Pictures and Statistics from Beyond Barbie - a huge success!

Beyond Barbie: Piecing Together Today's Woman ended in early November with "Life in the First Person", a series of readings by seven different writers.  It, like all the other performances, was stellar.  I have been blown away by the deep sharing that took place during each evening.  The topics were completely varied: Birth, Body Modification, Dance, Spoken Word, Eating Disorders, the Blues, and Intimate Partner Abuse and each was fascinating, rich, fun, poignant, spirit-filled, empowering, interesting, etc., etc., etc.!

Khalima and Dawn Flores after Khalima's performance of Longing at Unity, one of the connections made through Beyond Barbie

Linda Goodman, Lisette Johnson, Megan Hicks, and Susan Singer at Through the Fire

I spent some time trying to figure out what they had in common - what I came up with was the authenticity of the performers.  They all presented their material from the heart, sharing what was true for them openly, without artifice, and the audience members held the space safely, recognizing the sacredness of that deep sharing.  We covered topics which weren't comfortable to be with like the death of a baby, being shot by ones husband, female circumcision, for example, yet we were able to be with the discomfort and feel compassion for the tellers because we could see their humanity.  No Hollywood manipulation was necessary.  No Jerry-Springer-like over-the-top histrionics.  The Truth was sufficient.  It was "Reality TV" at its best.  My heart was flooded with compassion and empathy with each story.

Yet the stories weren't all sad either.  One woman shared about being photographed by Playboy when she was a teen.  Another shared a beautiful birth story.  We watched dances that expressed great joy and spirituality, and we listened to Gaye Adegbalola sing the Blues full of empowerment and heartfelt goodness.  The range was extensive, just like in real life, condensed into seven evenings of community.
I gathered some numbers from the series which might be interesting to you:

302 - VERY approximate number of different people who attended one or more of the performances.
500 - approximate total number of attendees over the course of seven weeks
$4880 - amount of money brought in through sales of tickets for Beyond Barbie
$413 - amount donated to charity - Eating Disorder Coalition
27 - number of artists paid by BB for performing
100+/- - greatest # of people at one night - Life in the First Person
197 (and growing) - number of FB fans of BB
15 - # of people who've expressed an interest in keeping BB going
1000's - number of new connections and friends made through BB!
5 - the number of articles written about Not Barbie or Beyond Barbie (RVAMag, Richmond.com, Style Weekly, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Richmond Magazine

Sheila Gray, performer at Life in the First Person

“Beyond Barbie – Caught in a Fun House Mirror”, by Matt Wetsel, http://rvamag.com/articles/full/12902/beyond-barbie-caught-in-a-fun-house-mirror, Nov 2

“Exhibit Reveals More Than Just Skin”, by Alix Bryan, Richmond.com, http://www2.richmond.com/entertainment/2011/sep/21/exhibit-reveals-more-just-skin-ar-1324017/, Sept 21

“Naked Truth: Susan Singer’s ‘Not Barbie’ lets it all hang out at Crossroads Art Center”, Style Weekly, http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/naked-truth/Content?oid=1611275, Sept 13

“REAL WOMEN: Exhibit Focuses on Beauty and Body Image”, Richmond Times Dispatch, http://www2.timesdispatch.com/entertainment/flair/2011/sep/11/tdflair01-real-women-ar-1292440/, Sept 12

“Body Work”, Richmond Magazine, by Anne Dryfuss, http://www.richmondmagazine.com/?articleID=fbd27566dda996c75c42c531912d579c, Sept

Linda Goodman and Denise Bennett at Through the Fire

By all accounts, the shows were a fabulous success, and I'm deeply grateful to each and every person who participated either by performing or attending or buying ads for the program or providing us with space (thanks, Jenni Kirby and everybody else at Crossroads!) or by supporting those of us who did all those things.  I truly believe that this series helped shift the paradigm of how we see women.  We have come to recognize the strength in being real, honest, authentic and vulnerable.  Ironically, it is not a place of weakness - it is a place of strength and empowerment.

May we each go onward from this day forward to be our authentic selves, Beyond Barbie!

Article by Matt Wetsel in RVAMag

Matt Wetsel, a friend from Beyond Barbie's night on Eating Disorders, has written a stellar article about that evening and about eating disorders in general for RVAMag.  If you weren't able to make it, this is a great way to get a sense of the evening.  Thanks, Matt, for such a great article, and thanks, RVAMag, for publishing it and addressing this vital topic.

http://rvamag.com/articles/full/12902/beyond-barbie-caught-in-a-fun-house-mirror

Breaking the Funhouse Mirror: The Distorted Reflections of Eating Disorders

Breaking the Funhouse Mirror: 5th in a series of evening performances around women’s

issues focuses on eating disorders—causes, effects and healing

Can eating disorders be prevented? Can they be healed? How do you live with their effects?

On October 20, an educator and a therapist, along with a local writer and a massage therapist,

bring their experience and expertise to explore those questions and how eating disorders stem

from distorted self-perceptions. The event, Caught in a Funhouse Mirror: The Distorted

Reflections of Eating Disorders, is one of a series of seven evening performances in conjunction with Susan Singer’s exhibition of female nudes, Not Barbie: A Celebration of Real Women, which opens Friday, Sept 16th, at 6 PM at Crossroads Art Center.

The funhouse mirror can be broken. Hear from women who are intimately acquainted with the mirror, its effects and the healing journey toward the authentic self. Kathleen MacDonald believes that eating disorders, chronic dieting and body dislike are preventable epidemics and that educating people about them is integral to the fight to eliminate them. As the education and prevention coordinator for the Gail R. Schoenbach F.R.E.E.D. Foundation, this nationally known expert in eating and body image issues has presented at universities, schools, conferences and many other venues.

Psychotherapist and activist Rachael Stern’s clinical experience encompasses eating disorders (all types), trauma and somatic psychotherapy, couples therapy, self-injury and LGBTQ issues, with a particular interest in activism and social change. Based in Baltimore, where she has recently joined the Pershing Turner Centers, she is the executive director of the Eating Disorder Activist Network and is a registered yoga teacher.

Karen Morris specializes in body contact therapy to counter low self-esteem, body image and/or eating disorder issues, as well as body/touch issues such as those from sexual assault. A board certified massage therapist, Morris brings bodywork and massage to counter issues stemming from eating disorders. Recovered herself from a 30 year battle with anorexia and bulimia she is a member of The Eating Disorder Coalition Junior Board and is an eating disorder Activist.

Local writer and editor Christine Ennulat is not an expert in eating disorders, nor has she suffered from one—directly. She shares her own experience of and continuing healing from an eating disorder in her world.

Beyond Barbie: Piecing Together Today’s Woman runs weekly at Crossroads Art Center from

September 22 - November 3. Caught in a Funhouse Mirror: The Distorted Reflections of

Eating Disorders takes place Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. at Crossroads Art Center, 2016 Staples Mill Rd,

RVA 23230. Tickets may be purchased online at www.SusanSinger.com. For more information please go www.susansinger.com or call Crossroads at 804-278-8950.

Contact: Karen Morris, akarentouch@yahoo.com  www.akarentouch.info

The truth as I see it. The truths my models bring to me.

I take these photographs.  I paint these paintings.  I learn about these women - the skinny ones, the fat ones, the fit ones, the sluggish ones, the old, the young...  Each of them is so perfect, so unique.  Each shares part of her story with me, and I feel such compassion, such empathy, such a strong desire to portray them as beautifully as I possibly can because that is the truth as I see it.

They tell me about themselves as children, about their operations, about their abortions, about their partners and their children, about their eating disorders, their abuse, their happy childhoods, their healthy upbringings.  They share with me how they feel about their bodies whether they use words or not.

I ask each woman try to find a word to describe how she wants to feel and appear in the photographs.  Here are some of their answers:

powerful, like a Goddess, strong, beautiful, graceful, prayerful, meditative, centered, calm, energetic

Some women are defiant - they will show their bodies if they damn well please.
Some pose because they know they need to/want to in order to march through their fear to the other side.

Some want to feel beautiful and think I can help.  Sometimes I can.  Sometimes I can't.  I try.

Some have had eating disorders or other issues about their bodies.
They might be shy about posing nude for me, a virtual stranger. They might believe they look too fat or too skinny or too tall or too muscular or too ...  whatever their loved ones have sadly led them to believe was true.



Some are defiant yet scared.
Some pose then know it is the right thing to ask me never to paint them.  They want to not be seen by all.  Yet they wanted/needed to pose.

Some are simply comfortable with who they are.  They revel in the feel of the air on their skin.  They love feeling the warmth of the lights on their skin.  They dance.  They move.  They close their eyes and feel the grace they were born with.  They love the feel of their muscles and skin and hair.

Some have hated their bodies in the past but done so much work that they are in a different place now and want to celebrate it.

Some have me photograph their scars and tell me the heroic stories that accompany such fascinating beauty.

Some are awkward at first and move stiffly until they realize they are safe and seen with compassion.  Their reserve melts.  A magical moment occurs and they allow themselves to be.  To just simply be.  Be in their own skin, naked, and seen by another.








Some weep with joy at the freedom.

Some blame me for the shock.

Some are wounded because they needed to say no to modeling but didn't.
Some move through the myriad feelings and come out different.

Some are healed.




All tell me stories I am honored to hear.  All share a most precious gift - vulnerability and trust.
It is one of my deepest wishes that I honor that trust and give these women the gift of being seen with love and honored for the beauty that shines from within.