LISTEN TO EPISODE 114!

Dear Listener,

It’s true that my favorite poem (of mine) and favorite Commonplace episode is always the one I’ve just finished, but friend, this one… this one is so weird, and, in my opinion, so, so good.

In this episode you’ll hear me talking with choreographer and writer Hope Mohr.

Hope Mohr is an artist and advocate.

As a dancer, Mohr trained at S.F. Ballet School and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown Studios in New York City. She performed in the companies of dance pioneers Lucinda Childs and Trisha Brown. While dancing in New York, Mohr also freelanced with Liz Gerring, Douglas Dunn, Trajal Herrell, and Pat Catterson.

In 2007, she founded Hope Mohr Dance (HMD). In 2010, she founded HMD's presenting program, The Bridge Project. In 2020, she co-stewarded the organization’s transition to a model of distributed leadership. In 2022, the organization changed its name to Bridge Live Arts and its mission to creating and supporting equity-driven live art that centers artists as agents of change. In 2023, Hope transitioned out of Co-Directorship and into Affiliated Artist status with Bridge Live Arts. She now works as an independent artist fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas.

Hope teaches contemporary dance technique, creative movement, movement for actors, and cross-disciplinary practice that puts dance in dialogue with visual art.

As an advocate, Mohr is a licensed California attorney and a Fellow with the Sustainable Economies Law Center. She has a solo law practice specializing in supporting artists, activists, and mission-driven organizations. Read more about her lawyering work at movementlaw.net.

I recorded two conversations with Hope—one on April 20, 2023 in San Francisco and the other on on May 3, 2023 at my home in Washington Heights. I talk with Hope about her dance, Horizon Stanzas, inspired by Alice Notley’s feminist epic The Descent of Alette and about the profoundly sublime experience of watching Horizon Stanzas after spending a week in silence meditation at Spirit Rock.

For this episode I enlisted the help of my friend, writer Alyssa Harad.

Alyssa Harad is the author of a memoir, Coming to My Senses, and has published essays in The Kenyon Review, The Nation, Jewish Quarterly, O: The Oprah Magazine,The Chronicle of Higher Education and other venues. She is currently writing a novel inspired by the lives and art of women associated with Surrealism. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Alyssa and I talk about my conversations with Hope, dance, performance, embodiment, distributed power, Alice Notley’s The Descent of Alette and this reading, by Notley, of the entire book:

There are more upcoming conversations that have to do with poetry and performance including a reading I recorded with me, Cate Marvin, RA Villaneuva, and Lynn Xu, and a reading and conversation with Fred Moten and Ronaldo Wilson!

Stay tuned for those and for a conversation hosted by Valentine Conaty with Moheb Soliman, a conversation facilitated by Isaac Ginsberg Miller with Charif Shanahan and Safia Enhillo, my conversation with Laurel Snyder, and three more episodes of my Poetics of Wrongness lectures!

If you can, PLEASE consider becoming a Commonplace patron or making a one time donation to the podcast or to the new Commonplace School of Embodied Poetics!

My new class, “Reading with Rachel,” a 12-month, one-book-a-month online reading and making group, starts in September 26th and there are still spaces left. There are two engagement levels—one for folks who just want to read and listen. The other for folks who want to read, listen and also make things in response to a shared text. You can sign up for one session (if a particular book strikes your interest), you can buy a 6-pack, or you can join me for all 12–a full year of being together. There are discounts for BIPOC, LGBTQ, full time caretakers and disabled folx, and as always, one of the core tenets of the Commonplace School for Embodied Poetics is that no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Sign up to join me!

If you’d like to know more about “Reading with Rachel” or anything having to do with the new school please join me on Tuesday September 12th at 7pm ET for a COMMONPLACE SCHOOL TOWN HALL!

Thank you for listening,

With love,

Rachel