Growing a Baby (and SkirtsAfire Festival) in a Pandemic

We’re flipping the script on our typical #MomCrush for this one! Brianne Jang is the Managing Director of SkirtsAfire and a (fresh) mother of two.

We’re stepping away from our usual question-and-answer format to share this moment in time of the life of a woman doing mama things – working through pregnancy. We know many mamas can relate!

Looking for something to do to support other women? Head to SkirtsAfire to see what programming they have coming up! The main festival is in March, but there are events year round.

Land Acknowledgement

This land has welcomed First Nations from across Turtle Island, and settlers and visitors from around the world. Alberta lands are part of Treaties 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10, and the homeland of the Métis.

Alberta Mamas respects and celebrates the sovereignty, lands, histories, languages, knowledge systems and cultures of all Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit nations. We are striving to better listen, understand, and learn from the Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

We are all Treaty people.

In June 2020, I found myself pregnant with my second child. I rolled my eyes at becoming a part of the now famous “Covid-baby club.” It’s a popular club for a reason and I was now a happy member.

We had just recently and successfully hosted our 8th annual SkirtsAfire Festival in March, about a week before the lockdowns began. I remember enjoying the spring and the start of summer, feeling optimistic that in a month or two, things would return to normal and we would all get back to our festival city as planned. Then slowly but surely, things started getting postponed, then canceled, and our case numbers took a sharp turn for the worse.

Through it all, as I grew this baby mostly isolated to my home, we planned for SkirtsAfire 2021: a return to indoor in-person performances in a safe way.

Having a Pandemic Baby

Having a baby in a pandemic is different. This baby will be welcomed into the world with masks and the strong scent of hand sanitizer and the rough touch of overly-washed chapped hands. No gatherings of friends and family to hold and kiss the fresh being that just entered the world.

Instead, there will be more screen time than I’d like to admit my newborn will have, more time spent with me on my phone texting and emailing pictures and updates, more time spent alone, just our small family. I think of my friends who have had babies in 2020 who have no family in the city, most out of the country even, who have had no relatives allowed to visit and have no known date in the future they’ll get to meet the new addition.

My sisters live in Hong Kong and I don’t know when they’ll get to meet their new nephew. Things I never thought I’d need to feel sad about before.

As I write this, I have 2 weeks until my due date and 5 weeks until the festival launches, and I squeeze my kegel muscles tight in hopes that this little boy does not arrive early. I have too much work to do.

Planning a Pandemic-Era Festival

Trying to plan a festival during a pandemic has been a rollercoaster to say the least.

A bit like the stages of grief, the stages of event planning goes a bit like this:

• Hope – there’s a whole year for us to get this Covid thing under control.
• Denial – there’s no way we could still be in isolation in March.
• More Hope – Ah look, theatres are open again!
• Disappointment – Crap, Alberta is not handling this well.
• Hope again, and a LOT of planning and replanning.
• And eventually acceptance – We’ll do what we can with what we can!

While I am overwhelmed with how we’re going to pull off whatever we end up pulling off, I’m more overwhelmed by the love the festival has received from our supporters, old and new. Our Sponsors are right alongside us ready to jump on a different track if need be, our donors are generously donating, our artists are excited, and our audience is ready to watch – in a theatre or from home.

An Update

Well, there’s less than a week until SkirtsAfire Reimagined begins and my son has officially been welcomed on the outside for two weeks now. He arrived right on time on his due date just as I hoped.

At least one thing went according to my plans this year!

I have him breastfeeding I type. He must be used to the tap-tapping of my keyboard by now and the glow of my laptop.

With a week to go until SkirtsAfire, there are still many things to do. Am I exhausted? Yes. But I’m also excited and thankful and hopeful for what we’ve been able to do with so many unknowns and limitations.

SkirtsAfire will be a beautiful, engaging, inspiring 10 days of online and outdoor performances.

And when it’s all over, I’ll have a well-deserved nap.

Credits

• Official Title of Show: “Makings of a Voice” by Dana Wylie
• Photo credit: April MacDonald Killins (@april_mac_killins)
• The performer in the photos: Dana Wylie  (@danawyliemusic)
• Artistic Team:
  • Directed by Vanessa Sabourin (@vsabs)
  • Set, Props, Costume Design & Projection Co-Design by Elise CM Jason (@elise.dwg)
  • Lighting Design & Projection Co-Design by T. Erin Gruber (@tegruber)