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5,000 Women

By Jennifer BlaineNovember 14, 2023November 20, 20233min read169 views

Join Me...

Because you want to spark your aliveness & creativity!

The “5,000 Women” festival recognizes the amazing creativity of women as evidenced by the astounding fact that at every moment, somewhere in the world, 5,000 women are giving birth at the same time. As women in the arts, we breathe life into our creations. The intention of the festival is to showcase the creativity of artists in all media and ultimately gather together 5,000 presenters to perform and share works, exchange ideas, and inspire change in our world.

I am doing this festival because I believe we are living in a moment where it is essential to choose to be creative in order to feel connected and alive. We also need entertainment now more than ever. As a child growing up in NYC in the 1970’s, performance art was everywhere, and I am seeking to create a forum where creative expression and entertainment is bursting forth just as I experienced it in my childhood. I am calling it “5,000 women” to emphasize women’s power, but it is for everybody to enjoy. Men are welcomed as collaborators and as support to the women performers.

Over the last 15 years I have been creating and performing one-woman shows with an emphasis on bringing humor to issues of gender, diversity and social justice. I am creating this festival as both a networking opportunity for those of us who already have an active career, as well as those who are envisioning a future in the arts.

The first performance festival will be at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT on May 21st, 2011. Wesleyan is my Alma Mater and other Wesleyan University alumni are on board to launch the festival. The following performers are participating: Nina Shengold, Aleta Staton, Lisa Porter, Heidi Kole, Karen Gross, Jennifer Blaine, Elizabeth Liang, Stephanie Fungsang, Naaz Hosseini, Nafeesa Monro, Janet Grillo, Tamina Davar, Martha Meade, Grace Overbeke, and Dana Leslie Goldstein.

Be Funny, Be Creative, Make your Life a Work of Art

There’s the performance side… and then there’s…

“Backstage with 5,000 Women”

When I was 16, I saw Lily Tomlin perform on Broadway. Watching her genius, I heard a voice say, “I do that too.” I had no idea where this voice was coming from. It was bold and sure. Then I realized it was coming from me. It was my spirit calling me to go for it. As a girl growing up in New York City I would see a show on Broadway or Off-Broadway or participate in acting tournaments.

The feeling I got from witnessing or being engaged in artistic expression is: time stood still, everything made sense, things fell into place, the things I might not even know were inside me were somehow instantly named and validated. I mattered, I felt I was at home, connected through a network of creativity. I felt alive, free to be myself, confident. Best of all, I had an array of choices.

Would you like to have a stronger sense of more access to your creativity?
Would you like to experience a profound change from the inside out?
Would you like to feel more confident in speaking about what you do?
Would you like to feel certainty in changing your world?

You can discover answers to these questions through the “5,000 Women” workshop and support calls.

At the moment, we are doing support calls every other Thursday at 7pm EST.

In the workshop and on the calls, we enjoy the opportunity to learn and grow together and create a community of us creative types. Truly, if you want to make your life a work of art, then “Backstage with 5,000 Women” is for you.

“Join the 5,000 Women Festival today - because sometimes we can see for each other what we may not be able to see for ourselves.”

Jennifer Blaine

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Spilling The Milk

By Jennifer BlaineJanuary 29, 2019December 5, 20230 Comments3min read299 views

In June I was out in Detroit to give a presentation about how to resolve any conflict using the Karpman triangle. (You may think you don’t know what I am referring to, but you probably do. It’s when we recognize we are either playing the villain, rescuer, or victim in a conflict and with that awareness we free ourselves from being stuck in these roles.) Once I finished the power point, I had 3 hours before my flight home, so I secreted myself away to the Detroit Institute of Arts. I started with the Diego Rivera murals of the auto industry, caught some contemporary sculptures of the city skyline made from baseball bats, and made my way through the impressionists. While in the contemporary section I turned a corner and spied a Marina Abramovic video entitled “Spilling the Milk.” Here’s what a cool art publication had to say about it:

“In the Abramovic video, included in her widely acclaimed 2010 MoMA, New York, retrospective, the artist continues her earlier themes but places them within the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting. A luminous window lights a glowing kitchen as Abramovic attempts to hold a brim-filled bowl of shimmering milk without spilling it. The video’s scene recalls the visual impression of works such as Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (1657) with its use of everyday subject matter to portray the intersection of sensuality and spirituality at the root of human experience. Yet the concentration and strength necessary to translate this moving image into the ideal, suspended stillness of a Vermeer painting tests the limits of the artist’s fortitude and the audience’s expectations.” — From Artweek.LA

As I studied her, people gathered on the bench opposite, and to either side of the screen. More kept pooling around the piece, illumined by the projection. It was literally a crowd favorite, the growing audience gathering to witness this milk carrying/spilling event. A mother and three children peered on. “Is she actually moving? Or is it freeze framed?” the girl asked.” I think she’s going to drop it!” one of the boys predicted. “It’s just like that, isn’t it?” the mother confided to me. “Mothering. It takes everything not to drop it all.” Abramovic, the artist, peered into the milk in her bowl, willing herself to hold still, despite the demands of gravity. “Funny you should bring up mothering,” I leaned over and whispered to the woman. “She actually had a very difficult relationship with her mother. She wanted her mother’s attention, and rarely got it.”

We turned back to the video. What made it so compelling? We hoped she wouldn’t drop the bowl. We also wanted to see her drop the bowl! We hoped she would shatter the quietly oppressive domestic scene. This tiny drama pulled us all in for almost 13 minutes. It ended with extra sloshing from the bowl and then faded out to black. No clear climax or finality. “Is that it?” someone said walking away.

I stayed, watched the piece again, and took this picture. The crowd dispersed and a new cycle of questioning eyes gazed at the screen. Marina Abramovic never won her mother’s approval and attention the way she wanted it as a girl, but she had won the world’s.

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RIDICULOUS – A Brand New Show for FringeArts 2018 – here’s the press release.

By Jennifer BlaineJuly 16, 2018December 5, 20230 Comments5min read129 views

Jennifer Blaine, Philadelphia’s acclaimed solo performer, comedienne, and playwright “whose comic genius is like Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman” (Philadelphia Daily News) will perform her new one-woman show Ridiculous as part of the 2018 FringeArts at L’Etage (Friday September 14 at 7:30pm, Saturday September 22 at 7:30pm and Sunday September 23 at 4pm.) Jennifer Blaine has performed with the likes of Chris Rock, George Carlin, and Glenda Jackson (Best Actress Tony Award 2018 for Three Tall Women), and has brought her smart, irreverent humor to premier venues and festivals nationwide. Jennifer’s shows are a balm for those craving some comedy, candor, and inspiration.

Jennifer is a Philadelphia FringeArts Festival favorite, creating original solo works for 15 previous festivals—including a sold-out run of both Dirty Joke (“comedy with a conscience”) in 2013, and Vicissitudes of Travel (2017), a collaboration with Barrymore award winning Philadelphia theater artist Karen Getz. Acknowledged as “brilliant,” (Chestnut Hill Local) Vicissitudes tracks a family’s journey through the brain surgery of their loved one and is currently on tour at medical facilities and universities.” The playful magic in THE VICISSITUDES OF TRAVEL has the visceral drive of a fever dream—its final destination at once unforgivingly foreign, yet strikingly similar to the place you call home.” (Ken Youmans)

With her FringeArts premiere of “Ridiculous,” Blaine returns to her comedy roots to provide commentary about the current absurd state of the world as well as stories from her personal life. The show intends to be interactive, even taking off from subject matter voted on by the audience. “I’ll explore the intimate space of creativity with the audience in real time and let them impact the performance,” Blaine says. That’s part of the reason the show will be in L’Etage, a glorious gem of a performance space that veritably hugs the audience. There will be improv, audience participation and confessional (possibly embarrassing) stories about motherhood, the patriarchy, and even bestiality. “We’re at a moment where it’s not necessarily safe to be real and honest with one another. I am taking a risk with this piece to do just that. I won’t be appearing as multiple characters, but rather as just a version of myself.” The meta message is that it’s okay — even critical — for us to be ourselves at this moment in time. “I also am letting this show be a bit messy too. I want to tell these stories, but I don’t have an agenda for the audience to have a certain reaction. I just want them to feel free, be themselves, and have hope so we can move forward out of this ridiculous time. Oh, and laugh.”

One audience member said of Blaine’s work, “she takes her audience on a journey that includes us in happenings relevant to our own lives as well as hers. She makes us laugh and cry and think about what’s important and how we can make a difference.” Come out and experience Ridiculous and see for yourself.

WHEN: September 14 at 7:30pm, September 22 at 7:30pm, September 23 at 4pm

WHERE: L’Etage, 624 S. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

TICKETS: $20. For info and tickets, please visit https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3556923

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

Escape into the absurd humor of Jennifer Blaine as she wrestles the ridiculous – from motherhood to the patriarchy to bestiality. Blaine (“comic genius like Lily Tomlin”, PDN) invites us to honor ourselves despite a world of interruption & disruption. We can start somewhere, begin to protest, but remember to celebrate.

nifer Blaine, Philadelphia’s acclaimed solo performer, comedienne, and playwright “whose comic genius is like Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman” (Philadelphia Daily News) will perform her new one-woman show Ridiculous as part of the 2018 FringeArts at L’Etage (Friday September 14 at 7:30pm, Saturday September 22 at 7:30pm and Sunday September 23 at 4pm.) Jennifer Blaine has performed with the likes of Chris Rock, George Carlin, and Glenda Jackson (Best Actress Tony Award 2018 for Three Tall Women), and has brought her smart, irreverent humor to premier venues and festivals nationwide. Jennifer’s shows are a balm for those craving some comedy, candor, and inspiration.

Jennifer is a Philadelphia FringeArts Festival favorite, creating original solo works for 15 previous festivals—including a sold-out run of both Dirty Joke (“comedy with a conscience”) in 2013, and Vicissitudes of Travel (2017), a collaboration with Barrymore award winning Philadelphia theater artist Karen Getz. Acknowledged as “brilliant,” (Chestnut Hill Local) Vicissitudes tracks a family’s journey through the brain surgery of their loved one and is currently on tour at medical facilities and universities. ”The playful magic in THE VICISSITUDES OF TRAVEL has the visceral drive of a fever dream—its final destination at once unforgivingly foreign, yet strikingly similar to the place you call home.” (Ken Youmans)

WHEN: September 14 at 7:30pm, September 22 at 7:30pm, September 23 at 4pm

WHERE: L’Etage, 624 S. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

TICKETS: $20. For info and tickets, please visit https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3556923

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

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Faith

By Jennifer BlaineNovember 2, 2015December 5, 20230 Comments3min read156 views

Faith by Jennifer Blaine

Many people have been asking me recently for advice on how to have faith. Not the religious kind, but the faith in dealing with everyday challenges.

One client of mine is undergoing IVF. She devoted her time, energy, and vacation days from her high-powered job so she could undergo the procedure. She and her husband really wanted it to work. After all that, she found out it was unsuccessful.

“The doctor says there is nothing wrong and that the chances that it will eventually work are in my favor,” she told me. “The thing is for now I am just so broken-hearted and disappointed. How am I supposed to keep going, when there’s no guarantee it will work?” she asked.

There was a philosopher named Epictetus who said, “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” This brilliant advice came from someone who was born a slave in 55 AD, but later in life became an advisor to not just one, but two Roman emperors!! The desire to influence things beyond our will is what still tortures many of us. We wish we could control things: our bodies, our feelings, our thoughts, other people, even our sports teams winning! But in fact, when we start to examine what we have control over we begin to see that we have much less than we thought. So where does that leave us?

“We don’t have control,” I told my client, “But we can shift to being willing to have things go well.” One of my favorite self-help gurus is Louise Hay. She offers the saying “I am open and receptive to all good.” What a beautiful intention. As soon as my client tried adopting a willingness to have things work out, and let go of her fears and insecurities, she felt at peace and more assured. She wasn’t giving up by stopping her worrying or feeling sad, she was just letting go. She was even more devoted to a good result, but without all the pressure she had been putting on herself. She looked to see the things she actually had some choice over and set to work exercising those. She decided she would do IVF again when she felt ready. She decided it was silly to think it was her fault. She was just going to intend things working out. Everything else was just a waste of her precious energy.

So much of the time we want a miracle, a change, an improvement. It’s when we release attachment to it that we start to have a different experience, which ends up creating a different result. I find that it’s easier to create from nothing than creating from fear, or from rules that feel constricting, or from what someone else tells us which at times can be a limiting thought. Some people call that faith. I say it is actually the process of creating, and it’s one of the most fulfilling ways I know to engage with life and get fabulous results.