Meet The Repairers
Clementine Bordeaux
Clementine Bordeaux (she/they) was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and earned a BA in Theater from Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) and a Masters in Communications from the Native Voices Indigenous Documentary Program from the University of Washington, Seattle. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Culture and Performance program in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. Clementine’s work is at the functions of Lakota relationality at the intersection of art, land, and culture.
When Clementine drove herself (alone) to college for the first time, her father handed her a small silver pocket knife. He told her to keep the knife in the car for the 14-hour drive to college. 18 years later, Clementine still carries this knife in her vehicle. She thinks often about the implications of “having” to protect herself as a female-presenting brown body in the Midwest and the ways other BIPOC bodies are seen as dangerous when wielding such tools. Although she has the knife, she continues to arm herself with other tools of intellect and care.
Stephanie Chang
Stephanie (she/her) grew up in the Chicago suburbs before moving to Los Angeles at the start of her graduate school career. While she has never been particularly good at using tools, she has recently been prompted to focus more on matters of work, leisure, and the conceptualization of feminist politics through the question of tools, a question she has gladly taken up.
Saws have been one such tool that she learned to use as of late, as they not only have become particularly useful in her gardening endeavors, but also resonate with her personal interests in horror films. Ultimately, Stephanie is drawn to the many strange and complicated meanings of what it means to use and wield tools in past, present, and future landscapes.
Jaimie Crumley
Jaimie Crumley (she/her) is the only child of a Black woman from Arkansas and a Black man from South Carolina, both of whom were raised in working-class families. Jaimie’s maternal grandmother learned at an early age to stand up for herself and her family. Jaimie’s mother recalls that grandma Willie Mae often carried a hammer in her purse, because “every girl needs a hammer.” During Jaimie’s senior year of high school, her mother gave her a hammer of her own to remind her that she is independent and audacious. When Jaimie sees a hammer, it reminds her of the strength of generations of women of African descent in the United States who have consistently worked to dismantle oppressive systems.
Jaimie’s father has kept the accompanying photograph on his nightstand for years. It captures an image of little Jaimie wearing a purple shirt. She has red ribbons in her curly hair. She is gripping onto a chubby crayon and showing the camera her teeth because she understood the social expectation to “smile” in photographs. Little Jaimie always gripped onto her writing utensils a bit too firmly. She was a girl who liked to be in control.
Taryn Marcelino
Taryn Marcelino (she/they/siya) is a product of a strict immigrant grandmother and mother growing up in San Diego, CA in a predominantly Filipino community. As a person who grew up learning martial arts, she is very comfortable with tools that protect and defend. Taryn’s tool of choice these days is the balisong, or butterfly knife. A weapon feared for it’s razor sharp blade and rapid deployment from the hand of the user, it is outlawed in most spaces. An attractive yet deadly blade, Taryn uses it for self-defense as well as an expression of Filipino culture. Taryn believes it is a metaphor for their feminist politics. At once, something necessary for the everyday, and when needed, can defend and be ready for the revolution.
Taryn’s first tool was a spoon, as seen in this photo of her younger self in the snow. Being someone who grew up in the sunshine, snow was a curious site and texture for Taryn. As a small filipino child, spoons were meant for scooping up soup and rice, but this was her tool of choice to understand this new, white, cold sensation. She was clearly glad to have been able to protect herself with her small, plastic spoon.