“Hey Beautiful!” and other Barriers to the Pavement
I ran 5.79 miles to create this piece. By mapping out each letter of a catcall I received, my idea was to create art out of the streets I run on daily. Every time I step out on a run, I have each of the thoughts represented in this piece. I think of how lucky I am to be continuing my running career when 64% of girls quit sports by the age of 16, for the reasons listed on the left hand column (Greater Manchester Moving). I think of the awful stories of women killed on their runs, some of whose names are represented on the left, unable to shake the cold awareness that any one of them might have been me. I recall the advice of family members and friends, shown in between the columns, intending to keep me safe.
In the process of creating these letters, developing an archive of runs through which I am cannot escape these thoughts, I considered how my continued devotion to my running could be considered a political act in itself. In Choreopolitics and Choreopolicing, Andre Lepecki remarks that “with the performance of devotion, the choreographic reveals itself to be that which produces an agent, that which produces an affect, and that which reminds us that the political, in order to come into the world, requires commitment, engagement, persistence, insistence, and daring” (25). My rebuttal to this man’s comment on the street is found in my devotion to running (literally) against the fear that female runners are forced to face unduly. In that way, the movement of running becomes a movement that is political.
Bibliography
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