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You are here: Home / Politics / A Perhaps Hand: Art and Crisis

A Perhaps Hand: Art and Crisis

February 9th, 2017 by Sallie Bingham in Politics, New Mexico 6 Comments

A Perhaps Hand - 2017Spring, e e cummings wrote, is “a perhaps hand in the window”—not like a perhaps hand but in fact a hand—tentative, unexpected, likely to be withdrawn without notice. As we bask here in Santa Fe in Blackberry winter—that short interval in February when the temperature rises into the forties, which is supposed to “set” the coming fruit on blackberry bushes—I’m reminded of that perhaps hand, which will be withdrawn when the next winter storm roars in, in two days.

This is a particularly hard winter for me and most of my friends, and so the perhaps hand is especially important. The brief warmth brought out these fragile snowdrop blooms in my garden. The birds are shooting from tree to tree, the sun rises earlier, and if I was an incurable optimistic with no knowledge of history, I would think spring has come early, and to stay.

But it has not. Two days from now I will be shivering again.

The warmth seems to inspire the kinds of conversation that give me hope: with a man of the theatre who is working toward a radical program, modeled on the 1930’s WPA Theatre, in New York although not making use of those playwrights—Clifford Odets, the early Eugene O’Neil, Elizabeth Robins, Cicely Hamilton, Susan Glaspell, Zona Gale (although since the plays by these women are all but forgotten, there’s a strong argument for introducing them to today’s audience). His only model, right now, is the work of Eve Ensler.

Even now with our country in a state of hysteria over the goings on in Washington, we can’t seem to summon the will, or the skill, to write plays—or fiction, or poetry, or paint, or sculpt—in ways that would be relevant to our crisis.

His idea is not yet a plan but it leads me to wonder why theatre as we know it now takes so few risks. The Lensic Performing Arts Center here seems to have reduced its live theatre offerings to the polished professional simulcasts of the “classics”—can we redefine the meaning of that word?—imported from London. Our two new “little” theatres, still striving to find their audience in a city notoriously unsympathetic to theatre (the Santa Fe Opera absorbs both audiences and support) stick mainly to the tried and true. Right now the new Adobe Rose Theatre is being used for a high school production of Aida, surely the oldest of old chestnuts. Theatre Grotesco, always adventurous, is on winter break and Teatro Paraguas, our only Spanish-language theatre, is putting on a play by Tanya Saracho with a drearily familiar theme: the consequences of a romantic break-up. The great success in this area—broadly defined—is the incredibly well-financed Meow Wolf, a giant playhouse for grownups that seems unlikely to endure.

Even now with our country in a state of hysteria over the goings on in Washington, we can’t seem to summon the will, or the skill, to write plays—or write fiction or poetry, or paint, or sculpt—in ways that would be relevant to our crisis.

Is it possible to believe, as my novelist friend does, that the act of creating is itself political?

The practice of art must be inherently dangerous to capitalism since it is an impossible way to earn a living.

What do YOU think?

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In Politics, New Mexico Santa Fe Lensic

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. Jacquelyn Carruthers on Facebook says

    February 9th, 2017 at 7:49 am

    Luv the flowers on your pic…ready for spring. My jonquils are up. You are so right about the state of our country…so sad. Haven’t seen anything like this since George Wallace. Growing up in the 1960’s we knew about him! But he was Goldilocks compared to Trump and his Gang. But we can only hope as bad as things may get. …they can only get better. Phoenix’s are born from the ashes of an horrific fire. Just as spring ushers in rebirth…so after seeing your pic of flowers I went out to my front yard and took s picture of my jonquils. ..always a symbol of hope to send to you. Also today I will paint a Phoenix as a gesture of a new beginnings. And in one year maybe our country will be different. ..Have a good day. Jackie

    Reply
  2. Jacquelyn Carruthers on Facebook says

    February 9th, 2017 at 7:52 am

    My jonquils. Paducah Kentucky.

    Reply
  3. Patrick Moore says

    February 9th, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    “The practice of art must be inherently dangerous to capitalism since it is an impossible way to earn a living.”

    That’s saying a lot & w/ an ‘economy of words!’

    Reply
  4. Jacquelyn Carruthers on Facebook says

    February 9th, 2017 at 1:54 pm

    So true..

    Reply
  5. Linda Lopez McAlister says

    February 9th, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    This new play, Building the Wall by Robert Schenkkan is being performed at various places, including at the Adobe Rose Theatre in Santa Fe, I believe. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/theater/trump-wall-mexico-play.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

    Reply
  6. Wilton Wiggins on Facebook says

    February 12th, 2017 at 10:14 pm

    Dear Sallie, I don’t know if you got my comment back to you, after this first viewing a few days ago. I can resend it, or send another one with the spelling of the names more accurate…

    Reply

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