Ancestors
On my mother’s side, we are Irish, Polish, German, and Danish — with the first immigrants coming to the Midwest in the late 1800s during the Industrial Revolution.
My grandmother’s mother, a stern Irish Catholic woman, raised her six children alone. My grandma grew up on the west side of Chicago, roller skating to rock n’ roll.
My grandfather’s mother worked at a letterpress, and his father was an elevator operator after serving in WWI. My grandpa dropped out of high school and lied about his age to serve in Korea because he knew joining the army would be his only way to travel outside the US.
Both of my mother’s parents died young of addiction related health issues. I’ve spent a great deal of time attempting to learn about them, since we never met. Ultimately, I know much less about this side of my family.
True Image was written for my maternal branch.
On my father’s side, we are German, Croatian, English, and Welsh — with the earliest immigrants arriving in English boats shortly after the Mayflower. These ancestors were part of the violent expansion west, stealing and settling indigenous land in the Great Lake region.
The rest of my people on this side arrived in the late 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, to reunite with family and seek work in the mines, factories, and railroads of the Midwest.
Many generations worked for John Deere and International Harvester, large companies manufacturing tractors and other agricultural machinery that would transform the Midwest into the corn belt. My great grandma was a housekeeper in the John Deere mansion before becoming a secretary at their headquarters; her father died of a heart attack grinding metal on the factory floor.
Croatians came with a strong tradition of orchard keeping — and Volga Germans with a history of farming wheat, which they continued to do on the prairie.
My father’s parents are still alive, living along the Mississippi, tending to their cherry trees, garden, and church community. My grandma taught me how to quilt and is the reason I know anything about this side of my family.
Family of Goofy Bodies is for my paternal branch.
What did they believe they were gaining by leaving home and immigrating? In their pursuit of safety and middle class security, what has actually been lost?
It’s important to name the labor my ancestors actually performed because it makes abstract systems of power concrete, explicitly showing how their bodies were exploited to exploit this land.
Lineages (something other than 🩸)
I consider Diane Conmy, Aurora Levins Morales, Robert Lax, Terrence McKenna, Rilke, Wendell Berry, Ben Morea, and Sparrow creative, spiritual guides.
My work has been deeply shaped by the work of Audre Lorde, Karla Erickson, Kesho Scott, Grace Lee Boggs, bell hooks, James Baldwin, Lynda Berry, Amiri Baraka, Anodea Judith, and Vandana Shiva.
I look to the mystic Christians, revolutionary animists, and disability justice elders, and have trained in reiki, embodied writing, physical theater, and somatic dance.
