Being Salmon, Being Human – the Performance
11 August 2018
During the Launch of the Eureka Street Art Festival, Libations at 7:30pm, Show starts at 8pm
From Norway, three travellers will perform at the beautiful Phatsy Kline’s Lounge at the newly restored Inn at 2nd and C. This show will be on the launch of the inaugural Eureka Street Art Festival.
These performers bring you a show from the heart. Torgeir Vassvik, a powerful world-renowned musician of the Coastal Sami of Sápmi, joins poet-philosopher Martin Lee Mueller, whose award-winning book Being Salmon, Being Human inspired this show. Together with Georgiana Keable, one of the first modern-day professional storytellers of our time, we tell this story — a story of the wonders of nature, and of the lies hidden on supermarket shelves.
The salmon’s extraordinary life is told from its birth from tiny fish eggs in the river, to the full-grown salmon returning from the ocean to give life to a new generation. What might it be like to imagine that sensing, intelligent being from within?
In contrast, the farmed salmon in the feedlots are mass-produced and robbed of almost everything that gives a life dignity. In the tension between these two stories, this dramatic, poetic, and deeply sensual performance explores a way forward, showing the respect our ancestors have had for this totem fish. Being Salmon, Being Human - the Performance is told with knowledge from Sami and First Nations traditions and carried by Sami music.
“To the fish farming industry: roll out the red carpet … this salmon performance should be shown in every nook and cranny of salmon country” - Nina Ossavy, writer for the Norwegian newspaper Dag og Tid
"Being Salmon, Being Human is a powerful and courageous performance… weaving together the magic and wonder of the salmon’s migration with the brutal realities of the Norwegian salmon farming business. Georgiana and Martin’s storytelling takes us to the inside of the salmon’s world whilst Torgeir’s music (with guitar and joik) evokes its haunting ambience. Through the unfolding story, science jostles with myth to immerse us in both the freedom of the of the open sea and the intense pain of captivity. Never has my behaviour been more affected by a performance piece than by this. It deserves to be seen widely especially where the Atlantic salmon swims.” - Malcolm Green, Storyteller, author and environmentalist
“This was an absolutely magical evening - a weaving together of old First Nation's stories, Sami music and environmental philosophy. Deeply moving, thought provoking, and most of all awe-inspiring. Little did I know about the incredible creature of the salmon, nor about the shadow sides of salmon farming. Not to miss!” - Olga Bloemen, Nourish Scotland
“Here is a philosopher who has learned to think not only with his head but with his whole body. A keenly aware human animal, Martin Mueller dreams himself salmon flesh. Gill slits open along his neck as he glides between mountain streams and the broad ocean currents. His scales glint and ripple in the moonlight, their reflections posing ever more penetrating questions for our species. This is a game-changing culture-shifting book, ethical and eloquent, opening the way toward a more mature natural science—one that’s oriented by our own creaturely participation and rapport with the rest of the biosphere.” - David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal; director, Alliance for Wild Ethics
“The salmon farming industry is not only cruel and environmentally damaging; it threatens to corrode wildness itself. No one has made a more compelling argument to support this fact than Martin Lee Mueller. Philosophically, scientifically, morally, and artistically, Mueller blows the industry guys literally out of the water. If you care about the future of salmon, you must read this essential, rigorously documented book.” - Sy Montgomery, co-author of Tamed and Untamed; author of The Soul of an Octopus
The performance is free, a $10 donation is suggested.
Contact: Dana Stolzman, Executive Director, Salmonid Restoration Federation (707) 923-7501, srf@calsalmon.org, Author Martin Mueller, martinleemueller@gmail.com.
Program:
Phatsy Kline’s Lounge at the Inn at 2nd and C (historic Eagle House)
139 2nd St.
Eureka
, CA
See map: Google Maps