Emerson Takes a Walk
“Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no on expects the days to be Gods.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Come out of your warm angular house resounding with few voices into the chill grand instantaneous night.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Early in the day Lucky Pierre’s Michael Thomas begins walking at the edge of the city. At the mid point in the journey the walker becomes the lecturer and meets his audience - gathered to hear a re-working of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance.” At the conclusion of the lecture, the lecturer continues his walk and invites the audience join. They walk for silently for a while and find themselves at a local bar where the lecturer buys drinks for the walkers, and they begin to talk.
Using Emerson’s lectures as a starting point, the piece addresses the moving of the body through different spaces - physical, social, political. We talk about the “War on Terror,” Sylvester, John Dewey, boxing, art making, drone strikes, aging, art making while aging, death of course, silence and an attempt to steal a tiny bit of Emerson’s philosophical optimism about the American project.
Some more Emerson quotes :
“The difference between landscape and landscape is small, but there is a great difference in beholders.”
“A man is a method, a progressive arrangement, a selecting principle.”
“We are imprisoned in life in the company of persons powerfully unlike us.”
“Swifter than light the world transforms itself into the thing you name.”
Written and performed by Michael Thomas
“Emerson Takes a Walk” was performed in Chicago at the Lucky Pierre space and the Rapid Pulse Festival; Live Arts Development Agency, London; Regina Rex, Queens; Jokai Gallery, Budapest
