For the next week A.K. “Mimi” Allin will be walking on a red carpet in Seattle’s Occidental Park reading Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace aloud. Dressed in the fashions of the period with a custom-made book harness strapped to her body; Allin stands at one end of the red carpet waiting for someone to accompany her down the aisle.
Here’s how it works:
Those who join me, tell me their full name and take me by the arm. As we walk, I read to them from War & Peace which is strapped to my body with a specially-designed book harness. At the end of the aisle, my partner gives me a sentence from their life. The only rule is that it must contain the words war and peace. In parting, we take hands, look in one another’s eyes and say, “in war and peace,” as a sort of closing vow. As a community, we stand together despite our differences.
Here is some rough video I shot of Allin in action.
Walking in War and Peace is part of the artSparks 2010 program
Some of you might remember Allin from her yearlong performance, The Poetess at Green Lake, where every Sunday she set up shop at Seattle’s Green Lake offering free poetry to all.
Allin’s blog
more on Walking in War & Peace