Performance | Performance Space New York

John Giorno Octopus Series – Ballroom Has Something To Say: An Ode To Black Queer Men

Performers and Presenters: Michael Roberson, Icon Pony ZionRev. Ken Alston Jr.Ricky Tucker, Legendary Kaos Lanvin, and Brad Walrond.
 

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE?  Does it have a politic?  Does it have a theology? What are the conditions in which performance opens up spaces of freedom? Tonight we will explore these propositions through the history and narrative of the house/ball ballroom community, an intentional kinship structure that has it’s roots stemming from the Harlem Renaissance, created through the ethos of black trans-women and today has globalized across the world. We will examine this community’s pains, it’s struggles, it’s joys, it’s triumphs, it’s cultural productions, beyond 1990’s documentary PARIS IS BURNING, and Madonna’s vogue song/video, and even beyond the FX television show “POSE” and HBO/MAX’S “LEGENDARY.” We will do this through dialogue, through the black poetics, through the written text, and through the ballroom signature dance form vogue; all through the lens and hermeneutics of the black queer/gay man, an ode to his perseverance, his strengths, his resilience in the face of both struggles and catastrophe.  It is a true sentiment, that ballroom really has something to say, to teach the world over about what it means to be human, and the struggle for freedom, in the face of catastrophe.

 
About Octopus
 
Using the Octopus’s decentralized nervous system as an inspiration for Performance Space New York’s curatorial practice, the John Giorno Octopus Series invites artists and guest curators to organize an evening-length program with several artists working in any number of disciplines. The series is named after legendary performance poet, John Giorno, and continues Performance Space’s legacy of artist-centric programming and creating space for risk-taking.
 

John Giorno Octopus Series

Performers: Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Elisa Harkins, Izayotilmahtzin Mazehualli & Marcela Torres.
 
Using the Octopus’s decentralized nervous system as an inspiration for Performance Space New York’s curatorial practice, the John Giorno Octopus Series invites artists and guest curators to organize an evening-length program with several artists working in any number of disciplines. The series is named after legendary performance poet, John Giorno, and continues Performance Space’s legacy of artist-centric programming and creating space for risk-taking.

John Giorno Octopus Series

Artists: J Arriaga (DJ Set), BALACLAVA, Beau Banks, Ansel Combs, Jacqui Dugal, Robin Ediger-Seto, Sarai Frazier, Gallermic (DJ Set), Aminah Ibrahim, kat sauma, Jørgen Skjaervold, Jazzy Romero with Quentin Long and William Logan, and John Wade.
 
Using the Octopus’s decentralized nervous system as an inspiration for Performance Space New York’s curatorial practice, the John Giorno Octopus Series invites artists and guest curators to organize an evening-length program with several artists working in any number of disciplines. The series is named after legendary performance poet, John Giorno, and continues Performance Space’s legacy of artist-centric programming and creating space for risk-taking.

NOTHING#122: a bluff

 
NOTHING#122: a bluff is the third and final part of Autumn Knights’s investigation into the Italian concept of “dolce far niente,” the sweetness of nothingness. This performance features Knight alone on stage responding improvisationally to the space, its architecture, its audience, and pointedly launching from the potentiality—both the sweetness and desolation—of nothingness.
 
Autumn Knight’s performances create space for intimacy between audience and performer. The accompanying two works in this suite of three include NOTHING#122: a bar and NOTHING#122: a bed.

NOTHING#122: a bed

 
Performers: Michelangelo Miccolis and nick von kleist
 
NOTHING#122: a bed, is the second part of Autumn Knights’s three-part investigation into the Italian concept of “dolce far niente,” the sweetness of nothingness. Knight’s performance explores the possibility of rehearsing loss and takes place between two performers in a shared bed. The performance is inspired by ​​a conversation between the late conceptual artist Félix González-Torres and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Within the conversation, González-Torres speaks of making art to confront his greatest fear of losing his partner who later died of AIDS-related complications.
 
Autumn Knight’s performances create space for intimacy between audience and performer. The accompanying two works in this suite of three include NOTHING#122: a bar and NOTHING#122: a bluff.

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