By M Tuomanen
A few months ago, we got an invitation from an art hero of ours. Performance artist Cynthia Hopkins asked us to join her as part of Bryn Mawr’s Wintery Mix series. To say we were stoked is an understatement. Cynthia’s work, hovering on the edge of concert and performance art — experimental and confessional, spectacular and intimate — sets the bar for the sort of art that we want to emulate. She had moved to Philadelphia from Brooklyn a few years ago after a fire destroyed her home and work studio. Our artistic director, Becky Wright, directed Cynthia in a show she wrote about the fire, called Articles of Faith. A central question of the piece was, “What do you believe in? How do your beliefs carry you through catastrophe?”
Now we were not only going to share a bill with Cynthia, she was actually going to sit in and play with our house band, the Bandits. The Bandits has also been a mouthpiece for our own Articles of Faith. The lyrics of Bandits songs articulate our most deeply held beliefs: dissatisfaction with oppressive systems, and a longing for a more equitable world.
Becky’s father, Erik Olin Wright, has been a big inspiration in articulating these beliefs. In his book, Envisioning Real Utopias, he encourages us to “treat the struggle to move along pathways of social empowerment as an experimental process, in which we continually test and retest the limits of possibility and try, as best we can… to expand those limits.” In times of political catastrophe, his optimism is both contagious and courageous. Some of our favorite memories of him are during strike of the show We Are Bandits, where he cheerily helped us for hours, chatting and gesturing excitedly, accidentally getting paint in his halo of curly hair. Erik’s heroism as a teacher, a friend and a father has had a huge impact on those lucky enough to know him.
On Jan 23, 2019, a few days before our concert, Erik Olin Wright passed on. Becky was with him in Wisconsin. Back in Philadelphia, rehearsing in Becky’s empty house, we felt the loss and mourned with our friend. All of us agreed that we should speak about Erik before the Bandits’ set:
We are dedicating tonight’s performance to Erik Olin Wright, who died on Wednesday from leukemia. He was a visionary, a father, a scholar, and a friend who taught us that utopia is a place we can make. He was a bandit. We are all bandits.
Thank you Cynthia for providing the space for this moment of mourning and joy.
Thank you Erik for expanding our limits, daring us to join in the beautiful experiment.
Thank you Becky for sharing your dad with us, and being an amazing example of what a real utopian is.
To learn more about Erik’s impact, search #EOWtaughtme
