A Response on Bohemian artists and Intimacy in Cradle Will Rock
I just watched Cradle Will Rock (1999), a film about the Federal Theatre Project in the United States, produced and directed by Tim Robbins. It's an incredible piece of art that touches on the cultural revolution surrounding the labor strikes, the red scare, the Great Depression, and fascism in the east.
BUT I digress, the point of this response is centered around a few scenes that were present in the movie that delightfully shocked me. The movie takes place in a NYC theatre that is being run and funded by the Federal Theatre Project (a project under Roosevelt's "New Deal"). The theater is a place, especially during this moment in US history, for people that don't "fit in" with other areas of society society, to gather and create a home and community to be themselves.
There is one moment, in which there is a group rehearsing music onstage, when a couple (who are members of the theater) is seen publicly fornicating on the floor of the mezzanine. Instead of reacting harshly, or shaming them, the members of the cast simply chuckle and point out "there they go at it again" before the femme of the couple stands up (shirtless) and waves enthusiastically to those on the stage, who wave and holler (cheerfully) in return.
I brought this moment up to my professor in class yesterday, and asked if artists, people, and thespians used to truly be this open and intimate with one another publicly, or if it was simply "movie flare." He responded, to my surprise, that there is little to no "movie flare" or exaggeration in the film; and that many bohemian artists were in fact that open, intimate, and un-shameful as the two fornicating in the mezzanine.
I think that artists of this era have a lot to teach us about body positivity and community intimacy. Having a people and a community who are both confident and open about their own bodies, and the intimate moments of others, is a beautiful thing that I truly believe should be cultivated more in the modern society.
Now I'm no fool, I don't believe that society (or the government) would be ready for a movement of artists fornicating in the streets. But I do think that we should begin to implement more interpersonal intimacy in our everyday activities and interactions. Try to bring compassion, understanding, and kindness into your everyday life. Take a moment to step back, take a deep breath, and make a connection with your coworker in the office that you always pass by but never speak to, give grace to the stressed cashier who checks you out at the grocery store, find moments in your life to spread common understanding and leniency. Create time to get together with your friends and talk about life, share your fears and worries, talk about your lives.
Your relationships do not have to be conventional, your friendships do not have to be only surface level. Be physically affectionate with your friends, cuddle together on the couch, and catch each other when you fall. Offer radical compassion to your acquaintances, and give stressed and difficult individuals more compassion than anger.
We are so glued to our electronics, and so occupied with our own business and the white supremacist ideal of urgency culture, that we do not take the time in our daily tasks to understand the lives and struggles of the other people that we interact with. When we can stare at our own phones longer than we can look into the eyes of a stranger and try to imagine the complexities of their life in comparison to ours, there is time for change in the world.