Hello … My name is Ammunition … and I’m a fire and grinder burlesque artist here in Chicago … I’ve lived here my whole life … I’ve performed all over the country … From anywhere here …to Blackrock City … I’m losing my thought … (laughter) … I don’t know what else to say … I’m kind of … (laughter) … My modeling and my preforming … I think they go hand in hand together … When I first started … I identified more as a model … mainly thats where I was with my path … I started out modeling … and … eventually over time I wanted to take the scenes that I had created in my head … and I wanted to bring them to life … so basically … the model birthed the performer … I started out as something still … an image that I can convey to somebody…and put into movement…So…I always had this idea in my head of how I wanted to present myself … I’m ultimately creating a fantasy … Modeling actually started … what am I trying to say … Modeling catalyzed the performer … and now I just use the imagery behind modeling to keep the performers image present … Um… I’m not sure what the other word is I’m looking for … I’m bombing this right now … (laughter) …I preform at the Mid for the Porn & Chicken Dance Party … I have been doing that for about eight years now …That’s definitely catalyzed my work onto bigger … larger … festival stages … Which would be anywhere like Spring Awakening … and … (whisper) … Electric Forest … I’m not supposed to say anything yet … but by the time that this is released I will probably have already preformed it … I perform at Untitled … I’ve been preforming there for about six years … They’ve given me all the danger license to do what ever I want there … It’s pretty great to be able to have a stage where I’m allowed to bring whatever music … whatever image I want … whatever costume … and always be supported … so that’s great … And then I do a lot of other things around town where it will be like … one off party’s … one off burlesque nights … that have different themes … and I also do travel … so if there’s a party … or if there’s a show across the country that want’s a grinder artist then I’ll come and do that too … Porn and Chicken was basically a small little party in Wrigleyville where we just played porn … and served chicken … really simple idea … and we have dance … porn … and chicken … dance party … put all these little elements together and people really wan’t to have a good time … and we served four different kinds of chicken and we try to have the porn match the theme of the night … If we have a Dungeon and Dragon night … we’ll try to have the porn similar to it … (laughter) … So it’s an arena where people can be themselves without judgement … if you want to come wearing a raccoon costume … then you can go ahead and do that and no ones going to turn you down at the door … (laughter) …It’s really fun… and also it’s challenged me throughout the years with costuming too because there’s a lot of themes … that I don’t feel like … I would normally dress up for … Say if there was Dungeons and Dragons … I was never a D&D’er … but I nailed that look … (laughter)… It’s a weekly thing … but I’m only there every two weeks … so that it … kind of gives them a little palette cleanser … you know … gives them something to look forward to … but … it’s been pretty consistent … and we travel around the country too … sometimes people will want our party at their venue … so then they’ll fly us out … and then we’ll just unplug and replug it in …like a plug-and-play … mostly at clubs … The Mid is a really large … upscale … music slash … DJ … dance venue … So … I think we’re in the best place we can be in right now … We were originally at the Evil Olive and we ran that place down to the ground … (laughter) … We got away with murder there … I was breathing fire … topless … on top of the bar … over peoples heads … it’s not stuff we can get away with anymore … Nor do I feel that I have the guts to deliver anymore … Yeah … it’s fun … (laughter) … I always seem to go through an evolution of costuming and themes throughout the years … but right now I’m really focusing on conveying a really strong image for woman … Unconventional beauty is always been something that I’ve embraced … A lot of people don’t … or … I’d say … They have an idea in their heads what they feel feminine beauty should be … I’m taking that and pushing it further with an edge … I would say a lot of my looks are Grace Jones inspired … Annie Lennox inspired … I really like that strong image that challenges men … and that’s the reaction I get … a lot of challenging …even just my image and how I convey myself online…My presence challenges people … I’ve noticed … I’m taking that ball and I’m rolling with it … I really like reaction … I like that when I’m on stage … when I put the grinder to my body … and the whole world is screaming because it’s something they’ve never seen before … that … I feed off of … There is a wide range of things that I hear from people … I get a lot of mansplainers that come in and tell me that I shouldn’t be using DeWalt … and that I should be using other power tools … or I should not be using corded grinders … I just let them say what they need to say … It’s not going to change my method of how I do it … and then you get people that come up to you and hand you a hundred dollars because they’ve never seen anything like that before … and they’re like … thank you … truly … thank you … and it’s always woman too … that come up to me and hand me money to that degree … I feel in some ways it helps them feel stronger to see an image like that … and it inspires them to want to convey that to the world … It’s pretty amazing … Just this past weekend I did hear someone in the audience say … those look like natural sparks … or I hear … “That’s really dangerous” … like … a lot … in the audience … I hear little bickering in the smaller theaters when I’m able to hear when people have comments … which I think is funny … because a lot of people think it’s fake … what I do … it’s not … It’s real … It’s dangerous … It can kill me … and it almost has … but it’s not going to stop me … Oh … a woman came up to me and said … “It’s not real … it’s not real” … I’m like … Hold out your hand … and then I tap … and they feel … and they’re … “Ok … that’s real” … I make what I do look easy … because I’m comfortable with it … I can do it with my eyes closed … I can do it on other people … That also is another reaction I get … It’s not … real … reaction … yes … It’s real … I’m woman … hear me roar! … (laughter) … When I first started performing … I couldn’t even go on stage without a mask on my face … some sort of headpiece or something … I needed to feel like I was getting shielded or covered … and now … I don’t need any of that … nor do I need wigs … It almost felt like it was a blanket of safety to me when I was on stage… now I’m looking people directly in the eyes … My costuming has definitely taken a more dangerous turn … where I’m a lot more comfortable wearing a lot less on stage … where I go through stages of that … where I don’t feel comfortable as much … showing as much skin… and then I won’t do burlesque … I’ll just perform grinder and not take anything off … and right now I’m I’m in the middle of what’s noticeable a revolution … other producers are telling me that they see a change in me right now … I’m focusing more on music that’s relatable to an audience … because before I was really into music that was crazy and loud … and unrecognizable … and now I’m into songs that people know … digging back into 90’s industrial stuff … I’m really enjoying where I am right  now with that … like a dark … gothic … eloquent … but with a tough … bad … bitch appeal … (laughter) … My approach to modeling has most certainly changed …The person that I was thirteen years ago … when I first went in front of a camera was very unsure and insecure … I feel … but I wanted to convey the image that I wasn’t … so in a way it was healing for me … I got over a lot of body images issues that I had … issues … just everything … It takes vulnerability … and I feel surrender to be in front of the camera … I was very naive too … and I got myself involved in some sticky situations with photographers … I feel like I’ve learned a lot … It’s not as much about quantity as it was before … Now it’s quality … before I wanted as much as possible … as many shoots as possible … not always with the best work … Now … maybe it’s once or twice a year … and I want it to be amazing … something like this … where it’s an amazing project … I’m more focused on art then just putting my image out there … I want a project … collaboration … Changes? … I feel a lot more support then I had in the beginning … that’s for sure … I feel I had to earn my place … where I am in society when it comes to this image I convey … I feel highly respected … it took a long time cultivating where my social media goes … I vet everybody that I have even though I have a strong following … I don’t want just anybody coming in there that’s going to make my life a living hell… But … with the MeToo movement  … definitely … I feel the most powerful … and capable … and I feel like my voice carries and it inspires … where years ago … I didn’t feel like I had much of a voice … I feel liberated … I do get grief … but I don’t give it much time … because I don’t have time for that bullshit … (laughter) … to be honest with you … I’m willing to except constructive criticism to a degree … but when it starts … also … the way that we communicate … you open yourself up to the possibility of having some really unsupportive situations … which I try not to get involved in … I don’t waste my time … I’m here to support you you support me … I will uplift you and you do the same for me … that’s pretty much my goal right now … no bullshit … no drama … Me too! … Cultural appropriation? … I was definitely very uneducated … and our society … in America … let’s a lot slide … even now … but  ten years ago … I openly admit that I preformed in Geisha styling … and that’s not appropriate … and that’s not something I knew … because people weren’t carrying the message out with social media … It can highly impact your career … I didn’t realize that some of the things I would do … even like wearing a dreadlock wig … or wearing dreads … is culturally insensitive … and these are all things that I have to implement when it comes to modeling and preforming and my costuming … I have to be conscientious of that … Am I offending somebody … Am I hurting someone … I don’t want to do that … Social media? …Honestly … I make so much money off of social media now … I can convey … I put these images out there of my preforming … and my work … and video … hashtags … this is all part of language that we didn’t have ten years ago … and now we have a different language talking about it … Yeah … it’s actually helped my career greatly … and I honestly don’t know how we did it before (laughter) … I couldn’t go back … Just the convenience of being able to make one post and having … reach … thousands of people in a single click … It’s just unreal … but it’s responsible for me being able to tour … me being able to preform in all sorts of different places where I normally wouldn’t be able to network with people in any other way … I wouldn’t be able to meet people from California … or whatever … to travel … it’s just … yeah … It’s …terrifying … (laughter) … but also really cool … I feel Instagram’s good for just … being there … I don’t feel like … I don’t know … to have a presence … I feel everybody … if they’re creating something … they should have an Instagram … because it does reach out to more people then I would ever have access to all around the world … just by putting a hashtag … and you’ve seen how many people have hash-tagged  that same word … and how many people will find you … I find grinder girls from Europe … just by tagging grinder girl … in my photos … people … stuff that I would never have access to … The accessibility is pretty amazing … but … also with social media … I’ve definitely been on the end of bullying … and some really horrible harassment … There have been times I’ve had to take extra steps towards my own personal safety … because … because of this all inclusivity that we  have were we’re able to network out to the whole world … It also puts me greatly at risk for … having stalker situations … which … does happen from time to time … It’s been a while … but now they know that I’m no fucking force to reckon with … but in my early days I was on the target end of a lot of it … It effected my mental health … People kill themselves over this … you know … This is not an issue we had fifteen years ago … where there are children and kids getting bullied on social media … even adults … I still do from time to time … but like I said … I don’t like to waste my time on that … You just know right away … click … delete … see ya … Burning Man experience? … I love Burning Man so much … I fell in love with Burning Man before I even got to Burning Man … It’s really fascinating to build an entire city … of seventy thousand people … out of art … and money is not exchanged at Burning Man … It really does take away a lot of everyday stresses that we deal with in the world that are all related to money … You take away the money aspect and live in that for a week … It recharges my soul … It’s beautiful to see … people collaborate … in so many ways … from … it being performance art … to someone giving a gift of just a drink … It’s all an art form in itself … every time I come back … I have a creative explosion where I have to make all this costuming … My art always changes when I come back … The way I preform always changes … It’s like I’ve just taken a big … dust … chinchilla bath … It just brightens up my soul … It’s really healing … It heals people … The future? … I want to stay on stage as long as I can … Even if it involves me being a silver fox up there grinding … I kind of want to push that barrier … and see how far I can take that … and see if it’s still marketable … I know jugglers who are in they’re fifties … who market the look … and … I kind of want to do that … see how far I can take it … until I guess they think I’m too old to be up there … But then when I am … I want to definitely take my costuming into more of a … let me change that … I want to get into costuming more … sell my pieces … I’m really good at repurposing bras and things like that … maybe make showgirl things that people can readily buy … and that are stage ready … start an Etsy store … That’s definitely what I have in mind … But other then that … maybe travel more … I’d like to see the other side of the world … (laughter) … I’ve not seen Thailand … I’d like to see Thailand … and Amsterdam … That’s definitely on my top list … but … yeah … But marriage and kids … (laughter) … no … I only have creative births …