From on the fringe to starring in the Fringe, Salmon Arm鈥檚 Karen Wilson has taken her story full circle.
The author, professional speaker and founder of Creative Life in Motion is bringing her collection of deeply personal stories to the 琉璃神社 Fringe Festival as one of 13 talented acts.
My Body is My Home, written, produced and directed by Wilson, shares her experiences as being labelled 鈥渢he fat girl鈥� and the challenges she faced, and explores the themes of 鈥渂ody acceptance, self-love and the quest for happiness.鈥�
What started as a keynote speech for her book Be Weightless, morphed into something more after she collaborated with her musician niece Megan Abel for Shuswap Theatre鈥檚 Annual TotE Festival.
鈥淚 shared stories from the book and she just kept saying, 鈥業 have a song for that鈥�,鈥� Wilson recalled, which shaped the original performance format of music accompanying her anecdotal experiences that go from 鈥渂attling bullies to finding love.鈥�
For the Fringe, however, it鈥檚 evolved into more of a spoken word show as she鈥檚 not the singer of the family and 鈥渃an鈥檛 carry my niece in my back pocket.鈥� There have been other changes developed over the course of performances and audience interaction, though the main story and message remains constant.
鈥淢y Body is My Home isn鈥檛 just a weight loss story 鈥� it鈥檚 a tribute to anyone who鈥檚 ever felt pressured to meet external expectations at the expense of their own well-being,鈥� Wilson explained. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about reclaiming identity.鈥�
That stems from her own experience of losing weight and being seen, getting flattering attention but being afraid that she鈥檇 just regain it and go back to 鈥渂eing worthless again.鈥� She said she couldn鈥檛 keep it up and needed to find balance, coming to the realization that there鈥檚 only one home, the body she鈥檚 in, so she鈥檇 better start listening to it.
鈥淚鈥檓 very passionate about this subject. I鈥檓 hoping this makes people look internally, because that鈥檚 the only place answers will be,鈥� Wilson said, adding that despite the sensitive subject matter, there is humour as well. 鈥淭he topics are not always light, but you know when someone is so ridiculously honest that it鈥檚 funny?鈥�
Wilson hopes to eventually take the show into schools, saying that it has been categorized as 鈥渆dutainment鈥� in the past. In the meantime, she鈥檒l be doing three Fringe performances at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in 琉璃神社 on Sunday, Jan. 28 and Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., as well as Sunday, Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m.
For more information on Wilson鈥檚 story and her performances, visit .
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