Mills Performing Arts

Hello friends! Tomorrow, December 1st, marks the fifth annual #MillsGiving fundraising event! This year, our aim is to raise $75,000 across 300 donors. In these difficult times, we are asking for YOUR support! Your contribution will have a tremendous impact on the future of the college, and your support will help us continue to provide top-notch education for our students through the hardships the pandemic has placed on our shoulders. Contributors may select one of three desi...gnations for their gift: Mills Greatest Need, Undergraduate Scholarships, or the Student Hardship Fund. You can find the link to the fundraiser here: https://www.givecampus.com/sc/MillsCollege/millsgiving-2020 From the college: Welcome to the fifth annual #MillsGiving where donors and advocates like you come together to make a heroic difference in the lives of our students, who are working hardboth through a pandemic and an economic crisisto secure their education and futures. You are a crucial part of the Mills communitya microcosm of society, representing diverse thought, challenges, and passions. When you bolster this community with the power of your gift, you’re strengthening our society as a whole by preparing students to tackle and solve its toughest questions when they graduate. Thank you. This year, you can help us gain the support of 300 donors for a total of $75,000. Your gift, of any amount, will aid us in getting there. More than that, when you participate as an Advocate, you can inspire gifts from others, ensuring the campaign’s success. Create a challenge that dares donors to take a specific action for unlocking your gift, or simply create a matching gift to encourage donor contributions. Spread the news of the campaign on social media or in personal messagesand earn Mills swag when you do! Thank you for seeing the value in a Mills education and for believing in the power of our community.

How does your art practice provide self-care? Art allows me the control to delve deeper into my psyche, process and articulate. My multimedia installations speak to this need to build a universe of my own, a pocket dimension. Acting and comedy are paths that I’ve taken in order to bring light and healing to others. These mediums let me begin to heal myself and my relationship with the universe. L.A Bonet '20, Multimedia Installation, Acting, Comedy, Music.... #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

What have you been doing to keep your artistic practice alive under Shelter In Place? I’ve been finding joy in music by practicing my instruments and trying out new styles of music. I’m learning to play the guitar to explore my bluegrass roots! I have really been loving taking this time to discover new songs and artists and improve upon my knowledge of music theory. How does your art practice provide self-care? Art is self-care to me because it serves as catharsis. I know I ...can turn to my music no matter what is happening in the world. Iris Kingery '23, Music and History #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

How does your art practice provide self-care? Playing my instrument is way for me to stay fully mindful. It has remained one of my favorite ways to cope with discomfort. Some tips: Avoid comparing your progress/process to others - for me, it causes more harm than good. Olivia Simon '23, Music, @oliviarosesim... #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

How does your art practice provide self-care? While technically still falling into theatre, doing online performances also helps to hone my on camera skills, and I view it as being on the cutting edge of a new medium of Theatre. I envision a world where theaters include online performances in conjunction with staged performances enabling us to bring theatre to those who love it but are housebound or isolated for one reason or another. Theatre is for everyone. SuzyJane Edwar...ds '22, Creative Writing and Theater #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

What are some self-care tips you can provide to fellow artists and creatives? Be gentle with yourself instead of expecting flawless productivity during this time. Let your practice guide you though. What have you been doing to keep your artistic practice alive under Shelter In Place?... I've been taking immense pleasure in listening to sound: in the quiet from the decreased traffic, in the increase in birdsong in my urban neighborhood, and relishing the harp sound as I practice solo in my apartment. Jennifer Ellis, Mills College Harp teacher, Harpist and Improvisor #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

Who are you and what is your artistic medium? I'm the Farm Manager at Mills Community Farm on campus- and one of the other things I love to do besides grow food, herbs and flowers, is to sing. Today, we made a video with the Summer Farm Crew singing a song I wrote about healing and the Redwoods. Olivia helped a bunch- and sings in the video too! I try and sing almost every day- both my own stuff, and music I've sung with groups- like The Temple of Light, a choir focusing on m...usic from the Republic of Georgia that used to be based here in Oakland. I also love to make Cantastorias- which is an Italian word meaning 'to sing story'' and an artistic form originating in 6th Century India that involved taking paintings from house to house and singing about the news of the day. Julia Dashe, Mills College Farm Manager #artistinplace #millsperformingarts @artisticmindfulnessproject

The 3rd Mills College Music bandcamp compilation consists of a collection of music created remotely in the Spring of 2020 by students in the course MUS 164/264 - Advanced Audio Recording, with Professor Christopher Davidson. Follow the link below for more! https://millscollegemusic.bandcamp.com//forever-in-constru #millscollegemusic #millsperformingarts

What are some self-care tips you can provide to fellow artists and creatives? Keep it moving and embrace stillness. For me, that means singing and writing everyday even when I don’t feel like it even if it’s just a low groan or a high-pitched sigh, or a sentence like, I don’t feel like writing this, it helps move my artistic energy and often turns into a little riff or poem of some kind. Even when we have unproductive days or weeks, nothing is wasted in a state of presenc...e. Stillness for me comes in meditation, and in embracing my dark moods, just giving into the feeling and letting myself release whatever comes up. By embracing everything we feel, we actually relax around the feelings, and that lack of tension allows us to let them go. The most beautiful part is when the letting go happens through our art. Allow yourself to make art about anything you don’t have to show it to anyone, but it does need to come out of you. Kasia Kugaya, '10, Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, and Banjo player, @chickenmamameow #artistinplace #artisticmindfulnessproject #millsperformingarts

What have you been doing to keep your artistic practice alive under SIP? Thanks to my wonderful professors, Susan Ito and Truong Tran, I have been able to create some pretty cathartic and enjoyable pieces. I recently finished a poetry manuscript for Truong’s Poetry Workshop II class called The Chronicles of Pain, Patience, and Pleasure which holds about 25 poems, most of which were written during quarantine. It was an extremely rewarding process to write, but also a lot of ha...rd work. In Prof. Ito’s Mixed Race Narratives class I wrote and illustrated a children’s book called What Are You? This book is about a mixed child named, B, who struggles to find confidence in a society where being mixed is abnormal. Although these were assignments for a class, it still allowed me to have an artistic outlet during this stressful time. Grady Mahusay '22, Creative Writing, @poems_by_gem #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

What have you been doing to keep your artistic practice alive under Shelter In Place? I’ve shifted my attention to projects that I can work on in my (very humble) bedroom studio, focused more on research than production, and seem to be making music that is optimized for domestic spaces, solitary listening and escaping. Nearly everything about making art helps me care for myself in one way or another. It’s beautiful, challenging work that I’ll never get tired of - It’s nice ...to have something that is always there for you. Sam Regan, MFA '21, Composer and Producer, @samuel_regan #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

The second Mills Music bandcamp release we are thrilled to showcase titled "mooztoonyewon" was created by students in the Spring 2020 Seminar in Composition course taught by Zeena Parkins. Follow the link below to begin your sonic journey! https://millscollegemusic.bandcamp.com/album/mooztoonyewon

What are some self-care tips you can provide to fellow artists and creatives? Pick a few small actions that keep you regularly looking outside your window, into other experiences reading fiction, science fiction, listening to concerts, watching youtube tutorials on new banjo techniques or long-lost art-forms to remind yourself of healthier relationships, and the world you want to come out into, when it’s safe again. Limit your consumption of social media that leaves you dra...ined, and more fearful. Wear a mask, call representatives if you’re feeling like you have nowhere to put your pent-up frustrations. Make active choices to engage in shaping the world around you, one connection at a time. Amelia Hogan '09, Mixed Media/Performing Artist #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticminfulnessproject

How has your creative practice(s) shifted during the rise of COVID-19 and the current social uprising in support of the Black Lives Matter movement? COVID-19 served as the moment of deepened reflection. Although at times experiencing discomfort, I pushed myself into the shadow work that asks the daily question of, Why? Questioning the motive behind the capturing and photo-making process allowed me to uproot the trauma, the fears and the distance I had created between myself ...and my truths. Listening deeply to my heart's desires began a practice that allowed me to operate in multiple mediums that I had neglected. Like sound and carpentry. Before this moment I hadn't forgotten the ways in which I expressed myself, but rather why I was approaching them in the first place. Capitalism almost slipped into my practice in a way that made my work unrecognizable and empty, so it remained unreleased. COVID-19 provided time to see my own heart fully as an artist while connecting to my ancestral roots. B Dukes, (They/Them), Photography, Literature, Light & Carpentry #artistinplace #millsperformingarts #artisticmindfulnessproject

We are excited to announce that the Mills College Music Department has created a bandcamp page to share student compositions created in Spring 2020 courses. Under the direction of William Winant, his percussion ensemble performs John Cage's Four6 (1992). In the piece, which was dedicated to Winant by the composer, performers on unspecified instrumentation each choose twelve different sounds with fixed amplitude, overtone structure, etc., and play within flexible time bracket...s. Construction 111 (Christopher Davidson, 2020 - performed by William Winant) deconstructs and expands a performance of James Tenney's Having Never Written a Note for Percussion into a hypnotic multi-hour meditation. As the ear tunes into subtle shifts in dynamics and harmonic emphases, nuances in the performance become monumental musical gestures. Follow the link below to listen! https://millscollegemusic.bandcamp.com//percussion-music-f #millsmusic #millsperformingsarts

What have you been doing to keep your artistic practice alive under Shelter In Place? I did read my entire memoir, The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band, one chapter at a time for 21 days on Instagram live, but the work that I am most proud of is a website that I edited of my students' work. I teach English and creative writing at Las Positas College in Livermore, and I got lucky with the best and most diverse (especially in ethnicity, class, age, and ability) class of students that I've ever had. Once we had to shelter in place and they started writing about it, the work kept flowing. https://mgonzales338.wixsite.com/write-room https://youtu.be/n6gjrMyer8M Michelle Cruz Gonzales, BA '01, MFA '03, Writer, @xicana.brava