RADICAL TENDERNESS IS ...

radical tenderness is to be critical and loving, at the same time
radical tenderness is to understand how to use strength as a caress
radical tenderness is to know how to accompany one another, among friends
and lovers, at different distances and speeds
radical tenderness is writing this text at the same time, from two faraway

continents

...from the same bed

writing whilst caressing

radical tenderness is to know to say “no”

is to carry the weight of another body as if it were your own

...is to share sweat with a stranger

radical tenderness is to dance among dissident bodies in a workshop

...to be completely overwhelmed and maintain our smiles and celebrations

radical tenderness is to allow yourself to be seen; to allow yourself to be taken

radical tenderness is to not collapse in the face of our contradictions

radical tenderness is to not allow our existential demons to become

permanent cynicism

it is to not always be the same, las mismas, los mismos, les mismes

is to embody In Lak’ech

because you are my other me

and vice versa

radical tenderness is to not be afraid of fear

radical tenderness is to live ephemeral love

is to invent other temporalities

radical tenderness is to embrace fragility

is to confront others’ neurosis with creativity

radical tenderness is to embody performative gestures that you would

normally reject

radical tenderness is to assume leadership when your community asks it of you,

although you may not know what to do, or how to do it!

radical tenderness is to lend your guts to others

is to wear your lover’s pussy as a beard

is to risk loving against the grain

radical tenderness is to believe in the architecture of affects

is to find one another from the muscles closest to the bone

is to believe in the political effect of internal movements

radical tenderness is to not insist on being the center of attention

is to have peripheral vision; to believe in what cannot be seen

radical tenderness is to turn a tremor into a dance and a sigh into a mantra

is to dissent with maximum respect

...to transit in spaces you do not understand

radical tenderness is to accept the ambiguous

is to not initiate all thought by navel gazing

is to break with affective patterns, without clear expectations

radical tenderness is to share dreams, wildness

to tune in with, not just empathize with

it is to find a galaxy in the eyes of another and not break the gaze

to read the body of another as a palimpsest

radical tenderness is to channel irresistible energies and convert them into

untaimable embodiments

is to activate sensorial memory

is to recognize the other by their scent

radical tenderness is to feel the possibility in every doubt

is to allow yourself to be pierced by the unknown

radical tenderness is to give a narcissist the option of adapting or re-

thinking their position

radical tenderness is to embrace thorns

radical tenderness is to coexist with lack

is to face things head on by looking at them from the love of wanting to see

is to sustain ourselves from distinct places though not all of them are

‘beautiful’

radical tenderness is a concept that is appropriable and ever-changing

radical tenderness is something

that is not necessary

to define

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Radical tenderness is a term that we discovered through working as part of the performance collective lapocha nostra. As performance artists and educators ex-members of the troupe, with this manifesto we want to nor its origin and its continuous reverberation in projects we are engaged with around the globe. This version was created through an online poetic jam started in 2015, as part of dani’s research on radical tenderness within the context of her MA at the independent studies program (MACBA, Barcelona). we asked ourselves: what does radical tenderness mean for us, in our lives and work within and outside of lpn? can tenderness be radical? Can radical be tender? We wish to thank all who have been part of this journey wit us, particularly the founders of la pocha nostra who began using the term in the 90s, the various artists that have worked with the troupe throughout the years and all who have participated in the multiple performance-pedagogy workshops in which we have been able to explore radical tenderness from different perspectives and practices.

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Dani and Daniel are performance artists, transfeminist activists and educators. Since meeting in 2011 they have collaborated on several transcontinental performance and pedagogical projects as core members of La Pocha Nostra until 2016 (Dani from 2011, daniel from 2014) and proyecto inmiscuir between 2015-17. www.danidemilia.com / www.dccperformance.com