To Stay or To Go with Rory Golden

Rory’s paintings serve as backdrop set pieces for a short video made with dolls, including clowns, aliens and freaks. “To Stay or To Go,” the story within the story, centers around a fast food chicken restaurant employee named Wanda. Through past life regression hypnotherapy Wanda discovers that she was a runaway slave and was owned by a prominent politician who secretly fathered her twelve children. As her husband is lynched and she is attacked by her master’s wife, she escapes the plantation and embarks on her journey to freedom.

The characters conjure images of miscegenation, stereotypes, forced labor, sexuality and indulgence. My inspirations come from the films Mandingo, Female Trouble, All About Eve, and the TV miniseries Roots, in addition to other historical materials and contemporary stories of urban life. The project’s intention is to make connections between past and present; raising questions about whether our American society can move on from our past without having fully and deeply acknowledged and explored the legacy of our country’s difficult and complex historical foundation.

Community members and youth participants volunteered as actors and made numerous valuable contributions to the creation of this project. We worked together to develop a narrative, build set pieces, and transform toys into characters who humorously question and expand the dialogue about racial relationships in the new, and old, world.

Project Blog: http://blueskyrory.blogspot.com

Student Artist:

Jeff Laclede  Springboro, OH – Bowling Green State University

Teen Participants:

Jasmine Archie, Dayton

Brianna Carr, Centerville

Ben Cobb, Centerville

Robin Ann Herner, Washington Township

Jasmine Hill, Dayton

Olivia Howar, Dayton

Samantha Lober, Dayton

Alex Winkler, Dayton