The World Is An Apparition


(1) A woman standing with a phone book in her hands, open to the A's.

(2) She reads the names aloud & in order, as from a lengthy roster.

(3) She reads continuously & without inflection for 4 minutes.

(4) When she stops, it is to beckon her audience to apply pressure with their fingers on their wrists in order to "feel the blood pulsing through their veins."

(5) After a pause, she asks, "Can you feel that?"

(6) Picking up where she left off, she continues reading from the phone book.

(7) This continues for 4 more minutes.

(8) She stops again, this time to ask onlookers to lie down on the floor and look at the ceiling.

(9) She asks them to "imagine themselves in a helmet and spacesuit."

(10) Long pause.

(11) "Now, silently and slowly, count down from 10 on your fingers."

(12) Once they have done so, she asks again, "Can you feel that?"

(13) She then continues reading from the phone book.

 

 

 

A.K. "Mimi" Allin produces poetry on the paper and off, by way of public installation, urban maneuver and collaborative and solo performance. Her works has been project onto walls and published on tote bags, t-shirts and matchbooks. Allin earned her M.A. in Writing from the City College of New York in 2006.