Rising in Our Power
Michelle Baharier
Michelle Baharier
What Shaped You?
My performance titled ‘ What shaped you? ‘ asking the viewer to think about what made them who they are. I developed this piece, by first untangling how I became an activist.
As a disabled child I have had to fight for help, so out of necessity and disability, I saw no other choice. Dyslexia is not simply reading and writing or sounds, of knowing left from right, but a complex mix which also affects your mental health, your self-esteem your ability to communicate, and even speak. I wanted to find a way to express this visually, so I did some research at Bethlem Hospital, where I found a ‘strong-dress’ which I have reimagined myself in, as it was used by mental asylums to contain women, supposedly to protect them from themselves. Like myself, the dress is no artefact: women’s clothing is always a political statement.
My ‘strong-dress’ opens to express transformation, in the shape of the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough, an iconic landmark, that provokes thoughts into crossings and new places, both physical and metaphorical journeys, bridging divides, and facilitating communication and understanding between different realms.
I slowly transformed and opened the strong dress, whilst reading from a spoken word personal and political odyssey, exploring my childhood experiences in educational institutions as a profoundly dyslexic working-class Jewish woman. The dress is symbolic of coping mechanisms - the hooks and mechanical eyes of the dress are its ultimate reinvention. The dress opening during the performance symbolises the transformational space of hope and bravery required to live in a world of barriers and obstacles.
I uncovered threads of connection in Middlesbrough, discovering a Jewish suffragette, feminist and ‘openly' lesbian writer Naomi Jacob whose life and work is largely forgotten. The common ground between us is inspired by wearing trousers, which got us both into trouble: it was part of why I was expelled from school. Women wearing trousers is still a political issue in many cultures and having a learning difference can land you in metal institutions, rather than getting the help you need.
My performance titled ‘ What shaped you? ‘ asking the viewer to think about what made them who they are. I developed this piece, by first untangling how I became an activist.
As a disabled child I have had to fight for help, so out of necessity and disability, I saw no other choice. Dyslexia is not simply reading and writing or sounds, of knowing left from right, but a complex mix which also affects your mental health, your self-esteem your ability to communicate, and even speak. I wanted to find a way to express this visually, so I did some research at Bethlem Hospital, where I found a ‘strong-dress’ which I have reimagined myself in, as it was used by mental asylums to contain women, supposedly to protect them from themselves. Like myself, the dress is no artefact: women’s clothing is always a political statement.
My ‘strong-dress’ opens to express transformation, in the shape of the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough, an iconic landmark, that provokes thoughts into crossings and new places, both physical and metaphorical journeys, bridging divides, and facilitating communication and understanding between different realms.
I slowly transformed and opened the strong dress, whilst reading from a spoken word personal and political odyssey, exploring my childhood experiences in educational institutions as a profoundly dyslexic working-class Jewish woman. The dress is symbolic of coping mechanisms - the hooks and mechanical eyes of the dress are its ultimate reinvention. The dress opening during the performance symbolises the transformational space of hope and bravery required to live in a world of barriers and obstacles.
I uncovered threads of connection in Middlesbrough, discovering a Jewish suffragette, feminist and ‘openly' lesbian writer Naomi Jacob whose life and work is largely forgotten. The common ground between us is inspired by wearing trousers, which got us both into trouble: it was part of why I was expelled from school. Women wearing trousers is still a political issue in many cultures and having a learning difference can land you in metal institutions, rather than getting the help you need.
