To: Joplin. From: Baltimore, with love.

Speaking of freak weather occurrences (see previous post about the heat), tonight offers an opportunity to help the victims of one of the most horrific weather disasters in recent memory. I'm speaking, of course, about the Joplin tornado, which destroyed about a third of the Missouri city on May 22. Joplin native and Baltimore-based performance artist Rebecca Nagle has partnered with the folks at Current Gallery, Holy Frijoles, and The Wine Source to host a fundraiser tonight, titled To: Joplin. From: Baltimore, with love. Details can be found on the Current Gallery website as can Rebecca's affecting testimony about the destruction, which I pasted here.  

"I was watching a video of a camera panning an area of the destruction. I though it was on the rural outskirts of town, because I didn't see any buildings. And then the camera rotated to show what was left of St Johns Hospital and I realized I was looking at where there used to be a park and homes and office buildings and this gas station where we'd go buy frozen yogurt. And I was looking at this intersection I had been a million times and I couldn't recognize it. And thats the level of destruction; its unfathomable."

Aside from supporting a really good cause (proceeds will go to the city's public school system, which lost four schools to the storm), the party sounds like a lot of fun with an outdoor Copy Cat Theatre variety show and dance party. Guests are asked to bring non-perishable food items and water.