Burning Woman

Burning Man is to camping as fugu is to fish sticks: there is a resemblance, but only barely. Cloaked in the guise of an “art festival,” Burning Man’s really an extreme sport for the counterculture, where bitter cold nights, scorching hot days, howling winds, corrosive dust, and withering aridity challenge the endurance of even the most hardy campers. Born of the angst and frustration of Los Angeles artist Larry Harvey in 1986, Burning Man has morphed in the intervening years from “a barbeque where people blew things up” to one of the largest festivals of its kind in North America. Part social experiment, part event destination, Burning Man and its transient population numbering in the hundreds of thousands has become an institution: the burner tribe and their Black Rock City transcend the desert. It’s also an adventure in philosophical extremes. One of the semi-official mantras here is radical self-reliance, but the full scope of the festival is far more complex: the sister of radical self-reliance is a life- and love-affirming expression of radical interdependence. The spectrum of ideologies and expectations reflected here mirror every aspect of modern society, from the far-right gun nuts (present since the earliest days of Burning Man) to the lefty granola nuts. There are “merry pranksters,” dropped out long ago, and police, doctors, lawyers, artists, lovers, and free-spirits. There’s also very little money at Burning Man: an economy of gifting and barter is the engine that drives some of the aforementioned interdependence. The payoff is a week long immersion in art, performance, music, and human companionship that alters your world-view forever. When the party’s over, this temporary City returns without a trace to the dust whence it sprang, yet unlike the permanent cities in which we stoically reside with our temporary relationships, the connections created in this also temporary City are permanent and indelible. One of the phenomena that stands out, however, is a subtle but distinct gender imbalance: the Black Rock City Census Department reports a demographic ratio of about two women to every three men. The imbalance isn’t hard to explain: this desert experience presents enormous, intimidating physical, intellectual, & psychological challenges. What’s more interesting than the skewed demographic, though, is that so many women- 20,000 in 2007 (the most recent statistics)- still make the pilgrimage. At DISfunkshion we wondered what are the qualities that drive this unusual sorority to embrace the challenges of the desert and become…the Burning Woman.

Olga Loyev was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine. She came to the US when she was 13. With an undergraduate degree in economics & a masters in information systems and operations management, she has a job in Cairo, Egypt doing corporate restructuring. She speaks Ukrainian, Russian, & English fluently, and expects to be speaking Arabic soon. 2009 was Olga’s second time at Burning Man, and she is enthusiastic about returning. Her fist visit in 2008 was a bi-product of a serendipitous encounter with a California Burner while trekking in Spain & Morocco; she returned to the desert in ’09 “because it’s amazing.”Betsy Elizabeth Bower was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Educated in fine arts, she has worked for several years in steel and has recently started her own metal-works studio, where she is a practitioner  of industrial welding, art-welding, and black-smithing. Her fashion style is SoHo bohemian, which she exhibits in the desert in an eclectic mix of semi-formal and vintage accessorized with a collection of charmingly retro hats. A first-time Burner in ‘09, she came to the desert for the art & connection- “a sense of community among free-spirited people” that sometimes eludes her in the regular world.” A few of her favorite things at Burning Man are the Pavilion in center camp with its carnival atmosphere. Like many of the women I spoke with, she definitely plans to return: “As an artist, I find this place so inspiring, especially the merging of art & science. I can’t wait to come back as a participating sculptor myself.”  Yoevelyn Rodriguez (aka “Yovi”) is a native of La Romana, Dominican Republic, but makes her home now in Miami, Florida. Currently a waitress, she speaks English and Spanish fluently and has put herself through college for an education in fine arts, focusing on fashion & costume design, where she hopes to make her career upon graduating. A woman of interesting contradictions, she is both playful and strong, with an eager eye for adventure and enormous personal ambition; her fashion style, reflecting these qualities, is colorful, modest, and pragmatic: it is all about the environment and how Yovi makes her place in it. She comes to Burning Man for the first time this year cross-country on a school bus to experience first hand what she had long heard of in rumors. Why should you follow Yovi to Burning Man?  “For personal growth,” she answers without hesitation. “To make yourself independent, to learn respect for other people, to learn how to cooperate, collaborate, and improvise.” Although Ana Kapodistria was born and raised in Toronto, she eagerly celebrates her Greek heritage. Currently a waitress and a student at Ryerson University in Toronto, she expects to make a career for herself in the photographic arts, of which she is already an enthusiastic practitioner. To get to Burning Man Ana and her friend Jess flew from Toronto to Boulder, Colorado, where they rode a truck to a rest stop in Wyoming to intercept the school bus that began it’s trip in Sarasota, Florida. She came this year for the first time because of the art and the idea of Burning Man, and enthusiastically anticipates her return. Her fashion sense on and off the playa is a reflection of her quirky, exuberant personality: casual but dressy bohemian chic with a splash of playful accessories, like her heart-shaped lunettes. While her friends tend to regard her as adventurous, Ana claims she’s a chicken at heart; slightly acrophobic, she nonetheless climbed a swaying 50’ ladder for a photograph– maybe her friends are right. Does she plan on returning to the desert? “Of course,” she says with a brilliant smile. Why does Ana think you should follow her to Burning Man? “To find people whose energy is worth relishing; to enjoy a unique experience; and to discover the kind of inspiration that can only come from immersing yourself in art and culture.”

Alana S Miller (aka. Rasta Impasta) was born & raised in New York City. She recently completed her junior year at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and will be finishing her education in fine arts in Scotland. A photographer now, she hopes to turn that into a career after college. 2009 was Alana’s first time at Burning Man; she expects she will definitely be back. What attracted her to the desert? “I came to be surrounded by creative energy, to be surrounded by wild & wacky homo sapiens who love life as much as I do.” Her fashion style on the playa was site-appropriate: she modeled an assortment of bathing suits casually accessorized with clever hats (think “Carmen Miranda“) and colorful, playful scarves. Her experiences here vastly exceeded her expectations. Cristal Arcade, 27, was born in Atlanta, raised in America’s Old South, and has returned to Atlanta where she currently works as an entertainer, artist, and businesswoman. A gifted polymath with an abundant curiosity, she intends to expand her career options aggressively into graphics and illustration, and is preparing to illustrate a children’s book in collaboration with Florida Author Jonathan Schork. A first-time Burner, she came here cross-country on a school bus with Penivek Arcade, whom she married at Burning Man. About relationships in the desert she says, “If you want to learn about your partner and how you fit together, try a week here: you’ll either figure out it’s not happening, or you’ll be together forever.” Cristal’s eclectic fashion style on & off the playa is strongly influenced by the Japanese street scene and manga. She and Mr. Arcade plan to return every year, and hope eventually as parents to bring their children here. Why did Cristal come to Burning Man? “I’ve always felt a little alone in the world,” she says, “and I just wanted to be somewhere with a sense of community.” She most enjoyed the freedom of expression without money, basic human kindness without any expectation & the outstanding music scene. So who is the Burning Woman? She’s not much different than you, really. The women with whom we spoke, and only a fraction are represented here, were well-educated, independent, adventurous (even if they didn’t think so), talented, creative women. They were young, old and everything in between. They were waitresses, executives, athletes, gypsies, students, wives & mothers. They were eager to challenge themselves and eagerly sought out personal growth.

-Jonathan Schork