Obama, Occupy, outrage: an interview with Jesse Phillips-Fein

Unbind it!, a work by Jesse Phillips-Fein (photo by Jesse Phillips-Fein)

own,Owned, a work by Jesse Phillips-Fein (photo by Eva Ostrowska)

CLICK AUDIO LINK (21:00)
an interview with Jesse Phillips-Fein, curator

From Obama to Occupy: Works of Outrage from 2008-2012

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BAX / Brooklyn Arts Exchange announces
an open call for submissions for the guest-curated showcase

FROM OBAMA TO OCCUPY: Works of Outrage from 2008-2012

curated by Jesse Phillips-Fein

A sequel to the hit Requiem for W, Overture for O: Works of Conscience from 2000 - 2008, From Obama to Occupy: Works of Outrage from 2008-2012 will present performances works that addressed Obama Administration policies and corresponding political events of the past four years. This showcase aims to generate thoughtful, provocative, risky, and respectful critical reflection on Obama's first term.

We are seeking works made from 2008-2012 in dance, theater, music, spoken word, multimedia, and performance art, that engage with Obama as a phenomena, his Administration's' policies, and political events reflecting key challenges of the past 4 years. Works should be from 5-15 minutes in length. Excerpts from longer works are permitted.

Deadline for submission: Friday, July 27th, 5pm (received)

Artists will be notified by September 1st. 

To apply, visit http://www.jotform.us/BAX/Apply-ObamatoOccupy.

Shows are Friday & Saturday January 18 & 19th, 2013 at 8pm at the BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Visit http://bax.org/tech-specs/ for technical specifications of the Theater @ BAX. In addition, artists must be available for workshops on Sunday September 30th, 4pm - 7pm and Sunday November 18th, 4pm - 7pm.

ABOUT JESSE PHILLIPS-FEIN

Jesse Phillips-Fein grew up and is based in Brooklyn, NY, where she choreographs, teaches dance, and produces shows and community events to engage the performing arts in political dialogues. Require for W, Overture for O: Works of Conscience from 2000-2008 marked the end of the Bush era by celebrating how artists responded to the policies of the Bush Administration while encouraging continued action for justice. Hosted by Shanté Paradigm, the evening featured performances in dance, music, and poetry on themes including 9/11, the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, gay marriage, Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, and the now evident disastrous effects of debt-driven consumerism. The pieces move beyond simply bashing President Bush and heralding President-elect Obama. Instead, they provided reflection how we survived and commemoration for those who didn't, critical thought about the role of artists in activism, and information about how to become involved in local organizations that are working on issues of social justice. Artists included: Alexandra Beller, Tara Betts, Sabrina Chapajiev, Drastic Measures, Guta Hedwig, Remi Kanazi, Rachel Lane, Sapphire, Paul Singh, Spiritchild & Gina Young.

Without knowing the outcome of this November election, there is still need to reflect on how artists have responded to Obama and the political events of the past four years.  Through celebrating what artists created, we can discuss the new challenges for political debate and presidential critique that Obama's term brought. Obama's election highlighted racial discourse, from contentious debates about a "post-racial society", to racist attacks in the popular media, stifled response from the political Left, and the differing emotions, expectations, and disappointments, that his term had for white people and people of color. From Obama to Occupy: Works of Outrage from 2008-2012 generates a space for art to be a powerful platform to engage deeply with the contradictions and questions that Obama's presidency raised.

ABOUT BAX

Founded in 1991, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange is a is a multi-faceted community performing arts center located in Park Slope, Brooklyn offering an annual presenting season, artist services, and educational programs for youth and adults. BAX receives support from city, state and national public and private foundations. Our programs have been featured in several Brooklyn, NYC, and national publications, celebrating our continued support of artists of all ages.

Erin Sickler on art and the 99%

Art and the 99%
by Erin Sickler, Art in America, January 2012

APAP Diary: Nails on blackboard

Choreography for Blackboards by Michael Kliën with Steve Valk at The Invisible Dog Art Center, a presentation of PS 122's COIL Festival:

"Choreography is not to constrain movement into a set pattern, it is to provide a cradle for movement to find its own patterns." -- Michael Kliën

In this case, the "cradle" European conceptual choreographer Michael Kliën has set up, with dramaturgical instigation from Steve Valk, resides in a raw and rather chilly arts space--grab some tea while you're there--where the audience can circulate and watch several people vigorously drawing, altering and erasing chalk doodles on standing blackboards in what Kliën calls "a series of precisely rehearsed choreographic instructions and procedures."

Said instructions and procedures were, to my eye, as invisible as the dog who inspired the name of this arts space. But no matter. It was occasionally interesting, even hypnotic, to witness the rise and obliteration of forceful abstractions at the hands of Kliën's dancers--if they are to be called that--who variously hail from the worlds of theater, poetry, physics, academia and Occupy activism. It was like watching Hindu deities--the kind of Hindu deities that might show up in seriously droopy jeans--continuously building and destroying the universe. But with chalk. And bowls of water. And a mop to clean up spills. And arm chairs for when one or another of them might need a break.

This might be a good point, though, to express my general frustration with precious, impenetrable, head-hurting language like: "These [those instructions and procedures] involve developing and exchanging insights and individual expressions in analogue and codified forms, weaving relations into a concentrated collective dance of minds" and "Choreography for Blackboards outlines a vision of dance that not exclusively understands itself as an art form, but as a constituting principle, a technology of the self at the edges of modern consciousness."

Please explain. I do not understand. And I don't think I'm alone.

Choreography for Blackboards continues tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 6pm. For information and tickets, click here.

The Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen Street (between Smith and Court Streets), Brooklyn
(map/directions

For information on PS 122's COIL Festival performances, which run through January 29 at various locations, click here.

Dance and the Occupy Movement

Movement Research presents

Dance and the Occupy Movement

Wednesday, January 25 (7:30pm)

Organized by Abigail Levine

Jimmy's no. 43, in the backroom
43 East 7th Street
between 2nd Avenue and Bowery, Manhattan
(directions)

Exploring an expanded notion of choreography and how it is related to our social and political organization and discovery of ourselves as individuals working within a temporary collective...circling and questioning around ideas of a moving community.

--Movement Research Festival Spring 2011 brochure

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

--Declaration of the Occupation, NYC General Assembly

What are the points of contact between experimental, contemporary dance and the Occupy Movement? As spatial and embodied practice? As social investigation and organization? As improvisation and movement? As agents of change? How do and might these moving communities interact? How do we approach (public and private) space in New York City? Barbara Browning, Daniel Lang-Levitsky, Paloma McGregor, Clarinda Mac Low, and Edisa Weeks open a conversation about this creative political moment.