Jessica Anne Nelson grew up on a farm in Langley, on a property her folks shared with her maternal grandparents.
During that idyllic time, Nelson cherished the moments she spent with her grandmother and mother as she heard their stories and absorbed the habits of the two older women.
As a UBC graduate student last year, Nelson wanted to continue to explore that intergenerational relationship and dynamic as part of her theatre program.
There, she delved into performance-based projects that had no script — that is, where the narratives are spoken by impulse — and created free works of ideas and messages by, and about, women.
Now, Nelson is expanding her practice as the city of Port Coquitlam’s new artist-in-residence, with the aim to collect as many oral histories as she can to string together a script.
The thrust of her residency will centre on “womxn,” a term coined in 2015 that includes cisgender women as well as transgender women and women of colour; it also throws out the word origin of women as being “of man.”
A former city of PoCo recreation leader, Nelson said she was eager to apply for the municipal residency after watching other artists, thespians and musicians use the Leigh Square space to hone in on their craft.
She hopes to use the next four months to turn her time in The Outlet studio into a kind of laboratory where she can experiment and develop the meaning of womxn and find out how they make their way through society.
Nelson will be available to hear and record the public’s tales on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
As well, she’ll host free workshops during her residency including during the annual Culture Days, on Sept. 28. She’ll also have a Site-Specific Theatre Creation activity, on Oct. 5 and 6.
To register, call 604-927-7529 or visit experienceit.ca.
