Welcome to Lucky 2013!
I don’t know about you but at the end of every year I think “Wow, that went fast!” What did I do in 2012… In the effort to do things differently and be kinder to myself, I decided to blog a personal year in review 2012 . Then I thought well good. That’s done. But should it be shared in a blog? I got all in my head about it: who the heck besides you and your mom cares?
So, I decided that I would simply go ahead and do it and invite all of you to do the same for yourselves. Forget about what didn’t happen in 2012. Lucky 2013 is upon us. What are we going to go after this year? No resolutions for me to share. I will not be making any resolutions this year like last year. I do have goals that I have decided to share with only myself and my absolute 300% supporters.
Big THANKS to everyone who I worked with this year. You all made it a very exciting ride! I appreciate every interaction. Because very little is accomplished as a lone island.
What I did do in 2012:
Performed in my first burlesque festival – The 10th Annual New York Burlesque Festival.
Voted Audience Favorite at the Bowery Burlesque Pageant.
Nominated for Best Burlesque Performer at the Glam Awards.
Will be heading off to perform in the first annual Minneapolis Burlesque Festival at the end of the month.
I went to my very first Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekend to watch and be a volunteer escort to Legend Jean Idelle and have subsequently been involved in a Burlesque Legend’s Calendar and tribute show at the new Slipper Room. The proceeds from this project will be used to help our burlesque legend’s get back to BHOF this year.
I was blessed with the opportunity to teach Sensual Dance & Booty”twerk”aerobics all over the country including a few universities.
Traveling to perform was one of my favorite blessings in 2012 which I did solo, with my Brown Girls Burlesque sisters, Sweet Spot (Sabrina Gilbert & Ainsely Burrows’ erotic poetry event) and Women, Sex & Desire (Gesel Mason’s modern dance conversation piece).
Not only did I reach my one year Blogaversary here on WordPress in 2012 but was humbled by the fact that 29,000 visitors came by to check it out.
My writing was published in Corset Magazine, BurlesqueBible.com & 21stCenturyBurlesque.com. Book wise, I was published in Audacia Ray’s Red Umbrella Project’s 2nd publication Pros(e) which came out of an 8 week Becoming Writers workshop taught by Melissa Petro. Contracts were mailed in to be included in David Henry Sterry’s upcoming anthology Johns, Marks, Tricks & Chickenhawks which is the sequel to the New York Times best seller Hos, Hookers, Call Girls & Rent Boys.
Directed by Mimi McGurl, the solo theater piece which jumped off this entire creative project called Essence Revealed was premiered at the DC Black Theater Festival.
Looking at what we did do often times puts what didn’t get done into a better perspective. What did you get up to in 2012? We have a brand new 2013 to complete more. Happy Lucky 2013!
ESSENCE REVEALED - Essence Revealed is first generation Bajan born & raised in Boston. She got her BFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and MA at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education. Her writing has appeared places such as $pread Magazine, Corset Magazine, BurlesqueBible.com and 21st Century Burlesque. She now performs & teaches nationally and internationally both solo and as a member of Brown Girls Burlesque. Her favorite thing to do besides reading is to lay on the beach in Barbados to rest up for a night of calypso dancing.
