Mock Serenade: Bri Williams

"The mocking serenade is a centuries old ritual described as a form of street theatre meant to humiliate and ridicule someone who had violated either a public or private social norm. It was carried out not by those seeking power over others, nor was it a protest; it was people living by their own rules. A mocking serenade stakes a claim to the use of humiliation, refusing to be numbed by it, using it instead, as a means to control one's own cultural life.

I wish to reclaim the idea of mockery, the external and the internal, the mind games, the shame, the violence. What does it mean to celebrate failures and the journey that becomes of it? The moments of anger, fear, hopelessness, and then, acceptance. For all thoughts, dreams, and nightmares that come to surface in the mind could only be true if they are conditioned to be.

It can be loud, monstrous, and invasive. But also fruitful, alive, and delusional. It is thrilling to be strapped to a chair and paraded around naked. Here it all is. Flawed, but always beautiful."

Bri Williams