the
Faeries learn a little more about production, more about outcome, focused
attention and making things happen. And I think Burners could
appreciate the self-awareness and the spirituality that goes with
Faerie gatherings. They’re both naturals for each other, both can contribute to each other, and when they combine, it’s a beautiful thing.
Part of the intensity of Burning Man is the location. You're in this huge, dry lake bed with
miles of flatness in every direction until you reach mountains.
There are no buildings anywhere, and the stars are the brightest you've
ever seen. It's a magical place, so simple, which
makes each element so strong.
My sense of time completely changes out there. I mean, out in
the world many of us have sleep schedules based around employment, but on the playa the day gets divided up into 4 or 6
temperature ranges where everything will be different depending on how
hot it is. So at dawn, you have light but you don't have heat
yet, and that's when you can get things done. Around noon, you
have intense heat & everyone takes a break. The night is divided
into different temperature periods, too: the early night is warm, but
pre-dawn can get almost icy cold. And you need a completely
different wardrobe for each period.
Harry Hay had a lot to say about faeries
being special, and faggots in general having unique gifts to share
with the world, to the point of us having a responsibility: we
can't just keep those gifts to ourselves.
What are we doing at the Burn is gathering together faeries & saying,
Ok, there's something special about our faggotry & we're going to
collect these gifts & offer them to this larger scenario that's out
there: the 50,000 others at Burning Man who are mostly straight! Like
the time we hosted a sexual massage workshop where
half the space was straight couples, right next to gay couples! Talking
all about "male chakra this & that," ... and there's this gay guy with his
boyfriend right next to a straight couple, this guy laying there with
this girl going at it. I mean, when are we EVER in sexual space so
close to people who are “others”?
Lucille:
In the late 80s & early 90s there was a lot of theorycraft going on, and Harry Hay was
coming to the circles a lot & doing his thing. By that time he had
already ascended far into the Pantheon & his deification was almost
complete. I think you lead by example at Burning Man, just by going and doing
the things that Faeries do. You just get out there, Be and Do. You're not trying to recruit or draw
anybody in. You just be yourself, and people who resonate with that
will sense you're creating a centered pool of vibration and join you.
Ritual is simply shared experience. And we
have a heightened shared experience at Burning Man that's differentiated from everything else
on the planet. And so even without saying the word
spiritual, we're there already. We're not defining it, we're just having our individual powerful experiences & sharing having
them together.
The intensity is just forced on you on the playa from
the get-go. Just being there, assuming you're not on drugs & have
all the food & water you need, you're already in an
altered state. The landscape perspective -- you have have no idea how
far away or close anything is -- it's just a flat plane as far as you
can see, until the mountains shoot out of the flatness.
It's surreal!
Chickpea:
I think one of the things that’s even stronger at Burning Man than
at Faerie gatherings is the sense of connection after the gathering.
Comfort & Joy and the other theme camps have a year-round
life, it’s not just on the playa anymore. I know that Wolf Creek and other faerie
lands have year-round stuff, but I just think it’s kind of amazing how
we’ve become nomadic and activated throughout the year.
At Comfort & Joy last year, there
was this group that wanted to do yoga, and another group that
wanted to do cabaret. There was a group that said “We want to build
a pink gym.” And a group that did face painting. There
was a group of Kitchen Queens. And that was so great! Everyone did
their own trip but we were still camped together as a community & had
to survive in the desert together. It's like Comfort & Joy has
become a mini-Faerie gathering inside Burning Man.
The reason why I'm attracted to Burning Man, and
Rainbow and Faerie gatherings, is that freaks can feel OK and do
whatever the hell we want. You can trip out on acid, or you can sit
there & cry all afternoon. You can drum by yourself, or you can be
a freak at Center Camp. I mean, the Faerie thing is pretty creative, but Burning
Man just blows it away on that level. Creativity is just so
huge there.
Breaking down, setting up, letting go, surviving together... for me those
things are spiritual. Come to Burning Man and die!
Randarella:
I realized that Wolf Creek is a transitional place where people go to live
their dream, grow, sit, think, and then move on. It’s the same at Burning Man, we put our hearts into what we do
and then it’s either burned or let go of somehow. It reminds me of
tribal times: when you became a man, you would burn all your toys and
just let go. Much of this society, to me, doesn’t embrace that feeling
of letting go, it’s all about having more and keeping and holding, the
garages get bigger, the houses get bigger. The Faeries and
the Burners realize we don’t need all this baggage, it’s about
letting go.
It’s not like going to school, or college, where we have these
certain parameters, these certain books we have to read. Here we’re just challenged by our own hearts and
minds about how far we want to go. What drugs do we do to
go across the line? How do we want to experience something beyond ourselves? And once
we’re there, can we return to rational society with something to
teach?
