The Unpatriotic Act : Homeland Insecurities
Susana Cook started performing in her home country, Argentina, in the 1980s. Now a New Yorker, Susana performs in local and international stages her solo work as well as her ensemble pieces. She is the author and director of shows that address issues related to U.S. and transnational politics such as homeland security, immigration policies, and diasporic identities. Also central in her work are issues concerning gender and sexuality as they are regulated by religion and the state.
Cook has developed a very particular performing style that springs out of the tradition of underground theater that she was engaged in while performing in Buenos Aires. The 1980s in Argentina, during the post-dictatorship years, marked an extremely rich époque for art-making. Performers worked across disciplines and produced shows that were a mixture of different disciplines such as music, visual arts, and poetry. Performers and audiences got together in non-traditional performance spaces such as night clubs, warehouses, and concert venues. The Parakultural, a run-down locale in downtown Buenos Aires was one of the hubs were performers such as Batato Barea, Los Melli, Las Gambas al Ajillo, and Dalila y los Cometabrass experimented with new theatrical forms. That was the space where Susana Cook started molding her particular style that she would later weave with the aesthetics and rhetorical style practiced in alternative spaces in New York City such as the Wow Cafe.
The UnPatriotic Act is a solo performance, a collage of different bits from previous work that Cook conceived especially for her appearance in one of the annual conferences of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. The conference took place in Buenos Aires in 2007 and it was titled "Body Politics."
Cook has developed a very particular performing style that springs out of the tradition of underground theater that she was engaged in while performing in Buenos Aires. The 1980s in Argentina, during the post-dictatorship years, marked an extremely rich époque for art-making. Performers worked across disciplines and produced shows that were a mixture of different disciplines such as music, visual arts, and poetry. Performers and audiences got together in non-traditional performance spaces such as night clubs, warehouses, and concert venues. The Parakultural, a run-down locale in downtown Buenos Aires was one of the hubs were performers such as Batato Barea, Los Melli, Las Gambas al Ajillo, and Dalila y los Cometabrass experimented with new theatrical forms. That was the space where Susana Cook started molding her particular style that she would later weave with the aesthetics and rhetorical style practiced in alternative spaces in New York City such as the Wow Cafe.
The UnPatriotic Act is a solo performance, a collage of different bits from previous work that Cook conceived especially for her appearance in one of the annual conferences of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. The conference took place in Buenos Aires in 2007 and it was titled "Body Politics."
The title of Cook's performance alludes to the USA Patriot Act signed by President George W. Bush in October of 2001. "USA PATRIOT ACT" is an acronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. In her performance, Cook plays with the word "patriot" and "patriotic" to critically examine the ethical problems involved in adhering to nationalist agendas that are suspicious of non-normative subjects at a national and sexual scale.
The show is in English, Spanish and Spanglish and, in it, Cook addresses a transnational audience of conference participants from the Americas and local spectators as well. In this regard, Cook is not only the "informant" that shows visitors Argentine culture by dancing a song dedicated to the beneficial attributes of maté tea. On the local front, Embodying the voices of local characters (her family, a working-class guy), Cook also shows how she is asked to respond to questions about her decision to change nationalities as well as sexual orientation. Thus, the venue and event (the Hemispheric conference) provide Cook with a unique opportunity to tackle the issue of living across cultures as it relates to different problematics such as cultural belonging, identity, memory, oppression, and sexuality.
In the video highlights presented in this section, we will see how Cook transcends notions of "here" and "there" as oppositional spaces by weaving common histories such as the state of exception imposed by the Argentinean military dictatorship (1976-1983) and the post 9/11 policies implemented by the Bush administration. Cook shows how oppressive regimes also show hemispheric connections and how individuals in the diaspora may serve as useful pointers in order to alert people living in free countries about disquieting similarities between two different political systems such as authoritarianism and democracy.
While Cook maps out the continuities between the "If You See Something, Say Something" anti-terrorist campaign in the U.S. and its predecessor, the Argentinean Junta's "Do You Know Where Your Child Is Right Now?," she draws similarities and discontinuities in relation to sexual politics and homophobia in the U.S., New York City, and Argentina.
The show is in English, Spanish and Spanglish and, in it, Cook addresses a transnational audience of conference participants from the Americas and local spectators as well. In this regard, Cook is not only the "informant" that shows visitors Argentine culture by dancing a song dedicated to the beneficial attributes of maté tea. On the local front, Embodying the voices of local characters (her family, a working-class guy), Cook also shows how she is asked to respond to questions about her decision to change nationalities as well as sexual orientation. Thus, the venue and event (the Hemispheric conference) provide Cook with a unique opportunity to tackle the issue of living across cultures as it relates to different problematics such as cultural belonging, identity, memory, oppression, and sexuality.
In the video highlights presented in this section, we will see how Cook transcends notions of "here" and "there" as oppositional spaces by weaving common histories such as the state of exception imposed by the Argentinean military dictatorship (1976-1983) and the post 9/11 policies implemented by the Bush administration. Cook shows how oppressive regimes also show hemispheric connections and how individuals in the diaspora may serve as useful pointers in order to alert people living in free countries about disquieting similarities between two different political systems such as authoritarianism and democracy.
While Cook maps out the continuities between the "If You See Something, Say Something" anti-terrorist campaign in the U.S. and its predecessor, the Argentinean Junta's "Do You Know Where Your Child Is Right Now?," she draws similarities and discontinuities in relation to sexual politics and homophobia in the U.S., New York City, and Argentina.
The UnPatriotic Act begins with a scene in which Cook addresses the issue of anti-gay sentiment, and humorously attempts to provide a rational explanation of homophobic attitudes by associating them to a history of trauma (see clip). The example she gives to justify homophobia references typical responses to the "unnatural" fact of homosexuality based on the Bible and on the natural world as evidence (see clip). Cook explains that her choice to move to NYC had to do with the fact that New York is a gay-friendly city, where she believes that being gay is actually the norm. In this way, Cook highlights the regional, the city of New York, as a differentiated space in which, despite the general homophobic sentiment, she was able to carve a space of freedom to live her sexual orientation. In this way, Cook establishes a continuous landscape of marginalization of queer people between Argentina and the U.S. based on the fact that people are united by their reliance on the Bible (see clip 3 when the homophobic Argentinean character expresses "The only thing I like from Americans is that they read the Bible. That unites us, see? We are united by the Bible.") But, New York, while situated in the U.S., presents a different scenario in which Cook feels accepted as a lesbian.
Another interesting aspect of the performance in terms of laying out the different cultural spaces and processes of identification and distancing that are part of the lives of transnational subjects is the way in which, through a shift in the "I" of Cook's persona, she identifies herself with the American self while commenting parodically on less desirable attributes of "being American" such as oppressing others in the world stage. Cook does this, in a fashion that is typical of her rhetorical style, by following a logical procedure to its limits:
"In the United States we have freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of invasion, freedom of exploitation, freedom of pollution, freedom of execution." (En Estados Unidos tenemos libertad de expresión, libertad de religión, libertad de invasión, libertad de explotación, libertad de polución, libertad de ejecución.)
In the final clip of the video highlights, Cook interlaces national fervor and sexual climax to conclude that the relationship established by governments with their constituents during states of exception oblige individuals to "fake their national orgasm." Using this comedic association Cook actually alludes to how citizens are pushed to demonstrate their patriotism in order to dissipate fear of widespread terrorism. This situation, according to Cook, cancels the possibility of a healthy democratic critique of the policies implemented in response to terrorism.
Another interesting aspect of the performance in terms of laying out the different cultural spaces and processes of identification and distancing that are part of the lives of transnational subjects is the way in which, through a shift in the "I" of Cook's persona, she identifies herself with the American self while commenting parodically on less desirable attributes of "being American" such as oppressing others in the world stage. Cook does this, in a fashion that is typical of her rhetorical style, by following a logical procedure to its limits:
"In the United States we have freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of invasion, freedom of exploitation, freedom of pollution, freedom of execution." (En Estados Unidos tenemos libertad de expresión, libertad de religión, libertad de invasión, libertad de explotación, libertad de polución, libertad de ejecución.)
In the final clip of the video highlights, Cook interlaces national fervor and sexual climax to conclude that the relationship established by governments with their constituents during states of exception oblige individuals to "fake their national orgasm." Using this comedic association Cook actually alludes to how citizens are pushed to demonstrate their patriotism in order to dissipate fear of widespread terrorism. This situation, according to Cook, cancels the possibility of a healthy democratic critique of the policies implemented in response to terrorism.
| Previous page on path | Transnational Performances, page 2 of 8 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "The Unpatriotic Act : Homeland Insecurities"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...