Pyrocalligraphy
2026
Performance at NEOLUNAR, Fort Mason Firehouse, San Francisco, CA
For a few years I’ve been studying nüshu, the matrilineal writing system created by women in Jiangyong, China which carried sorrows and prayers in flowy strokes resembling flames. Practicing this script helps me work through knots in my maternal lineage; internalized misogyny passed down from mothers, grandmothers and their mothers, learning to love the women who have hurt us and finding the language to say so.
This poem, Prayer to the Phoenix Goddess, invokes the phoenix descending, dragons turning in water, incense rising, and a young woman stepping forward. Words that were once hidden are now illuminated, like the Fire Horse itself, wild, luminous, finally free.
Photos: Andy Careaga Antezana, Iryna Gorb
