“Bookshelf Piece” is a performance in which I read random passages from books on my shelf until a suitable ending. The work generates a narrative through improvisation and examines notions of meaning derived from multiple bits of information strung together.

As our cultural experience is one of constantly receiving information bites from multiple sources that include both personal and professional news from professional journalists to friends to famous people, how aware are we of the narrative that reaches our psyche for that day? How does that compound in a multitude of days? How “real” is that narrative going on in your mind about “what is going on?” This work simultaneously makes poetry and comedy while calling for critical thinking skills, and critiques how we receive the onslaught of information today.

It is also a celebration of the physical book and the art of reading aloud.