Listen to this post:
It is still so weird for me to see strangers’ faces in public, especially because they still don’t have access to my face. I’m now immunosuppressed. That means I’m always masked indoors unless I’m at home. Even outdoors, my mask goes on when people start moving in too close for my comfort. I feel exceptionally fortunate not live somewhere with mask bans and that no one personally hassles me about it. Almost. The one person who did try to hassle me recently was so roundabout that he could be mistaken for approving of my mask rather than judging it. Judge away. Every day that I don’t have an infection is great! Every day that I’m not breathing on a high-risk person is great.
Calling Up Justice has an event coming up that I will joyfully be going to because it sounds like even the masks will be wearing masks. And it’s a matinee, so it’s the rare show I will actually be awake to go to because it doesn’t start at 9 PM.
Why Mask Portland is an open mic event!
It’ll be August 25th, 2024 at Portland Playhouse and online, 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM. Registration and more information on the open mic are on their page: CallingUpJustice.com/why-mask-portland/. When you sign up, you can indicate whether you wanna perform or wanna only audience. I will be audiencing.
From their website: “Why Mask Portland is a Disability Justice Open Mic with Why Mask selfie station!
We need people to stand up for masking now. With mask bans passing in North Carolina and considered in LA and NYC, Disabled community members’ lives are endangered! Join our event to raise awareness, build community, and kick off our Capital Campaign!
Why Mask is the compassionate performance art project by Claudia Alick that invites people into an artistic exploration of community care and COVID cautiousness. The project consists of visual art by Claudia Alick with a QR code that leads to a digital gallery with photos of masked people and their testimonials about why they mask. It invited the viewer to add their own photo! The project is performed as invited installations with PPE and access doulas as well as emergent guerilla performances.”
Physical Location
Portland Playhouse
602 NE Prescott Street
Portland, OR 97211
Digital Location
YouTube: youtube.com/@ClaudiaAlickCallingUpJustice
COVID protocols and accessibility info are on the Calling Up Justice webpage for this event. If you don’t have access to your own COVID tests or N-95 type mask, you can get both at the event.
2 responses to “Why Mask Portland: onsite and virtual open mic”
I mask as well and so does my son. Even though we live in North Carolina, we see more and more people opting to mask. It’s interesting that something that is a personal choice is up for debate and a catalyst for intrusive interactions from strangers.
Why is masking an issue? Is it a question of safety, deterring people having malintent from masking? Is it the abolishing of the reminder of a time citizens felt an infringement on their personal choice not to mask? Is it yet another ploy to mass control the greater society by building laws that ultimately remove personal choice on a global scale? I don’t know.
We will continue to fight the good fight come what may.
These are great questions! If we had more of a focus on public health in this country, I wonder if a public health mindset would be stronger here. I wish there were more balance here, around self-directed personal choice and public health and mutual care and aid. And I think conflating “health” with “goodness” is playing into it too. If I ask you to mask around me, did I just tell you that you’re a bad person because you weren’t masked? No, but some people take it that way. The way Trump ripped off his mask and held it high after his COVID treatment was a symbol of that, and it was disturbingly like the pride people took in surviving yellow fever years ago. Check out this video podcast (transcript available on the page) of a discussion about conflating yellow fever survival with patriotism and privilege: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/videocast/ethics-talk-immunity-status-social-privilege-and-novel-coronavirus