Q: You were one of the recipients of the 2017 Wilder Traveling Scholarship, what was that experience like?
I went with my father to Palestine. It opened my eyes more because my dad would share more of his true feelings, being scared. I will never forget I was filming the road and land, he said put your phone down, if these soldiers see you, they will shoot you, you can’t be filming, he was so scared.
I was able to work with an artist there, and do a photoshoot with Shukri Lawrence from Trashy Clothing, they are based in Palestine and Jordan, and they are queer. We did a big shoot with my cellophane sculptures wrapped around trees.
I was also able to connect with a woman on a dating app when I was in Palestine and she showed me this old town, Birzeit, its right outside Ramallah. We performed in the street with my plastic cellophane, and my dad messed up the recording (I’ll never forgive him ha!) we were talking with the wind with my plastic. It was really cool to meet Ramand, we had a little bit of time before the performance to discuss it. We each did each other’s hair right when we first met, talked about being queer, I still identified as a woman at that time, so we discussed being queer women. We didn’t know each other but it was a great experience getting ready together and doing each other’s hair with a stranger, we became closer through this.