In her massive photographic collection of bathroom graffiti, Caitlin Cook has all sorts of gems, from the philosophical to the crass. In her bathroom graffiti songs and on her Instagram page, she shares memorable ones.
“Bisexual women should be called more-or-less-bians”
“The Earth without art is just ‘eh.’”
“God is love. But Satan does that thing you like with his tongue.”
“Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers!” Which prompted the graffitied response, “Fuck off. People should bring you flowers.”
“If you call someone a $2 whore it’s meaner than before because of inflation.”
She found one piece particularly inspiring.
“I saw this piece of graffiti that said, ‘Since writing on toilet walls is done neither for critical acclaim nor financial reward, it is the purest form of art. Discuss,’” Cook says.
That became the first song in her one-woman show, “The Writing on the Stall.” After two sold-out runs off-Broadway in New York, she’s starting a tour in New Orleans. It runs one-night only Wednesday, May 1, at AllWays Lounge & Cabaret.
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When Cook got serious about graffiti, she spent a lot of time scouring the best places to find it: bathrooms in New York dive bars, music venues, public parks and other heavily trafficked facilities.
Though she had a master’s degree in art history and underwater archeology from Oxford University in Britain, she was more interested in comedy and writing humorous songs. She had overcome stage-fright with the help of her ex-boyfriend, comedian and New Orleans native Sean Patton. He dared her to get onstage, knowing she had a habit of facing fears head on. Her first experience was a disaster, she says, but she kept going back and later released a couple albums of humorous songs.
The first song about graffiti as a pure form of art became part of a show of funny songs.
“That song has some of my favorite pieces of graffiti, and it’s my first attempt to turn it into lyrics,” she says. “That song did so well in front of live audiences. People wanted to talk to me after the show and show me pictures. Something just popped. I finished a run at the Edinburgh Fringe and the graffiti song was clicking with people.”
She decided to write a whole show’s worth of graffiti music. So she started taking more pictures and sorting through thousands of missives.
“I started sorting pictures into categories, like these people sound like they’re high,” she says. “This is graffiti in which people are sort of responding to one another, which became the song ‘Conversations with Strangers.’ I had poetic things people had written. I have men’s stalls and women’s stalls and unisex stalls. I created a song called “The Difference” which is comparing all three.”
The songs were popular, and some have gone viral, rolling up a total of more than 50 million streams and views. That started a wave of contributions from fans.
“People send me stuff from military porta potties and construction site porta potties,” she says. “I don’t particularly love going into them, so I am glad people send me pictures. I have pictures from New Zealand and Southeast Asia and Alaska.”
Whatever didn’t resonate with the professoriate at Oxford did tap into more common interest.
“It’s the oldest form of art,” she says. “We’ve been drawing on cave walls next to the shithole since we were neanderthals. It’s crazy. It’s part of human history that we like to put our stamp on things. It’s super vulnerable, and we feel like we can share things in this super private place where we do it.”
It just sounds less sophisticated when it’s the Sharpie-scrawled words, “Thank god for sluts.”
Cook assembled an entire show of graffiti songs, which pleased audiences, she says, but she decided it needed more to tie it all together. It still includes photo projections of the graffiti, including some of the many drawings of genitalia she found in men’s rooms. But it became a more personal show.
“I went back, and thought about what I might write, my own confessions, my own vulnerability,” she says. “Now it’s a show about why do we feel the most safe sharing the darkest or silliest or most vulnerable parts of ourselves when we’re in the bathroom? Especially the women’s bathroom, where women go to cry about a boyfriend being shitty, or to escape a bad date or borrow tampons or share lipstick or compliment each others’ outfits. It’s this weird safe space.”
She also enlisted help from her fiance, A.J. Holmes. The Broadway actor starred as Elder Cunningham in “The Book of Mormon.” She directed his one-man show “Yeah, But Not Right Now.” He in turn directs “The Writing on the Stall.” He’ll handle the technical duties at the performance at AllWays.
“The Writing on the Stall” is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at AllWays Lounge. Tickets are $30 via eventbrite.com. For more information about Caitlin Cook, visit thecaitlincook.com.
