Kristan Kennedy

The name of this website makes me so fucking happy. When I heard the news of Julie's passing I screamed into the air, "What the fuck Mancini! " and everyone I was with and some that i wasn't just stared at me in horror. Why all the cursing? Well if you have to ask you obviously didn't know her... Julie use to great me with a "What the fuck, Kennedy?" but it was always followed by a sparkling eye and a deep and sincere. "How are you." and she really wanted to know. She really wanted to listen. Julie was always moving when she was talking and if the two of us found a corner to talk trash in the middle of an event we would lean in real close, whisper cursing and waving our hands around. It was liberating even in hushed tones. I would not consider myself inner circle by any means, but, I was in Julie's orbit, because of my life at PICA, and because she knew I would never mince words with her. She also would occasionally call me when she had an idea, or when she wanted to know how to connect someone or get an idea into the right hands... but over the last few years, she mostly butt dialed me! Over and over sometimes but I would always pick up... just to hear the hushed sounds of her pocket, or the shuffle of a walk, and every time I saw her name pop up on the screen it would fill me with energy. The kind of energy that is passed through a community. I didn't mind that it was an accident. There are no accidents. Julie was a force, she was super classy - (yes cursing IS CLASSY )- she was elegant and wild and super wise! In the early days we leaned on her so much and she always showed up for us. We loved her here at PICA and we will always love her. I mourn her loss. I send all my love to her close friends and family. I thank her for everything she gave this town, all of the writers and artists and audiences she served, all of us that she mentored in small and big ways.