My name is Ammunition … Everybody calls me Ammo … Amourena is my real name … I’ve been a performance specialist for the past thirteen years … Lately I’ve been into … more … festival work … This year I was at Spring Awakening Music Festival … Electric Forest … Um … SummerCamp Music Festival … I will be at another music festival in October called NightFall … Which will be in a forest again … and they have haunted houses scattered throughout the place … I’ll be there with my crew … Porn and Chicken … which is still … going … for over ten years now … which I think his great … We just slay’ed  Spring Awakening Music Festival this year … which was really fun … At the festivals … usually I would do grinder performances … but I’ve noticed a lot of festivals are not into having pyro-techniques … even if you have insurance … so … I’ve been doing … mainly … fabric manipulations … weighted veil performance … and a lot of LED wing dances … and silk fans … So just kind of … working with the elements … wind and air … making it … really visually spectacular … as much as I can … without lighting anything on fire … or doing anything dangerous … so … more prettier stuff … We used to be more loosely structured when we performed these major music festivals … but lately we’ve been giving it our all … Before each of the festivals … we got together in the studio … and broke down all of our sets … to each song … so at one point we’ll have the chicken come out … a guy dressed as a chicken … and he will engage with the audience … and then a few songs later … I’ll come out … and they’ll have DJ’s going at the same time … and we’ll also have visuals on the boards behind us … of stuff that was filmed by us … and edited by us … So it’s a fully immersive experience on stage … The festivals are usually outside … but we have had some things inside … I believe there was a Freaky Deaky that was in the Rosemont Convention Center … which is large … But … yeah … festival season is generally outside for the good weather … So … it’s November when we’re in Texas (laughter) … in Denton … I hear it’s just outside of Dallas … We just got booked … It’s called The Nightfall Experience … We’ll see … it’s supposed to be a camp-out … It will be with Porn and Chicken … that will be the last of the festivals for us for the year … But I also will be traveling to Hannibal this Labor Day weekend … for a steampunk festival … Sio will be there too … It’s basically a whole festival of different performances … some are all ages … which I have been doing a lot more this year … “shocking” … fire and grinding … just focusing grinding more on a guitar … rather then directly on my crotch … to make it less … sexual … and more kid friendly … because it looks like I’m grinding off a guitar … instead of on my body … which adds a different element to it … The music … if it’s Porn and Chicken stuff … they generally pick the music … and then we go over the music … and then I listen to it ahead of time … and thence’ll just improvise when we’re on stage … But when it comes to me … getting hired for acts … I will generally choreograph the music ahead of time … and have a whole set act … I take apart all the beats … and translate them into … a visual percussive experience … which I think is interesting … because there are different ways you can go about grinding where … you can grind more for the spectacle … or you can grind where it’s a spectacle … plus … a percussive experience … Which is where my dads experience comes into play … with being a percussionist and a drummer … that got passed on to me … Where are the festivals? … Electric Forest is in Rothbury Michigan … so it’s out in the middle of a forest … It’s really interesting … they have stages set up in different areas … I was in a more vintage … neo … cabaret type of thing … But they have different parts of the forest that you can go to … and explore … which is really interesting … But the festivals are generally in rural areas … Spring Awakening was way out in middle of … I forgot where … It was an hour out (laughter) … The crowds are … like an EDM … slash … burner … slash … forest vibe … which is kind of like … it’s a mixture … it’s kind of like a whole lot of everything … the industry people that get involve … and then there are the people that attend … which are generally eighteen and up … a lot of younger … maybe eighteen to twenty-four type of age group … and all sorts of walks of life … I’ve seen it all … I’ve seen metal heads … I’ve seen people of color who are super cool ravers … moon ravers … It’s just like everything under the sun … But it’s really great … I like working with younger crowds … cause they seem to have a more bright eyed and bush tailed attitude when it comes to … seeing the things that we do … rather then the ones that have already seen it before … It’s nice to have a exciting fresh vibe … They’re in a festival mood for sure … so everybody’s dressing their best … they’re showing up … and showing off … letting loose … and head banging … with the technology these days … and with what kids have … with these stages … and the amazing lights … and everything they put into it … It’s like … they don’t even know what they have (laughter) … At the festivals … a lot of us know each other … although I have been able to have run-ins with some … people I admire … in the industry … which is really great … but … not very often … because we kind of have a whole separate area … A lot of us … the homies that have been working really hard … and the movers and the shakers in the community … So it’s kind of like a big family reunion … Have things progressed since last year? … Oh yeah … I’ve taken classes at The Chicago Academy of Burlesque … which is an amazing dance school … taught by … many of the other performers in the local community … They teach various concentrations … like floor work … or rock an roll burlesque … I worked with Midnight Martini for a couple sessions … She was absolutely fantastic in teaching me more about … stage presence … and how I can … really open up myself on stage in ways that I never felt comfortable  with … Now I’m … doing more floor work moves … and more dance moves … where … I used to be absolutely terrified doing stuff like that … Also with Gaea Lady … I took some vail work classes with her … and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable manipulating fabric … and kind of blooming into a dancer … which … last year … I would have never identified as that … Though recently … I’ve been performing less often … Lately I’m focusing more on the … nitty gritty … and demanding my worth … and sticking to it … We all have are views about donating performances … and having a sliding scale … which I think is totally ok … There are certain things you can donate you’re time to … But for the most part … lately I’ve been requiring a certain amount … so that I can perform less … because I feel that what I do is … a novelty … and should be treated as such … It’s a specialty act where I risk my life every time I flick the switch on stage … So … I feel that I should be compensated for … appropriately … I mean … it’s never going to be the amount that I feel it is … but … I feel … lately I’ve been working a  lot less … and putting out more … higher quality performances then I did before … and also taking the acts that I have … and really fine tuning them so they can be even more … show stopping … so that every beat is acknowledged … because that’s what keeps people engaged … Also since last year … I’ve been going through a lot of medical stuff … and acknowledging a lot of things that have happened in my life … because it’s been a really rough year … but I think it also really lit a fire under my ass … to push even harder … because … a few months ago … I wasn’t sure where my fate would lead health-wise … I just know that there were a lot of things going on with my body … and … I wasn’t sure where that would go … So … I just kept pushing myself harder … as an artist … like … You don’t know if this is going to be the last of it …  because there’s things happening … So I was … I’m just going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing … and being the best that I can … And … I did quit drinking too … about one hundred and seven days ago … and that’s also greatly changed my outlook … on life … because I found that I was burying a lot of my emotions … and actually … connecting with the truest part of myself in other people … so … taking away that layer of suffocation … has really opened me up as an artist … and connecting with myself … and the stage … So … from a year ago … to today … I feel like I’ve grown substantially … feeling less afraid … I remember talking last year about the MeToo movement … which was a really pivotal time for me … Not only are you acknowledging what happened to other people … but you are acknowledging what has happened to you … And most woman I know have had something … whether it be harassment … or just getting touched in a bar … or something a hell of a lot more serious that’s traumatic … We all carry these weights … but now … I feel … we’ve got a long way to go … still … but … we’re getting more support … when we speak up about things … which I think is … huge … we need that … I’d like to see it happen more across all genders … because I feel men … go through this too … or even trans people as well … they’re high targets for violence … But … I feel if we keep pushing … and keep supporting … it’s just going to … keep building … And hopefully … like I said last year … We will make it that people are so afraid … that they won’t be doing this anymore … As far as performances … I feel that people really need this distraction … there’s so much politically … and we’re constantly reminded at Untitled … a venue where I work with Michelle L’Amour … our producer … is always trying to send some really good words of advice for us … to keep us motivated … as artists … like … Hey … I really know it’s hard right now … we are performing for a mixed array of audiences … and sometimes it’s conservative people … sometimes it’s Trump supporters … but we are there … to take them away from all that … and provide a fantasy experience for them … where they’re not thinking about all those things … they’re walking into the door … and they’re just thinking … wow … this is a beautiful performer … this is a beautiful performance … So … we’re constantly being motivated to stay present … and stay with it … and we know that we are basically healing people for a moment … with our art … The response? … For the most part … it’s pretty great … a lot of people are usually really shocked … when I perform in conservative environments … it’s usually pretty well received … surprisingly … I do get … occasionally … a few mansplainers … that come in … and … they feel they need to add about safety issues for me … which … I don’t listen to … because … I like to ride the edge of chaos … and that’s how I identify as an artist … and it also scares the shit out of them … because I don’t take most safety precautions … that people to when they work in a shop … that’s kind of what I live for … The club Untitled … It’s been going … for at least seven plus years … They do a weekly show … it’s nine  o’clock on Thursday nights … and it’s free … and they’ll have three sets of all different types of performers … There will be boylesque … burlesque … contortionists … grinders … I think I’m the only grinder person … aerialists … hoopers … We try to have different themes … right now we’re doing “Wet … Hot … Summer” … I’ll be there next Thursday and we’ll be performing 80’s … and then we try to change it up … the next phase is going to be all film noir themed … retro … sexy … dark … murderous … with out the murder … just the esthetic (laughter) … Untitled is one of my favorite places to perform … and they really do take care for us as artists … they have a full catered experience in the dressing room (laughter) … and it’s hot food too … salad … meat … sometimes you get salmon … rice dishes … fruit … they stay consistent on that … security will even walk us to the dressing room … if we need to … back and forth … they’re very tight … and they respect us … which … is sad … but I don’t feel we get that from all venues in Chicago … or even all around the nation … people aren’t always looking at the artists best interest … and what makes them most comfortable … but I feel like at Untitled … we’re treated like royalty … and they pay us well too … so it’s a great environment … I’m very grateful … and the stage is enormous too … It’s over by the Merchandise Mart … 111 west Kinzie … It’s right in the heart of River North … You would miss it with the blink of the eye … because it’s right next to a CVS … with like an awning … and you go downstairs … and it’s huge … they also do private events … recently I just did something for MGM studios … they had a party there … I got hired to be a dice girl (laughter) … I walked around with a little dice tray … dressed as like a 1920’s Gatsby girl … and I’d teach people how to play … an old binking game (laughter) … it was like stepping back in time … So as far as traveling … besides for going to Hannibal on labor day weekend … I’m gunna be going to London … and then Amsterdam … and Barcelona … for my first solo trip … across the pond … I’ve never been anywhere outside of this continent … so I’m really excited … and slightly terrified … but I feel like I need … this challenge … and there’s just so much of the world to see … I feel like … now’s the time … I mean … forty’s around the corner … and if I don’t see it now (laughter) … Yeah … I know I’ve got a lot of wind left in me … but I feel like I just … I don’t know … it’s calling … I’m really excited … Will I network? … Just with friends … I was offered a show … but I kinda just … feel … like I need to go somewhere without a grinder and an extension cord … with me … cause it seems to be my right hand man … everywhere I go … they want to see the dog and pony show … As much as I’d love to be an international performer … I need a holiday (laughter) … I need to sleep … and not worry about … if I need to put on makeup and lashes … and get into Ammunition mode … or just be straight up me … and just eat and eat and eat … Other future plans … I do want to do more expo type of stuff … because expos are really interesting … I just did … an oddities and curiosity’s expo … last month … where I just got to perform on a stage … but it was all ages … so I got to grind for baby’s and kids … It was a really good networking experience … because you can meet people all under one roof … that are from all over the place … I did want to get into a steampunk expo … but I’m going to be traveling during that weekend … Yeah … more festivals … big … bigger … and biggest … I want to travel with more things around the nation … maybe even go international … I really haven’t put much thought into it … I just want to keep building my costumes to be bigger and more grandiose … and shocking … and build off of the skills I have now … maybe even get into more dance … I’m fine tuning … I’m at the point now that people come to me … but I do like to reach out … with the Enigma Sunday’s … I did reach out to them … because I know that they just have so many performers .. that sometimes people don’t think to reach out … or sometimes they’re too intimidated to reach out … because I do demand my worth … but for some things … I’m willing to bend the rules a little bit … because it’s a really cool show … I’d say … 10% of the time I’m reaching out … and the rest … it’s just kind of like gravy … I’ve got good things ahead for me … I also have more travel … after the European … I’m calling it my emotional baggage tour (laughter) … When I come back … I’m going to be doing a mini tour from Madison to Texas … I’m just going wherever the wind take me right now … Making sparks fly …