FROM THE SLEDGEHAMMER SERIES
BEFORE YOU GO: AN OFFERING by Sharon Brigforth
before you go: an Offering queerly explores a daughter's
relationship with her aging mother who has dementia. As she cares for
her mother - she reflects on her own failures as a mother - which
expands her ability to forgive/grow and heal.
Made of memories/prayers/letters and dreams this book Offers
embodied/conjured releases and journaling prompts to the reader...
all of which serves as an invitation for those that receive the Work
to engage in their own healing rituals for themselves and their Loved
ones.
"My experience has been that the more I tend what is broken and hurt
in me, the better I am able to be with those I Love. Diving deep.
Holding a mirror up to myself. Excavating and articulating what's
under the surface. Walking with haunts and haints. Moving through
grief. Seeking technologies for Transformation... has always
motivated my writing. Having had the privilege of walking with mentors
who Lovingly pushed me in Circle with my Work has rooted me in my
Life's calling... to use art as a vehicle for social justice. This
has instigated intergenerational healing within my blood family in
ways that I could never have imagined possible.
"My queer bodied/woman Loving prayer is that before you go: an
Offering will be of service to those that receive it. A resource for
us all to be ourselves most fully as we care for ourselves, each
other, the Earth and all therein.
"May we stand in the Light that is us, lock arms, open our hearts,
protect each other, and Lovingly/fiercely make the world a better
place.
"Blessed Be all who
worked/dreamt/died/bled/suffered/prayed/danced/Visioned it so.
Ache.
Amen.
Sho nuff.
Fukyeah."
— Sharon
Who would you have been
if you hadn't been so beautiful a girl feeling ugly
and wrong.
Who would you have been if you had had a chance to name your dreams.
Who would you have been if you had felt you had a chance if you had felt safe
if you had felt you had enough
if you had felt that you were enough
if you had had the space to open your heart fully
Who would you have been if you had known how to Love yourself.
Perhaps these are the wrong questions
—from
before you go: an Offering
OTHER TITLES IN THE SLEDGEHAMMER SERIES:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sharon Bridgforth Sharon is an Associate Company Member at
Pillsbury House + Theatre, a Doris Duke Performing Artist, recipient
of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, the Playwrights’ Center
Core Membership, McKnight National Fellowship and the USA Artist
Fellowship. A touring artists since 1991, she has received support
from Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network.
A New Dramatists Alum and recent MAP Fund Scaffolding for Practicing
Artists Coach, Sharon's
dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show
is streaming on the Twin Cities PBS platform. 53rd State Press
published
bull-jean & dem/dey back in 2022 and will release a
collection of Sharon's performance texts titled,
From The
Marrow, in 2025. Sharon's work is featured in: Volume 110, No. 4,
Winter 2022 of The Yale Review;
Teaching Black, The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and
Literature; Mouths of Rain an Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought;
Feminist Studies Vol 48 Number 1, honoring 40 years of
This Bridge
Called by Back and But Some of Us Are Brave! More at
sharonbridgforth.com