Award-winning writer and performer Kimberly Dark brings her latest event, “Fat, Pretty and Soon to Be Old,” to the East Hawaii Cultural Center stage at 7 p.m. Nov. 22. Tickets prices range from $10-15 at the door.
Dark’s writing and performances have entertained and enlightened audiences about their potential as “social creators” for more than 20 years. Her newest storytelling performance is named for her third book, released on AK Press in September. Books will be available at the event.
In this moving and hilarious show, Dark invites audience members to live in the experience of the body, not the appearance of the body. Drawing from her own experience as a fat — as well as queer, white-privileged, active then disabled and inevitably aging — gender-conforming “girl with a pretty face,” she deftly blends storytelling and social analysis to reveal the presence of everyday appearance privilege (and stigma).
“Fat, Pretty, and Soon to Be Old” is ultimately hopeful: Dark reminds us we are capable of creating a more just world. She reminds us to hold fast to our human dignity, to hold space for difference and to find compassion for ourselves and others.
Dark is here to remind audience members: “You don’t owe anyone pretty” and “We are creating the world, even as it creates us.”
Dark is a writer, sociologist and raconteur, working to reveal the hidden architecture of everyday life one clever essay, poem and story at a time. The author of three books, 10 plays and numerous essays, she’s toured internationally for more than 20 years.