Dear friends,
 
I wanted to reach out and re-connect with the people who are interested in my work as an artist working with science. I’ll share what happened in 2022, which was a tough year, and look ahead to better things in 2023.
 
I’m especially excited about my brand-new podcast fiction serial: a futuristic show about climate change. I’d love your help with this; but first, let's talk about 2022.
 
My 2022: America’s Polarizations, Made Painfully Personal
 
In early 2022, I lost two important family members. On February 4, 2022, my cousin Randy, the only other out gay member of my conservative family, and four years younger than me, died of cancer. Then my mom got COVID. She died on February 21, 2022.
 

If you know my work, you know how complicated my relationship has been with my family of origin. They are deeply conservative Christians, and we disagree on just about everything (including science!)

 
These two losses were heart-wrenching. My grief was layered with grief that I wasn’t able to be a part of my family of origin my entire adult life, due to my being lesbian. It also didn’t help that my mom (in the picture to the right, with me) died of an illness I almost died of 2 years earlier, and which now is likely preventable and surely is treatable. The science on this has advanced rapidly. But without going into details… let’s just say that the unfounded skepticism of science, especially medical science, which is used to deepen our country's polarization, played a key role in my mom’s illness and death. It was devastating.
 
I’m doing better now. But this whole situation has fired me up even more about my mission as an artist. Because so much of what happened, so much of what I was grieving, was directly traceable to the right/left divides in this country.
 
The political is personal.
 
The Culture War Tore My Family Apart

For many people, the polarization in our country is about talking heads on non-stop news stations, or angry people with protest signs on the news, or annoying friends from high school that you block on Facebook.

But for some of us, it’s much more personal than that. This decades-long, cold civil war has cut through the middle of families, alienating parent from child, sister from brother. The divisions slice through the middle of our closest relationships, leaving emotional devastation, brokenness, and pain.

And now both sides say we might have an armed civil war. Why?? Who is benefiting from this?? And most importantly: HOW DO WE STOP IT?

For me, part of the answer is to use my art to help turn the tide on this growing hatred. It’s only part of the answer… but I want to contribute towards ending the emotional (and sometimes physical) violence. I worked to do this with my solo show, The Chaos Theory of Now, and now I/m aiming to do the same with my new play and audio fiction serial, The Great Understanding.

The Chaos Theory of Now: Breaking Down Stereotypes, Building Bridges
 
My solo show, The Chaos Theory of Now, began development in 2017 and debuted in 2019 to critical success. Description:
 

In this intelligent and entertaining solo play, performer, and science maven Jennifer Joy mashes up chaos theory with a Trump-voting farm wife, a liberal rural politician, a teen punk Antifa activist and more. Inspired in part by her own far-right Republican farm family, Jennifer reveals how we got to this point - and what's next.

Check out the reviews here, including a review from William Cataldi, who really gets that this piece is about building bridges across our seeming differences.

Next Up: The Great Understanding

Next, I’m working on a futuristic climate change play, and soon-to-be podcast fiction serial, The Great Understanding. Science is still a star in this work, with themes including hydrogeology, geo-engineering, and sustainable housing. Description:
 
It’s 2050, and climate change is disrupting every aspect of life.Two communities in a polarized America struggle to adapt and survive. One starts out with privilege and education, the other with poverty and resilience. One tries to walk the path of non-violence; the other feels they have no choice but to pick up arms.
 
­­­­The collision of these two communities demands that they answer: What is the best way to respond to violence? How do we get past our polarities and seeming differences to build common cause? And what does belonging really mean when survival is on the line?

Progress So Far

My colleagues and I were able to do a 3 staged readings of The Great Understanding this past year: at HOT! Festival at Dixon Place in late July (where we tried out the audio/podcast version); at the Cultivating Ensembles conference in November; and finally, we had a reading sponsored by the League of Professional Theatre Women (see picture at the right), at the New Perspectives Theatre, also in November.

Next Steps

Given our desire to reach a larger audience, my team and I are prioritizing the podcast version of this project in 2023.

There are many expenses to podcast production and distribution, ranging from actors, to editors, to sound designers, to marketing and distribution support. A project like this – starting with 2 episodes – ranges from $20-25k to make. But I am resourceful! I am finding ways to cut costs and am aiming for a budget of $15k.

How You Can Help

So that brings us to the ask: we’re hoping to raise $15,000 in this year-end fundraiser. We’ve already had a donation of $1,000 to get us started. So that’s only $14,000 to go! We would deeply appreciate any donation.

Please help us make art that will help to heal the polarization in this country. Let’s not have one more family torn apart by this polarization. Art can help heal the false divisions that are tearing our communities – and our families – apart.

Thank you!!!

Warmly,
Jennifer Joy