“What does it mean to be an African American woman, triply marked as female, Black, and foreign, undergoing decidedly Black, feminist, performance art in Mexico? Gabrielle Civil’s work, this book, these questions and the conversation are all an intervention.”
—Selena La’Chelle Brown, Ph.D., Theatre Arts & Performance Studies and founder of Pramana Wellness
“In & Out of Place, Gabrielle Civil’s latest performance memoir, documents the artist’s experience living and making performance art in Mexico in 2008—both the year Obama was voted into office and a time she refers to as “the best year of my adult life.” Employing English, Spanish and meta-text, with a sprinkling of French and Kreyòl, Civil weaves together her travel journals and artist notebooks, performance notes and exercises, correspondence with artists and friends, meditations on race, anger and public space, accounts of interactions with iconic artists and lovers, with bilingual reviews, comics and photographs documenting her performances. Dedicated to expat artist Elizabeth Catlett and authors Audre Lorde and bell hooks, In & Out of Place continues the rich tradition of Black women artists as pioneering travelers. Challenging notions of where and how she as a Black woman is expected to travel, Civil charts a roadmap for how artmaking can provide alternate ways of travel. Of particular note are a series of ex votos—colorful, tin, votive paintings with Spanish inscriptions at the bottom—that Civil commissioned to document her key moments. They are a brilliant example of the project’s collaboration, synthesis and performance.”
—Faith Adiele, author of The Nigerian Nordic Girl’s Guide to Lady Problems, founder of VONA Travel, the nation’s first writing workshop for BIPOC travelers
“Gabrielle Civil’s In & Out of Place is a revelation, a generous invitation into an artist’s process in finding her voice that is not only a unique contribution to performance art, but also to essential conversations about race and Blackness in the Americas. Civil holds nothing back, giving full insight to the daily, yet necessary decisions of living and making art with intentionality as a Black woman in the U.S. and Mexico. Readers witness her metamorphosis as she learns to carve space uniquely her own while navigating the contradictions of space and borders. And yet, Civil’s journey speaks to the journeys of so many artists of color, especially women who also find themselves forging new paths in these complex territories. Civil’s unflinching observations offer a meditation on the ever-shifting intersections of race, history, sex and art. Her journey is a rocket ride into the heart of Mexico, through its throbbing chambers and back, from which she emerges transformed. Every page brims with exuberant discovery as the artist pushes artistic, political and personal boundaries. Unapologetic, joyful, and compassionate, In & Out of Place is testimony of an artist on fire, all senses ablaze: Civil’s words are the steady blue light at the center of a flame, her brilliant pages give us a new light with which to see the world and one another.”
—Carribean Fragoza, author of Eat the Mouth That Feeds You
“In and Out of Place is like catching a rainbow between your hands: what does it mean to capture impossible thresholds of the self? of lived and ephemeral artistic practice? of a place and time in transition? Gabrielle Civil intertwines knowing and not knowing, logging her daily life in Mexico alongside the imagined chronicle of the forgotten (or unwritten, or unrevealed). This book is half of every conversation you wish you could know more of—now you can, just lean in.”
—Chloë Bass, artist and creator of Wayfinding
“Con su obra performática Gabrielle Civil ha hecho una reflexión sobre sí misma. Su obra es un espejo. Resultado de una profunda observación se va trazando un autorrecorrido. Se sabe negra, se sabe fuerte, se sabe bella. Las autorreferencias son el menú que se ofrece sobre la mesa.”
“With her performance work, Gabrielle Civil has done a self-analysis. Her work is a mirror. An inner journey mapped from deep observation. She knows herself as black, she knows herself as strong, she knows herself as beautiful. Self-references are the menu offerings on the table.”
—Pancho López, artist and author of Centroamérica en acción
(trans. Lucía Abolafia Cobo)
“What does it mean to be an African American woman, triply marked as female, Black, and foreign, undergoing decidedly Black, feminist, performance art in Mexico? Gabrielle Civil’s work, this book, these questions and the conversation are all an intervention.”
—Selena La’Chelle Brown, Ph.D., Theatre Arts & Performance Studies and founder of Pramana Wellness
