By DONNA BALANCIA
Shirley Manson was among the women artists and musicians who took to the stage to expound on the topic of jealousy as part of a new performance series called “Stories Of” at The Regent Theater.
Sunday night’s “Stories of Jealousy” was the first installment in the series. The “Stories Of” series is the brainchild of activist Whitney Bell.
Manson, the lead singer of Garbage, wore her red hair in straight bob style and sported a pink tunic over dark flowery leggings. She explained to the audience her writing on jealousy was “not quite right,” compared to the other performances, but she would read it anyway.
“I so wanted to be here with all the incredible talents,” Manson said. “And thank you to all of you for supporting the intent of this evening. Thank you for your resistance.”
“Jealousy is an emotion but we mistake it for fact,” she read. “Jealousy is just a feeling but we mistake it for the truth. Jealousy is a complex matter fed by obsession, delusion, insecurity, or thoughts of inadequacy. …
“Jealousy is typical, utterly common place one of the few things in life that is non discriminatory it does not see gender creed or race it doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor or whether you’ve enjoyed a college education It has been studied by academics and theologians, explored by artists throughout the centuries in literature art and film yet still we do not fully understand it.”
The “Stories Of” idea came to Bell because she said she’s getting tired of all the stories of pain being used to grab headlines rather than healing.
Check out Shirley Manson, Karen O at Girlschool
“The idea for ‘Stories Of’ came to me because after the #MeToo movement, there has been a huge amount of women’s voices, said Bell. “But the stories have been ones of violence and pain and it’s becoming sensationalist, our harrassment our pain our rape. I wanted to create this series to uplift the whole myriad emotions and I wanted to use my privilege as a decently wealthy white woman with a lot of access and connections to uplift the voices of women who don’t have the same privilege while showcasing the incredible connections as I mentioned.”
Others on hand included drummer Madame Gandhi who said she has used jealousy in a “responsible” way.
“Jealousy can be a dark emotion. you can throw shade at those who have something you wish you had for yourself. That is the irresponsible way to use jeaulousy. The responsible way to use jealousy is to say ‘Thank you intuition and mind for showing me what I want in my own life.’ And ‘How can I use my own jealousy to take action to make that happen for myself?”
Other artists on hand included Nadya Okamoto, Kat Blaque, Grace Parra, Zoe Munoz, Nick and Navi and Ashlee Marie Preston.
