I came in and I didn't know what to expect. Yeah, I was nervous about it and I'm like,
yeah, I'm going to be taking my clothes off in front of strangers and, you know, exposing
my scars and all of that. But I have to tell you, it was like just doing one class and
going through the movements. It's just like it kind of like brought me back. Even just
like a little like flick of a glove just makes you feel so like pretty and feminine and juicy
again. Where I feel with my own experience, I lost that. About a year and a half ago,
I was taking a shower and I do, you know, self-exams myself and I found a lump. I felt
the earth fall out from the bottom of my feet because I knew and I was scared. I felt scared,
but really scared. When people ask me to describe my best asset prior to my breast
cancer, it's like funny enough, I would always say my boobs. No way. And then sure enough,
I was like, damn, I'm going to lose them. When I got out of surgery and the first time
they took the bandages off and I saw what I looked like, it was devastating. I just,
I was like, wow, they're gone. And now look what's left is nothing. That's also what's
very important to me about this piece because I always hide behind my voice. So I have to
like get that, I have to like pull it out of me somehow. Pink Light Burlesque is a program
to provide free classes for breast cancer patients and survivors. This is the first
Pink Light Burlesque ever. So I'm teaching them classic burlesque, a little bit about
burlesque history, how to work on costumes, how to give the number beginning and a middle
and an end, and how to have fun with it and just enjoy it. This show is dedicated to my
friend Diane Nagel who is a big part of the burlesque and performance community in New
York and she was really excited to be one of the first survivors to perform burlesque.
And she, she passed away on September 25th a week before the program started. They've
all been in fear of losing this like key feminine aspect and now they're going to come out and
engage in this like key feminine behavior, the burlesque striptease and they're going
to own it. They're, they're claiming that their bodies mean whatever they want them
to mean. I'm going to put them on. I've had other breast cancer survivors tell me they
want to take classes but they're not sure that it's appropriate with their surgery or
sometimes they just feel really weird about their bodies and I noticed after my mom had
cancer she went through a really long period of feeling like her body was just work. Like
she just had to take care of it, take care of it, take care of it and it took her a long
time to get back into thinking of her body as a place where she played. And then you're
going to sit right, but think about how cats young. When people come to a burlesque show
what they find sexy about it is people having fun in their bodies and I think that burlesque
is the embodiment of that personality, strength of personality. Joe and I were like talking
about ideas. I wanted to do something rock and roll like very vixen-ish and she's like
you need to be a dominatrix. How do you feel about that? And I thought about it and I was
like hell yeah. Screw you cancer. I'm going to kick you in the ass. That's why I walked
into the operating room with stilettos on because I was totally going to kick in. Now
I totally whipped it out of my life. This is all over your face and there it is. That's
what I need. That's what I needed. I needed something like this because for so long I
feel like I suppressed my feminine power. I'm ready to rock. Women, we are mothers. We
are sisters. We are lovers. We are friends. Amazing. You're going to be wonderful. Thank
you. Congratulations Papa Pacey. It's really been an amazing experience. It's been an empowering
experience. I gave a part of myself to the audience. I gave my experience. I showed you
who I am. Here is me, Jennifer, otherwise known as Brandy Hollywood. Here are my breasts
and here is what I've been through. I'm bringing you into my world so that you can see what
I've been through and I'm giving something back to you at the same time.
