We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pink Flamingo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Pink Flamingo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned the art of being a clown at Rubber Soul Yoga Revolution here in Athens, GA. I started attending Rubber Soul when I moved here in 2014 to attend UGA. After a couple of years of practicing yoga, acroyoga, meditation, and clown school with the various teachers there, I decided to take up the 200-hour teacher training program called “Adventure Club,” directed by the owner, Dr. Cal Clements.. The program was unique in that we took up unconventional practices, such as playing baritone horns as a sort of breath practice (pranayama). You really have to put yourself out there when you play a brass instrument. You have to take up sonic space. Technically, you could play a trumpet “softly” as opposed to blaring it with a powerful force as you learn to control the breath. But Dr. Clements encouraged us to play fully with our hearts, while also memorizing When The Saints Go Marching In. Imagine an eclectic group of aspiring yoga teachers marching around Pulaski St. near the train tracks, all marching in a line, each focusing on their new instrument that had only been picked up about a month ago. (dharana) It takes a certain ego-death to be able to do this, to keep saying “Yes!” to the wacky assignments and exercises with full gusto. You can’t be scared, embarrassed, or shy- you just need to blow your horn and try to hit the notes, and keep practicing (tapas). It was an amazing shift of perspective and energy to experience with a welcoming community (sangha).
After my first training, I occasionally taught yoga classes and took up performing in Rubber Soul’s weekly Kids Clown Show. But without the support and accountability of my group, I fell off the yoga wagon, and had a very rough junior year of college. I struggled with the slippery slope of despair and an immense hole of darkness and confusion. I really missed the community and the open, compassionate space that the container of Adventure Club held. Luckily, the program was so affordable that I was able to join again during my senior year. I often joked that “Adventure Club is my first priority, then school,” but it wasn’t really a joke. I felt that what we were doing in Adventure Club was more life-giving than any academic endeavors the university could offer. So, for my second round of training, I was ready to dive in deeper than last time. Near the end of the program, Dr. Clements invited a few of us to be in a new clown troupe, the ‘Thunder Dreamers.” We had a practice twice a week, one for practicing our horns together and one for practicing movement. Then, Cal developed another vision, a troupe called “Silencio: People Pleasers Society,” where we wore black and white striped shirts, black pants, and were mute. So that was another day of practice for me. I was also going to Cal’s yoga class daily, sometimes twice a day. This was the summer of 2018. But summer always ends. I reluctantly started a Master’s program. “It’ll be just one more year,” I said. “I’ll get a better paying job if I just put in one more year of work.” So I had to stop coming to Rubber Soul as much, but I always made it to clown practice.
One starry night at a music festival in Sparta, GA, we clowns appeared out of Cal’s old RV and put on a show for the unsuspecting audience. I don’t think the show was particularly that successful, but just being away from Athens, surrounded by music and free spirits, and under the stars, I had a revelation- I need to tell Cal I’m in love with him, and I should drop out of school. I want to be a free clown, with no limits. I want to live out the vision that we were cultivating three nights a week, I wanted it to be my life. I liked tapping into the clown inside of me, and I don’t want to put them away for any job or any degree. I decided to drop the obstacles, and go for what I really wanted. That was four years ago.
The Pink Flamingo is partially born from this realized freedom, as well as a certain type of duty that comes when you feel your home is in danger. I don’t want Athens to be a place where people think they have to follow a certain path. I want Athens to be a place where liberated souls express themselves to their highest delights, at any time of the year or day. The Pink Flamingo is flag of sorts, a living proclamation that weirdness has a place here. So I put everything I learned into practice: unicycling, horn playing, horn playing while unicycling, juggling, dancing, playing, intruding, protesting… all in the flamingo outfit. The hardest part of it all is the first step out of the door, dressed like a crazy person, but all of that anxiety melts away when I see people smiling in the streets. Courage, support, and a sense of duty are all essential to my clown practice.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
The Pink Flamingo appears at all kinds of events, big or small. My first appearance was at the Wild Rumpus Parade in 2019. The costume was on a heavy rack of clown outfits in Cal’s attic. It was a natural fit, and I embodied the energy of a confident and elegant flamingo. I pranced through the Wild Rumpus parade while blowing kisses at everybody, and I had the privilege of witnessing an innumerable amount of smiles grow on people’s faces!`
After the pandemic started in early 2020, I had more free time and decided to try to cheer everyone up with random flamingo encounters. I would put the costume on and unicycle around my neighborhood on a random Tuesday. To I made an Instagram page called @pink.flamingo.athens to keep my internal ball rolling, and started posting photos, videos, and eventually I started getting tagged when people took photos of me in the wild! Some would write in the caption how seeing me brightened their day. I hope to solve the problem of a sort of mundane reality that’s so easy to fall into. I hope to disrupt this old, stagnant, mud-pile and energize the community into a flowing river of weirdness, laughter, and self-expression.
I am very proud of all the events I’ve been invited to, including but not limited to: kids birthday parties, The League of Step practice, Recycle Paper Cups Kickoff, Weirdness Parade at Franny’s Pharmacy, Rabbit Box Storytelling, and Protesting for the Varsity Trees. I really like when people invite me to events, so I hope people know that they can message me on Instagram and we’ll see what we can plan. I like to work on a donation basis so that weirdness is accessible. In 2020, the Athens Cultural Affairs Commission granted me and 49 other Athens artists the Arts in Community Resilience Award, which absolutely allowed me to dive into my performance art and connecting with others in the community.
In 2022, I spent 9 months in Miami Beach, Florida. Unfortunately the inspiration to be the Pink Flamingo didn’t strike me as much as it does in Athens. I think because it’s actually a very vulnerable thing to be the Pink Flamingo, and Athens is my home, where I feel safe. So I’m very happy to be back, living in Athens, and look forward to connecting with everyone here again.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
I think the philosophy of the Pink Flamingo comes from a speech I wrote in a stream of consciousness while in Austin, Texas. The motivation behind the speech was my utter resentment for the fact that there was a Chick-Fil-A being built at the center of our town in Athens. At the time (2019), the Rainbow Crosswalk was only just a new petition on Change.org. I signed the petition to have them paint the crosswalks, but I was appalled when I realized the plan at the time was to have it near the Chick-Fil-A. I thought this juxtaposition of this abusive, unhealthy, and homophophic chain restaurant next to a Rainbow Crosswalk was just too unacceptable. I thought this hypocrisy was just one of many in our little town, where the art and creativity are constantly demolished and smothered by the plague of normativity and money-grabbing that continues to grow in this town. So in Austin, Texas, where the motto is “Keep Austin Weird,” I was fantasizing how we could keep Athens weird. I didn’t necessarily think of being a flamingo, but this energy certainly brews inside me whenever I am clowning around here in Athens. It’s a kind of desperate rage or a loud plea for others to be outlandish, be creative, and be your own clown whenever you possibly can, so hopefully our creative, courageous, and generous energy will push out the greedy, violent, and judgmental energy from this town.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Yes- anything by Thich Nhat Hanh is my go-to for mindfulness inspiration. Right now I’m reading “Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames.” I hope this helps me channel the rage and frustration I feel into more compassionate expressions, both in my personal life and public persona. On Insight Timer, a guided mediation app, I started listening to Thich Nhat Hanh’s meditation titled “Mindful Breathing,” about 8 years ago. Being aware of our in-breath and out-breath is often the first step we need to check back in with ourselves and to become present with those around us. Mindful presence is one of the best gifts we can give to our loved ones. To be authentic, mindful, aware, compassionate- these traits are what I’m practicing for. Thich Nhat Hanh’s voice helps me realize the pattern of delusional thoughts, anxiety, fear, and judgements I am having, and points me towards where I want to go. As the Pink Flamingo, mindfulness is at the base of it all: I meet people’s wide eyes as they look at me, wondering what kind of creature I am. Instead of cocooning back into the familiar shell of privacy, I keep pushing forward with radical presence. The results are quite magical, the smiles are wide, and the child-like wonder ensues… so I’ll keep practicing, keep showing up, keep breathing!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @pink.flamingo.athens
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkflamingoathens/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNX-H9m4gHQW47PUIF42cTw
- Other: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/pinkflamingo
Image Credits
Emily Cameron, Jessica Gratigny, Eric Wagoner, Sidney Chansamone, Jason Thrasher