Less than a week till Unmasked’s first showing!

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

Ushiku Crisafulli and The Peer Hat presents: Unmasked – a journey through the autistic mind via hip hop, comedy and theatre.

On Tuesday 21st September I’ll be doing a scratch performance of my piece Unmasked which exams concepts around autistic authenticity through comedy, theatrical monologues and hip hop at The Peer Hat.

As it is an early scratch performance ahead of the full preview at Old Bank Studios in April 2022 I’ll be supported by a group of fantastic performers.

In hour 1 we’ll be joined by Loll a passionate poet and excellent barber whose spoken word is just a cut above; and Tonkabell Manchester’s favourite non-binary fairy whose words capture a range of emotions from the importance of sharing to the weirdest of love.

In hour 2 we’ll have comedy from a comic that might just be too cool in Kieran “Keesh” Grey and a fantastic comic storyteller and Camden Town Brewery New Act Comedy finalist in Justina Sesel; followed by a trip through childhood via the musical musings of Jonny Holland who first came to my attention when I saw him doing sick metal riffs to Sonic the Hedgehog

Hour 3 will be a scratch performance of Ushiku Crisafulli’s Unmasked.

Doors open: 7pm

First act: 8pm

https://thepeerhat.co.uk/event/unmasked/

Project Updates and New York news

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

I have some project updates for things I’ve been working on.

I’ll be in the studio on Friday 25th June working on The 8th Circle.

The plan now is to have an exhibition with The 8th Circle as a soundscape and the physical masks from Miel Timtiman accompany the first full preview of Unmasked in Spring 2022 ahead of the second stage of Developing Your Creative Practice funding.

Here is both the poster for Unmasked and the album art for The 8th Circle.

The 8th Circle album art.

Unmasked poster.

In other news I’ve decided as part of my developing your creative practice I’ll do an artist’s summer retreat in New York from 12th May 2022 – 8th June 2022. This builds on existing relationships with Local Gems Poetry Press, Planet of Sound Promotions, The Muse Exchange, Bronx Art and Fun Hub, International House of Comedy, and the Bronx Council on the Arts.

In regards to the latter, I’ll be part of the upcoming Bronx Memoir Project anthology as they accepted submissions from international participants in their narrative storytelling and narrative poetry workshops. On Tuesday 29th June 11:00pm BST I will be reading An Introduction to the Neurodivergent Mind which has now become the opening scene for Unmasked and was written as part of the Bronx Memoir Project. For free tickets to the launch event please click this Eventbrite link and be sure to check your time locally.

NaPoWriMo Day 30 – Gratitude is the Ki

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

If you ask me how to get to the top

I couldn’t tell you. 

While mistakes can be alchemised 

transmuting trauma 

and forging futures front foot forward

I have also danced upon the edge of despair. 

I’ve driven myself mad

deciphering depression 

and analysing anxiety. 

So while I bask in favourable fortunes

I shan’t look to explain them. 

Instead, 

I shall enjoy the rippling winds of change

and appreciate the pleasure of this moment. 

NaPoWriMo Day 29 – Show the world your light

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

In today’s penultimate NaPoWriMo poem I’ve opted to use the official prompt.

Odin’s eyepatch showed us
that some windows look inwards
ravenous ravens reveal unseen truths.

Eyelids are curtains for the meditating mind.

Stop.
Breathe.
Discover.

Eyelids are curtains for the meditating mind.

Wait.
Relax.
Fly.

Eyelids are curtains for the meditating mind.

Now open them up,
and show the world your light.

NaPoWriMo Day 27 – Agnosthesia

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

Today I’ve embraced the official prompt of using an entry from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

For three fortnights I’ve pondered

as the diorama spun-

splintering inside my fractured mind.

“I’m aware it’s a game,”

“I’m aware that it’s a no.”

I’m aware I was tripping balls

but it’s an opportunity to grow.

In that realm context brought pain,

sautéed synapses soaked in regret.

Why does everything have to relate to everything

when you’re finding it hard to relate to anything?

Yet I stood tall, I owned the wrong I did to others.

I refused to partake in cruelty even in a realm defined by it.

But now, I must right the wrongs in how I’ve treated myself.

NaPoWriMo Day 25 – Making an Elite Impact

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

Today’s official NaPoWriMo prompt of creating a poem for an occasion that doesn’t usually herald a poem was an odd one in that one can write a poem about anything. Nonetheless I went with previewing tonight’s Impact Rebellion main event of Rich Swann vs Kenny Omega in a title vs title match where the winner will hold both the All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling world championships.

Three belts.
Two titles.
One main event.

Both travelled to Japan.
Honing their craft
in the Asian independents.

“We’ll face each other one day”.
They could never imagine
it being like this.

The forbidden door swung open
pushed forth by the force of an Invisible Hand.

Two champions walked through.
But when the squared circle becomes a shapeless memory…
… only one will remain.

NaPoWriMoDay 24 – Whoever said blue is the colour of sadness?

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

Today I’ve gone with the official NaPoWriMo prompt, and figured I’d make a link between the blue associated with sadness and the blue of the blue/little/fairy penguins.

Whoever said blue is the colour of sadness

never knew Eudyptula minor.

A little penguin with a huge heart,

it’s blue hues as deep as the smiles they elicit.

From mainland Australia

to Tasmania

they create life

2 by 2.

So too on Philip Island

where the sublime innate magic

of the fairy penguins

is on full display.

Like Piplup but real,

We gotta save em all!

NaPoWriMo Day 23 – Today, I rest

/ Ushiku / Leave a comment

Dreams will come soon

cos I’m fucking knackered.

Let us hope they’re greater

than this introduction.

Nor did I feel like responding to another poem…

praise and disdain are distant cousins

that flitter and flutter to the wind

becoming the sleep that’ll engulf my impatient eyelids.

Instead I wave at writers block,

I recognise it as a wistful creature

on the road to tomorrow.

Today, I rest.