Always Welcome is a Social Arts Salon where you don't have to be afraid to get it right to be welcomed. Hosted by Mallorie Kris Greene Kristoffersen, performance ethnographer, teaching artist, and 9th-generation Howard County, Maryland native, each episode uses lived experience and lived stories as the vessel for fostering new connections and deeper shared meanings. From conversations with family to field research across Howard County, this is an investigation into what it means to be human in a culturally complex, constantly evolving world. Pull up a chair. You are always welcome here.
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This is where it starts.
In the first full episode of Always Welcome: A Social Arts Salon, Mallorie Kris Greene Kristoffersen arrives with her whole self -- the skin on her face, the voice that got too loud, the whisper she conditioned herself into, and the invitation back to full volume.
This episode is dedicated to her grandmother, Sylvia Ann Cofield, and to all the conversations we never got to have with the people we love.
Part life journey. Part community investigation. Rooted in Howard County, Maryland.
If you have ever felt like you were living your life at a whisper, this one is for you.
'Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free, tis the gift to come down where we ought to be. And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend, we shan't be ashamed. To turn, turn will be our delight. Till by turning, turning we come round right.
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Hello and welcome to the Always Welcome podcast. Today I begin a process that I've been on since I was a kid. Growing up, I often felt like I did not make sense. I was very lucky to belong to a variety of different groups and communities, and still I always felt my perspective on how we acknowledge and sit with that which is apparent and naked to the eye was received with confusion or discomfort or the sincerity of, bless your heart. An example is the the last time I can confidently say that I was comfortable with the skin on my face was probably before hormones began increasing in my body at the age of 10. And I'm about 41, going on 42. I know this comfort and awareness can become uncomfortable to the point that I've both had children ask me what's wrong with my face and employers request I wear makeup to cover my skin. Would that make you uncomfortable? If so, this is the space that I often find I inhabit. Why live anywhere than in the reality of myself in this world? I have a coworker who calls me a Nan. No apologies necessary. Well Nan feels compelled to comfort those who feel the need to look away or in this case turn my voice off literally. What a power to give. And for those who do not want to experience this level of self-awareness, I completely understand. I am not going to apologize, but I will invite you to stay and I'll do my best to measure my comfort responsibly. I'll just welcome and invite you to do the same. That's what I am excited to share and inspire through the Always Welcome podcast. This is part life journey from the perspective of a performance ethnographer and part social experience inspired by that of my parents' annual Christmas Eve open house. With each episode I welcome you into my lived life and the current conversations and insights that are shaping my current worldview, both locally and from my family historical experience, both in our Howard County and contextually just looking more broadly across the United States and globally. And in advance and before I fully quell my nan, I apologize to those I will surely get things wrong with or sit with at the crossroads of disagreement. I welcome you to please stay and sit with me respectfully. We might find a way to better understand what makes the other come to life in an opposing way or what feels opposing to our own standard or values that we hold. I beg to believe that we have a pretty awesome opportunity coming up for more voices to find value. And I say this wholly recognizing that like myself, many out here in this world are struggling. I do not sit in a place of position. I do not have a PhD. I do not have a successful business or proof that I have anything figured out. This is an invitation to join alongside me as I hope to bring more light to the darkness to this beautiful gift of being human and sharing life and space with others. I've spent my whole life sitting in constant fascination, curiosity, bewilderment, amazement for that which is all of us being human together here on earth. As a kid I was told my voice was too loud. This became invaluable as a theater major in undergrad what which taught me the the skills of fine-tuning and measuring the volume I bring to the physical spaces I inhabit. And these tools are necessary for us to foster connection, listening, understanding, eye contact. While these traits are remarkable, I will recognize that I found myself more frequently navigating my presence as families argued or nitpicked over their needs, budget and style in locally run family furniture stores, not on the stage. I love the tightrope of families the opportunity to come in and break tension to show understanding and help couples and individuals better hear where they're coming from, where their desires are, what their needs are I love listening for the places where there are agreement and opportunity for us to possibly find some harmonious decisions to be made. And I cannot always offer harmony, but I could almost always help people who were looking for it. Working with the general public with every single person out here in the world no position, no title, just a need and a range of options for me to help you fill it, accepting this as a kind of scientific quest for for just experiencing people and life. It's something that I started way back when I was a kid playing with my Playmobiles in my bedroom by myself. As I've grown up I went on to get a master's and that helped me to get positional awareness and better fine-tune the scientific method for approaching both my fascination and deep belief and the power of the collective but also the cultures, traditions, values that support the experience of belonging that I believe many are looking to attain. And it's from this position and in this light that I am excited to begin a practice that I look forward to sustaining and aims for more people to find comfort navigating life and discovering opportunities where we are living harmoniously or where we could be but just don't realize it yet. As a kid, the volume on my voice got me in trouble. Somewhere along the path of life I feel I've conditioned myself to live my life out of whisper. Whether tired by the struggle of life or lost by the silos of society, if you feel like there's a part of you that's living your life out of whisper, join me. I offer this space for discovering the practice of living a life well lived with others. And I invite you to find your full volume again with me. I'm Mallory Chris Green Christofferson. Thank you with love for listening and curiosity as my dad and his grandmother would say over and out from Columbia Maryland
