The Glamour of Being Real

The Glamour of Being Real is a book and a performance.

Book

Excitement from readers like you~

The world needs this book.
Dianne in New York

It is Amazing. We will be talking about this for the rest of our lives. I'm just sorry I didn't have this to read when I was, say, 30 years old. It would have been life-altering.
Suzanne in Illinois

It is exquisite. It is vast, beautifully encompassing so many sources and retelling knowledge in a wonderfully new post-modem (my term) world. Thank you for this gift to us all.
Kathleen in Arizona

Description

209 short aphorisms spell out the glamour of being real, which is the art of self-creation, of trusting oneself. Passionate and insightful, and sometimes paradoxical, this helpful guide expresses simple means for overcoming bodily and everyday dilemmas. From the necessity of change to intimate relationships to eating, aging, and everyday life, The Glamour of Being Real is filled with eloquent activism about the pleasures of soul-and-mind-inseparable-from-body.

The Glamour of Being Real evolved from my work as a scholar, teacher, and artist whose books and performances celebrate beauty and the body. My multifaceted focus on those subjects includes research and experience, such as my study of emotions and sensations and of the female body in art and culture and my engagement with yoga as a continuing education of soul-and-mind-inseparable-from-body.

The Glamour of Being Real is a sutra, which is a series of concise, related statements, each one also being a sutra, whose aphoristic nature is intended to make possible memorization by a student. See more about sutras in the Art Works section.

Photos

I asked the photographer Frances Murray to photograph me for the book. I've modeled for her since our meeting in 1983 and we're close friends who have lots of fun together in the making of art and in conversation, sharing confidences and eating food that we love. Our photo session took place on the back terrace of my home on a perfect Tucson autumn afternoon—temperature in the mid-80s, sunshine with intermittent clouds, a breeze whose intensity was occasionally surprising.

Supporting the Local Community

The Glamour of Being Real supports my local community, Tucson, AZ. The designer, printer, and seller are all in Tucson, and the debut performance was in Tucson.

Performance

Using my characteristically direct and simple staging and presentation, I speak the text, with some singing, and also spontaneously go where the written words, my thoughts and feelings, and the audience take me.

Kathleen Williamson composed and performed the score for the performance. See more about Kathleen Williamson in EVENTS: Performance and Book Launch.

Debut performance: Pima County Tucson Women's Commission, February 25, 2012.