FKA Twigs’ RadiantMe2 and the Initiation at Pier6 (Part 1 of 2)

when precocious is venom,

when perserverance is subterfuge

the New Ones, Young Turks,

those who arrive Illuminated, glowing,

in a cabaret voltaire of Afro-futuristic Knowing

feather light and Grace

dipping bones in lace

Atlantean runes

Lemurian glyphs

etched in skin

full of melanin

heated to degrees that forged iron into gold

she is wide

blazing white

carrying a Light that no one can usurp, overthrow, or extinguish

I understood there a narrative

of tension and catharsis

of division and radiance

of a Glow and Glory no one could Steal

like a Dark Crystal once divided and seized

the demons clawing reflecting in me

shaming themselves by shaming me

“I come alive,” Owl-Woman says,

“Even my cloak of Shadows blazes bright,

feathers of my wings raining down at Night”

girls in a Garden

lined up, tight,

for the Collect

she got that tight tight

edges snatched, pressed,

warm snatch spilling from her dress

and yet unsullied and unclaimed

a Virgin is one Mother, her own Mistress,

not your hymen’s name

stitches sutured your lips

into an Anne Boelyn grin,

and your keloids were seasoned with slaver’s gin

and with salt

clitoris-less vaginas with teeth

they do call

when will one care

about the hearts of young girls

at market price, flesh so tender rare

yet still dancing with proverbs between their thighs, and prodigals,

and still shining full bearing a gift to share

I wanted to write a review of my evening seeing FKATwigs perform her RadiantMe2 show at Pier 6 in Baltimore Maryland on July 20th, 2016. When I set my pen to paper, this is what came, as my brain flooded the back of my eyelids with the images of that night, flashing back like the memories played at the end of one’s life.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIIL9IbAG9T/

I remember, mostly, the Majesty of it, the palpable feeling of Royalty within the show’s aesthetic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWUmMBgOYl/

• gnosticsirenHer #Kemetic shirt featuring #Nubian royalty from the#WallsOfEgypt was especially telling and apropos confirmation of her consciously claiming and channeling #theMothers#Age and #egungun #ancestors#OurAncestors along with the tribalistic resistance-reclamation/resurrection-rebirth themes of the show (especially the new songs) @l_homme_fatal@fkatwigs

Reminding me of Kemetic Pharoahs, Hindu Goddesses, Sumerian archetypes and Atlantean-Lumerian legend, the staging, constuming and make-up styling all evoked, to me, an interdimensional realm in which experiences of the Self and everyday mundanity become aggrandized, deified, and mythologized and in which the everyday struggles of the Self with other human beings– disappointing lovers, traitorous friends or collaborators, a cynical and judgmental public of strangers badly in need of chakra alignment– are made into allegories of stages in the Soul’s spiritual journey. I understood, marginally, the cohesive evolutionary arc of a cathartic story was here, rather than merely a string of single song performances. Of course Twigs is known for brilliantly conceived performance art disguised as a musical concert, and her shows often feature a thematic thread throughout; however, with RadiantMe2, the setlist and the Mastery of the emotion evoked through the dance belied an even deeper, ritualistically conscious attempt at theatre.

Good To Love (intro)

Water Me

Pendulum

Figure 8

Video Girl

Wound Up (New Song)

Glass & Patron

Youth (New Song)

Numbers

In Time

 

Yes, Yes Yes (New Song)

Two Weeks

How’s That

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWNj2og0N1/

Of the new songs, one in particular resonated deeply with me.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIWOscKgqjK/

In the song, Twigs twitches and spasm, singing of feeling “so tight” and “wound up,” the grimaces on her fae-like face contorting her ethereal beauty into a Portrait of Gethsemene-like agony, a frustrated conflict of flesh, as if an angel incarnated as a human and had to become accustomed to gravity.

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A post shared by Justin Green | Artist (@jgreenart)

By the time she reaches the end of her dancehall-tinged, African-rhythm drenched second new song (allegedly called “Youth”), she screams “they can’t stop us, it’s a shutdown!” Three times before cutting the music and, addressing the crowd directly, human to human instead of artist to audience, she shouts again, victoriously “I mean it, you guys, they can’t stop us!” and the crowd, although enthusiastic, still may not understand the true triumph of her announcement in the midst of the current Black Lives Matter movement.

Through the order and progression of the songs, there was definitely a story of reclamation– something innate, some inner Light and Essence of Goodness that is incorruptible, infallible even through our human flaws.

Re-membering oneself at one’s Truest is the hardest task one will do in this lifetime– and, indeed, across many lifetimes. Themes I read metaphorically into the performance included: finding the Spark of Love within oneself that never was stolen to begin with, re-crowning oneself with a Dignity that was never sold even at ones lowest, and even one’s self-initiation into Higher Consciousness through an Ordeal of debasement, rejection, betrayal, and the fight for one’s Integrity. Twigs’ songs always inherently acknowledge the Divinity within the things that make us most human. Aggrandizing our nuances and imperfections, even our insecurities and weaknesses, Twigs the Alchemist turns struggle and rejection (from lovers, family, society, even the self) into an indomitable fortitude and ferocity of passion that ultimately leads to Transformation and Spiritual Transfiguration.

….to be continued…..

 

**Video clips via Instagram @GnosticSiren and @L_Homme_Fatal

**Photos via Justin Green @L_homme_fatal @Communeandtransmute Instagram