Open Studio: My Barbarian
Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT)
Composed of five techniques—Estrangement, Indistinction, Suspension of Beliefs, Mandate to Participate, and Inspirational Critique—the PoLAAT responds to historic theatrical models that attempted to create social change, including Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s anti-theater, and Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theatre. The project addresses these and other methods, often buried or overlooked, of critical and revolutionary theater from the 1960s and later, while situating its own enactment in (and against) the seemingly anti-revolutionary contemporary moment. Sixty-minute single-channel video hosted by Armory Artists-in-Residence Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade, founding members of the performance collective My Barbarian.
Open studio: Lynn Nottage
Twenty-Six Seconds
By special invitation from Armory Artist-in-Residence Lynn Nottage. Twenty-Six Seconds is a workshop presentation of a new play by Kate Pressman that deconstructs the iconic Zapruder film to examine how the Kennedy assassination, and the home movie that captured it, fractured America.
Open Studio: Theaster Gates
DJ Duane Powell Listening Room
By special invitation from Armory Artist-in-Residence Theaster Gates, Duane Powell (DJ-in-residence at Chicago’s Rebuild Foundation) spins house music from the Frankie Knuckles Vinyl Collection and other music from Gates’s Chicago archives. Special thanks to Frankie Knuckles Foundation and the Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College.
Salon: Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah
The Hijabi Monologues
Performers Kamilah A. Pickett and Rafiah Jones join Founder and Creative Director Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah in presenting and discussing selections from their international touring project The Hijabi Monologues; a theater project which aims to create a safe space for sharing the experiences of Muslim women; a space to breathe as they are; a space that does not claim to tell every story or speak for every voice.
Salon: Jackson Polys, Zack Khalil and Dessane Lopez Cassell
Violence of a Civilization Without Secrets
Following the screening of their film, Violence of a Civilization Without Secrets, artists Jackson Polys and Zack Khalil join curator Dessane Lopez Cassell to discuss their film, their respective practices, and the malleable nature of “evidence” as it relates to Indigenous bodies and sovereignty.
Salon: National Black Theatre
Soul Series L.A.B.
After sharing recent work samples from their National Black Theatre’s Soul Series L.A.B. residences, Eric Micha Holmes (Mondo Tragic) & Ebony Noelle Golden (125th & FREEdom) engage in a post-show conversation with Sade Lythcott & Jonathan McCrory.
Salon: The Flaherty Seminar
Ruth Somalo and Jon-Sesrie Goff
Ruth Somalo, a Season 15 (Spring 2017) Flaherty NYC programmer, joins Jon-Sesrie Goff to discuss the film series as a tool for activism. A film from her series, Broken Senses, which explores the relationships between the senses, knowledge, the creation of memory, and our experience in understanding the world will also be screened.
Salon: Jonathan González and William Catanzaro
Illusion Procedures #5 w/o Angie
A low-visibility meandering improvisation playing through the iconicity of the black entertainer to subvert theatrical arc, the stage, and representation. Performed by Jonathan González and William Catanzaro.
Salon: Armory Youth Corps & Studio Museum in Harlem’s Teen Leadership Council
Intergenerational Investigations: Activism and Identity
Members of the Armory Youth Corps and The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Teen Leadership Council host “Intergenerational Investigations” where participants engage directly with the makers and minds of tomorrow. Contribute to activities and discussions where the line between perceived identity and self-identification are explored and symbols of protest are re-invented. Salon content imagined by Youth Corps Advisory Board members: Habib Apooyin, Jessica de le Pierre Joseph, Rabia Khan, Nancy Gomez, Oscar Montenegro, Anai Ortiz, Naomi Santiago, Cory Sierra, and Lucille Vasquez.
Salon: Eisa Davis
The Essentialisn’t
Can you be black and not perform? The Essentialisn’t re-animates Harlem Renaissance modernism through electronic soul fragments to trouble expected narratives of the black feminine. Performed by Eisa Davis, Justin Hicks, and Kenita Miller.
