CONTENTS:
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1. Jacki Apple, FF Alumn, at Highways, October 20th
2. Deborah Garwood, FF Alumn, at Lindsey Brown, through November 2, 2002:
3. Helen Varley Jamieson, FF Alumn, cyberformance, Oct. 18, from New Zealand
4. Kal Spelletich, FF Alumn, performs in California and NYC during October.
5. Alice Wu, FF Alumn, in performance October 19th, Project Green, Brooklyn
6. Purgatory Pie Press, Bob & Roberta Smith release new Letterpress Edition of Coasters
7. Kriota Willberg, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Oct. 22, plus Fall Anatomy Parlor classes.
8. David Medalla, FF Alumn, performs in Rome, Italy, October 2002.
9. Lydia Lunch, Katharine Gates, FF Alumns, in Inappropriate Behaviour publication.
10. Carey Lovelace, FF Alumn, presents Co-Op Murder Mystery, Oct. 25th.
11. Lynn Book, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, October 18th, and CAP 21 Oct. 23rd
12. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, at Eyebeam, October 16-December 1, 2002
13. Nora York, FF Alumn, at Joe’s Pub, TONITE, October 16th.
14. Tari Ito, Istvan Kantor, Tari Ito, FF Alumns, in 4th Performance Art Festival, Toronto.
15. Terry Dame, FF Alumn, at DUMBO, October 19th, shows at 3 & 5 pm/
16. Tim Miller, FF Alumn, announces worldwide Fall tour 2002.
17. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, reflects on Ron Vawter at NYU, October 29, 7-9 pm
18. Pamela Sneed, FF Alumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, October 23rd, 8 pm
19. Gearoid Dolan, FF Alumn, at DUMBO, October 19th, 7 pm – midnite.
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1. Jacki Apple, FF Alumn, at Highways, October 20th
Dear friends and colleagues –
I will be performing a new short solo work Kokoro No Mai on Sunday October 20th at Highways in honor of the publication of Meiling Cheng’s book In Other Los Angeles, which I am featured in. It has been quite a while since I’ve done a solo piece (early 90s?) and not in LA. So I hope you will come out and join us on this occasion. Even though it is a very short piece I have a chance to include my soundtrack, photos, and costume that all reflect my time in Japan last year, so I’m pretty excited about it.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Very best,
Jacki
Jacki Apple / Kokoro No Mai
Highways Performance Space
18th Street Arts Complex – 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica
Sunday, October 20th, 2002 7:30 PM
Plus performances and videos by other artists in the book. see
www.highwaysperformance.org
$30 for performances, reception, and a copy of the book
$15 general admission
Reservations: 310.315.1459
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2. Deborah Garwood, FF Alumn, at Lindsey Brown, through November 2, 2002:
Deborah Garwood, FF Alumn, has work in the group exhibition
Landscape
Oct. 1-Nov. 2, 2002
Lindsey Brown
526 W. 26th St., Suite 612
New York, NY 10001
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3. Helen Varley Jamieson, FF Alumn, cyberformance, Oct. 18, from New Zealand
Avatar Body Collision
presents a work-in-progress:
s w i m
an exercise in remote intimacy
Friday 18 October, 6.30pm, MediaLab South Pacific, Wellington, Aotearoa/NZ
“swim” is a new cyberformance from Avatar Body Collision, a troupe of globally dispersed artists working at the meeting points of performance and the internet. Performers in the UK, Finland and Aotearoa/NZ interact in real time using graphical chat applications and web cams. The Colliders are Karla Ptacek, Leena Saarinen, Vicki Smith and Helen Varley Jamieson; for more information, visit http://www.avatarbodycollision.org
A collage of immersive images, splashy flirtations, wet moments and deep encounters between fleshy cyber bodies, “swim” delves into the possibilities and problems of intimacy without physical proximity.
“swim” will premier at Medi@terra, a new media festival in Athens, Greece (6-9 December), and then travel to Pretapnaje/Cross Dissolve, a theatre festival in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (16-24 December). This work-in-progress showing is an opportunity for you to preview “swim”, discuss the work and mingle and chat afterwards over a glass of wine and nibbles. The work-in-progress is kindly hosted by MediaLab South Pacific.
Friday 18 October
6.30pm (the show starts at 7pm and is about half and hour long)
MediaLab South Pacific
Level 2, 205-207 Victoria St (LexisNexis building)
Wellington
Aotearoa/NZ
(04) 499 0110
please RSVP to Michelle Woolley, michelle@medialab.co.nz, tel. (04) 499 0110.
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4. Kal Spelletich, FF Alumn, performs in California and NYC during October.
This Rocktober I have several gigs going on.
the haunted Barn over 2 weekends at the end of the month see:
http://www.thehauntedbarn.com
the 2nd weekend i won’t be there but some things of mine will be running and terrorizing the barn patrons.
I will be in NYC helping my buddy Chris Johansen with a show at Deitch Gallery, we collaborated on a piece, it is at 75 Grand St. in Manhattan, it opens on Nov. 2, i MAY ship out a bunch of machines and do a show in a warehouse too! we shall see…….
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5. Alice Wu, FF Alumn, in performance October 19th, Project Green, Brooklyn
“Les Lüchs”
The Collection
Performance 8pm Saturday, October 19, 2002
Project Green
106 Green Street, Greenpoint
www.project-green.com and www.feralchilde.com
Contact: Project Green, 718 329 8668 info@project-green.com
Are We Asking People To Come To A Fashion Show?
A burlesque? A cabaret? A rendezvous with a gypsy circus? Come join Les Lüchs! See Les Lüchs mimicking both fashion and art in a curious voice. Witness a fashion show exploited as an exhibition vehicle for art pieces. Taste the danger of Les Lüchs, the ultimate high-wire act. On October 19, 2002, join the runaway Les Lüchs, Feral Childe’s Spring & Resort 2003 Collection.
Les Lüchs, brought to you by Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson of Feral Childe, is going to be the fashion/art opening of the Fall 2002 season. None of that under-the-white-tent, Bryant Park stuff. This is Greenpoint, Deep End of Brooklyn, where projectGreen, an experimental arts/project space, lets Les Lüchs concoct a seaside resort for bootleggin’ gamblers and their mölls, a supporting cast of fashionable but dubious characters, a saxophone, sculptural elements and the requisite wicked cabanas–a decadent, bohemiac opium den. The whole kit and caboodle remain on view after the opening night’s entertainment.
Since 1998, Feral Childe has been formulating an other world, based on reality but hinged together by imaginative parts comprised of costumes, props, and images all animated and snatched from a wide range of sources. Slightly menacing and a little queasy, vertebrae dress, bone-headed tunic, kidney dress, suture shirt and hoof and mouth dress are some of the names used to introduce the sweetest, most lyrical designs to emerge from garment district remnants, cast-offs, and closeouts. Alice and Moriah utter the words “in cahoots, ” “twitterpated, ” or “well, shiver me timbers”–all of which are onomatopoeia for the clothing.
The background check shows that in Fall 2000, Wu and Carlson staged Pick and Roll 2000, a pickup basketball game-cum-fashion show. In Winter 1999, Wu presented her first fashion collection in WHO IS PRUDENCE? A Fashion Show at Exit Art, New York City. In this work, models of various shapes and sizes wore Wu’s personal clothes, to demonstrate that one size really does fit most. Wu and Carlson have appeared in the
DUMBO Arts Festival, and Style Yourself and Save. The duo was behind the labels IT’S AN EXCITING TIME TO BE ME and CANOEING WITH NAM, before they founded FERAL CHILDE, available at Hanna in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan and in Clinton Hill (Brooklyn) by special order. Their designs have been featured in publications such as Sportswear International, FlyerNYC, Teen Magazine, and NYArts Magazine. They have received an Artists Space Independent Projects Grant. Attend the performance. Let the music begin.
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6. Purgatory Pie Press, Bob & Roberta Smith release new Letterpress Edition of Coasters
New Limited Letterpress Editions from Purgatory Pie Press
The Critics Rave! Bob and Roberta Smith versus the London Tabloid art critics. Set of four genuine collectible coasters plus introducing a new typeface by Dikko: Constructivist Datebook 2003. Can you name this typeface?
Purgatory Pie Press, 19 Hudson Street, #402, NYC 10013.
$49.95 regular
99.95 archival
$103 2003 Datebook (2 for 1 til Halloween
plus $5 shipping (or pickup)
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7. Kriota Willberg, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Oct. 22, plus Fall Anatomy Parlor classes.
Anatomy Parlor
Mondays beginning October 13
3:30-5pm
$15 per class
at The Shala
815 Broadway, 2nd floor, bet. 11th and 12th Streets
(212)979-9988
Anatomy Parlor is a fluid discussion/lesson/laboratory about yoga, movement, and the musculoskeletal system. We usually start with an overview of the body part de jour and then class progression is determined by the needs of the day’s group. Everyone is encouraged to ask questions and discuss all sorts of thing like alignment, injury prevention, asanas to stretch or strengthen the area of the day, etx. Learning tools may include (but are not limited to) use of a model, skeleton, riseable markers, charts, books, or live bodies. The first Parlor will start with the feet and ankles. Call or stop by The Shala, or e-mail me, Kriota, at willyak@earthlink.net for the topic of the week.
Here’s an intensive with lots of info packed into a mere weekend…less fluid structure but it packs a punch!
12 hour ANATOMY PARLOR
for Pilates, Yoga, and Dance
at BALANCE
414 West 14th Street, 2nd Floor
Friday, Oct. 25, 5-7pm
Introduction, tissues, muscles of respiration
Saturday, Oct. 26, 11am-4pm
Spine & Torso, Shoulder joint and scapula
Sunday Oct. 27, 11am-4pm
The hip, the knee
$250 for the entire workshop
($175 deposit with registration)
Call 212.414.2922 for information
And finally, the work in progress you’ve all been waiting for! It’s Square Dance! A dance depicting the battle of Fort Donelson during the Civil War. With music by Brian Dewan and twelve delightful dancers (Jessica Ames, Julie Betts, Kate Kennedy, Maja Lorkovic, Akiko Ono, Cecly Placenti, Beth Simons, Fred Sullivan, Meg Van Dyck, Katrina Van Zee, Kindra Windish, and yours truly) Square Dance is the historical civil war reenactment that everyone’s dying to see! As a bonus dance track, the lovely Stasia Blyskal will be dancing a solo, Plasticine Adolescent, choreographed a couple of years ago and brought back by popular demand.
Tuesday October 22, 9pm
at Dixon Place
309 East 26th Street
(just east of 2nd Avenue)
(212)532-1546
$12 or TDF, $10 student or senior
sharing the evening are Alex Beller and Johanna Myer
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8. David Medalla, FF Alumn, performs in Rome, Italy, October 2002.
London-based Filipino artist David Medalla has been invited by the City of Rome and the Centro Nazionale Drammaturgia of Italy to give several performances in the Eternal City. Dates and Venues: 22 October 2002 at three p,m.: Stazione Ostiense (open-air participatory performance); 22 October 2002 at 8 p.m.: Teatro Rialto Sant’Ambrogio (transcedental-hedonist performance entitled “Tales of the Talking Statues of Rome:); 23 October 2002 at three p.m.: Stazione Fiumincino (open-air participatory performance); 23 October 2002 at 8 p.m.: Teatro Rialto Sant’Ambrogio (transcendental-hedonist performance entitled “Ciao! bellisimo!”); 24 October 2002 at three p.m.: Stazione Termini (open air participatory performance); 24 October 2002 at 8 p.m.: Teatro Rialto Sant’Ambrogio (transcental-hedonist performance entitled “A Dream of Butterflies in the Subterranean Basilica near Porta Maggiore”). These performances are part of the “Vetrina” live arts festival curated by Monica Brizzi under the sponsorship of the Centro Nazionale Drammaturgia (National Centre of Dramatic Art) of Italy (director: Alfio Petrini) and the City of Rome. In addition to the above performances, David Medalla will evolve an impromptu about La Maga Circe with the Berlin -based Australian artist Adam Nankervis for the Festa Grastronomica Sinestetica being on organised by Antonio Sassu which will be held on 27 October 2002 in the Teatro Totale of Rome. All Medalla’s performances are open to the public. Alumni of Franklin Furnace who will be in Rome, Italy, during the above dates, will be especially welcomed. For further information about these performances please contact Lorella Pepe, Public Relations Officer, Centro Nazionale Drammaturgia, Teatro Totale, Passagio di Largo Odoardo Tabacchi 104, I – 00148 Roma, Italy. E mail address: lorellapepe@libero.it and also at: cnd.fondazione@tiscalinet.it
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9. Lydia Lunch, Katharine Gates, FF Alumns, in Inappropriate Behaviour publication.
Inappropriate Behaviour, Prada Sucks! And other Demented Descants, edited by Jessica Berens and Kerry Sharp, includes contributions by Tama Janowitz, Annabel Chong, Lydia Lunch, Katharine Gates, Kerri Sharp, Jessica Berens, Michelle Handelman, Janine di Giovanni, Mikita Brottman, and more.
$15. 288 pages. A Serpent’s Tail publication. Available at Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen Street, NYC 212-777-6028 and Halcyon Wordsmith Series, 227 Smith St. Brooklyn, NY 1-718-260-9299.
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10. Carey Lovelace, FF Alumn, presents Co-Op Murder Mystery, Oct. 25th.
New Play Festival, Huntington Village Theater Company’s 2002 New Play Contest presents a staged reading of Co-op Murder Mystery, a comedy by Carey Lovelace. October 25th, 2002, Friday, 7:30 PM at Huntington Public Library Auditorium, 338 Main Street, Huntington Village, NY
All seats $5. call 631-427-5165, ext. 221 to reserve
Directions: Exit 49N off the LIW; Route 10 (N) 7 M iles; left on Route 25A (Main St.)
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11. Lynn Book, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, October 18th, and CAP 21 Oct. 23rd
Lynn Book’s Voicelab Presents
LOOPreturns & current noise
@ Dixon Place, Friday October 18th 7:30 pm
[ no reservations, seating limited ]
$12, or TDF, $10 students and seniors
309 E. 26th St. between 1st & 2nd Avenues
Innovative performance for voice and new media curated by Lynn Book. Featured artists Allison Farrow, Yvette Feuer & Lucy HG, Adam Matta, Margarida Mestre, Tania Ritter. Lynn Book conducts VOX RISK HOLLER a chorus of extreme proportions performing ‘Lament’ and ‘FEIST Squared’ + an audience participatory holler
for info call: 212-529-8991 or visit www.voicelabnyc.com
OPEN HOUSE / gathering
Wednesday, OCTOBER 23, 7 – 8:30 PM, Free
Toast, taste and treat with us!!
Join Lynn, and emerging artists who are presenting at Dixon Place October 18 + members of VOX RISK HOLLER in post performance discussion and receive a special preview of the December labs: ‘Sounding the World’, ‘Voice and Wellness’ and ‘Presence and Performance’@ CAP 21 Studios 18 W. 18th St. 6th floor between 5th and 6th Avenues.
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12. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, at Eyebeam, October 16-December 1, 2002
Eyebeam presents
Beta Launch: Artists in Residence ’02
October 16 – December 1, 2002
Wednesdays – Sundays, 12 – 6pm
Artists:
Cory Arcangel
Michael Bell-Smith
Torsten Zenas Burns and Darrin Martin
Jem Cohen
Alex Galloway
G.H. Hovagimyan & Peter Sinclair
Yael Kanarek with Bnode
John Klima
Tony Martin
Scott Patterson & Marine Zurkow
The innaugual exhibition of work from Eyebeam’s Artists in Residence Program. For more information and a schedule of public programs please visit www.eyebeam.org or call 212.252.5193 Support for the exhibition is provided by B&H Photo, Video, and Pro Audio, Marantz America, Inc. , Intel Corporation, Palm, Inc., Duggal, Event Electronics, and Keytec, Inc. Support for the Artists in Residence Program is provided by The Atlantic Foundation, Discreet,Alias|Wavefront, 3D Systems, The Greenwall Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs,and The David Bermant Foundation.
Eyebeam is a not-for-profit media arts organization that enables and engages cultural dialogue practices at the intersection of the arts and sciences.
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13. Nora York, FF Alumn, at Joe’s Pub, TONITE, October 16th.
You are invited to attend
Nora York sings Nora York
“Oh The Coo coo/ she’s a pretty bird / and she sings while she flies/
And she’ll tell you / mad stories / but she’ll never / tell a lie “
Wednesday October 16th
Joes Pub (The Public Theater)
425 Lafayette St.
doors open at 6 !
Showtime 7:30 !!
Tickets $15
Available at Box Office 212. 539. 8778
or call Telecharge 212.239.6200
www.telecharge.com
www.joespub.com
Flanking Nora will be Country Bop band…
Steve Tarshis on Guitar
Charlie Giordano on Accordian
Dave Hofstra on Bass
Peter Grant on Drums
“Avant-Garde Diva” The New Yorker
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14. Tari Ito, Istvan Kantor, Tari Ito, FF Alumns, in 4th Performance Art Festival, Toronto.
4th International Festival of Performance Art
October 31 – November 10, 2002
Progressive And Provocative Performance Works By Over 20 Of The World’s
Most Innovative, Exciting
And (In Some Cases) Legendary Artists
7a*11d is Toronto’s only International Festival of Performance Art. And because we are unique, we aren’t fooling around. This year we have assembled a group of emerging and established performance artists from the UK, Finland, Indonesia, Germany, USA, Japan and across Canada who will descend on Toronto from October 31st to offer new performance works, round-up panel discussion, film and video screenings, a special d2d (‘direct to documentation’) video lounge, a book launch and culminating in a final Festival closing performance event that should only be described as interactive installation mayhem. Organized since 1997 by an unincorporated non-profit group of artists, 7a*11d’s purpose is to offer a professional showcase for performative works that fall outside the traditional boundaries of established genres (theatre, dance, music etc.). We are dedicated to representing a wide range of work, and are committed to presenting both the breadth and depth of performance art as a genre. This time around, 7a*11d is honored to present new works by performance art pioneers Roi Vaara, Bruce Barber, Clive Robertson and Skip Arnold. We are delighted to present offerings from a roster of international new contemporaries including André Lemke and Anita Ponton. Canadian favorites include Pierre Beaudoin, Daniel Barrow, _badpacket_ and Cheli Nighttraveller.
We are excited to present our co-sponsorships:
A Space presents the work of Tari Ito.
Fado presents performances by Iwan Wijono, Mimi Nakajima,
Shin-Ichi Arai and launches a new book about the work of Margaret Dragu.
Pleasure Dome presents Istvan Kantor Monty Cantsin? Amen!
An Unseen Selection from the Days of Song and Sex
YYZ Artists’ Outlet presents performance/installation Burgerheaven.
Louise Liliefeldt at 416-516-8467 or Johanna Householder at 416-538-9178
EMAIL: performancefestival@hotmail.com
Festival Hotline at 416-822-3219.
who and when?
Tari Ito (Oct. 26)
Daniel Barrow (Oct. 31)
André Lemke (Oct. 31 – Nov. 9)
Shin-Ichi Arai , Mimi Nakajima (Nov. 1)
Diane Landry, Cheli Nighttraveller, Clive Robertson, (Nov. 2)
Iwan Wijono (Nov. 2, 7 – 9)
Skip Arnold (Nov 2, 3, 6, 9)
Pierre Beaudoin (Nov. 3)
d2d Screening and Launch (Nov. 3)
Burgerheaven (Nov. 6)
Istvan Kantor Monty Cantsin? Amen! (Nov. 7)
Roi Vaara, Anita Ponton (Nov. 8)
Bruce Barber (Nov, 8, 9)
Emmanuelle Waeckerle, _badpacket_ (Nov. 9) ReciproCity/RéciproCité
Collective (Nov. 9)
Margaret Dragu Book Launch (Nov 10)
Panel Discussion (Nov. 10)
EMAIL: performancefestival@hotmail.com
CONTACT: Louise Liliefeldt at 416-516-8467
Visit our website – http://www.performanceart.ca
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15. Terry Dame, FF Alumn, at DUMBO, October 19th, shows at 3 & 5 pm
Hi All,
This is going to be a really beautiful gig. We’ll be performing in the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park right on the East River as part of the D.U.M.B.O Arts Festival. There will be lots of great events going on in the area throughout the weekend so please come and check us out. Hope to see you all there. It will be great fun for adults and kids alike.The Electric Junkyard Gamelan performs original compositions inspired by traditional Gamelan music of Indonesia. We play on invented and object instruments such as the Sitello, the Rubarp a four octave Clayrimba and a host of other unique instruments and objects. The group features musicians Robin Burdulis, Terry Dame, Mary Feaster, Lisa Frisari and Jullian Hintz
Terry Dame’s Electric Junkyard Gamelan
Saturday, October 19th 3pm & 5pm shows (rain date Sunday, October 20th)
Empire Fulton Ferry State Park (Main and John Street)
D. U. M. B. O. Brooklyn
FREE
Directions by train:
F train to York Street walk 3 blks on York (cross Jay Street) to Washington,
turn right and walk straight to the river. A & C trains to High Street (from Manhattan, exit at back of train, from Brooklyn exit front of train). Cross Cadman Plaza West, walk through park, bear left, walk downhill on Cadman Plaza East/Washington Street.
For more info about Terry Dame or the Electric Junkyard Gamelan go to
www.terrydame.com
For more info on the festival go to www.dumboartscenter.org or call 718-694-0831
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16. Tim Miller, FF Alumn, announces worldwide Fall tour 2002.
Hi Everybody,
In the midst of a crazy fall tour. First year I’m doing so many consecutive major performance seasons in London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and lots of places in between! Not a second too soon since my partner Alistair and I will be forced to leave the US at the end of the year when his visa finally runs out. (see San Francisco Chronicle story below for the update.)
Oct 19-Nov 3 London, UK The Drill Hall
Nov 8 Glasgow, Scotland, The Tron Theatre
Nov 16 University of California, Riverside
Nov 21-Dec1 New York, Performance Space 122
December 14 & 15 Tokyo Performance Studies Conference
I’ll be performing my show GLORY BOX at the Drill Hall in London Oct 19-Nov 3. Please come by and send folks! Here’s info on the Drill Hall website for my run of GLORY BOX. http://www.drillhall.co.uk/theatre/glory.html
Wishing everyone a great Fall. Gather community! Embolden dialog! Change the
world (or at least, America!)
best, Tim Miller
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Immigration rights, wrongs
Bi-national partners take ‘Body Blows’ in Tim Miller solo show by David Wiegand
This week, the performance artist Tim Miller will mark what he considers a very sad anniversary in the nation’s history, but it isn’t the one most of America is marking today. “I’m more interested in Sept. 12, which was the day every bi-national gay couple in the country knew we were screwed,” says the Los Angeles-based performer, who opens his new show, “Body Blows,” at New Conservatory Theatre Center on Sept. 21. In a way, it will be Miller’s “farewell tour”: He’s leaving the country early next year.
For the past two years, Miller, 43, has been battling for passage of the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which would give foreign-born, same-sex partners of U.S. citizens the same immigration rights granted to legal spouses of heterosexual Americans. The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Task Force estimates that passage of the law would affect the relationships of some 100,000 gays and lesbians in the United States, which, with Lichtenstein, is one of only two Western countries whose immigration laws do not recognize same-sex unions. The nation’s attitude toward immigration issues changed significantly after Sept. 11, 2001, Miller believes, and “give me your tired, your poor” was replaced by increased xenophobia.
In 1990, with Holly Hughes, Robert Fleck and Karen Finley, Miller was one of the infamous “NEA Four” denied grants by the National Endowment for the Arts because their work was deemed indecent. But this battle is more personal: Because of immigration laws, Miller and his Australian-born partner of the past eight years, Alistair McCartney, will leave the United States in January when the latter’s student visa expires. McCartney teaches creative writing at Antioch University, while Miller performs all over the world and teaches at UCLA.
Will it be difficult to move?
“I don’t say we’re moving,” Miller says by phone from his Venice home. “We’re being forced to leave. I’m a third-generation Californian. I really have no interest in leaving our house and community, the whole UC system. It’s home, but we have no choice. It’s not our decision, although it is in certain ways because we’re not choosing to go underground.”
Miller, who will retain his U.S. citizenship, is saddened by well-meaning suggestions that he and McCartney find some way of evading the immigration laws, such as having one of them enter into a green-card marriage. “Even gay people say, ‘Why don’t you just lie low for three or four years,’ but that would be lying,” Miller says. “It’s too degrading to lie. I can go live in a country that doesn’t ask me to lie.”
Arguing that the situation affects artists and academics most heavily, Miller believes that failure to loosen the immigration restrictions is resulting in a gay and lesbian brain and talent drain. He knows several couples who’ve left the country already and cites the closures of performance spaces in San Diego and elsewhere as examples of the result. Miller has already stepped down as a director of a Santa Monica performance space, in anticipation of his departure from the United States.
Miller’s last show, “Glory Box,” gave him a tragicomic soapbox to use to vent his frustration at the absurdity of the immigration laws. Portions of that piece, as well as others from his 15-year solo performance career, are featured in “Body Blows,” which is also the title of his second book (University of Wisconsin Press; $32.95 hardcover, $16.95 paperback), a “greatest hits” selection from his past six shows. But if “The Box” was filled with a kind of fire-in-the-belly belief that the legal inequities could be corrected, Miller sounds a bit defeated today. “I was naive,” he says. “I actually thought that the bill would pass, that America would stop being so hardhearted toward gays and lesbians.” Like bans on interracial marriage, which were still in force in 1967, Miller is confident that the Permanent Partners Act will pass eventually, but not in time to prevent his departure. Miller will be back on these shores with extensive tours, as usual, including a new show that he’s working on now. But for a while, he’ll be hanging his hat on the Sceptered Isle.
New Conservatory has planned eight performances of “Body Blows,” from Sept. 21 to 29; call the box office at (415) 861-8972 for tickets, or log on to www.nctcsf.org.
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17. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, reflects on Ron Vawter at NYU, October 29, 7-9 pm
Memoir/Creative Response: Reflections On Ron Vawter.
Produced by Theresa Smalec, President of “Memory Matters.”
Co-Sponsored by New York University’s departments of Art and Public Policy, Performance Studies, Undergraduate Drama, Graduate School of Arts and Science Graduate Students’ Council, and Tisch Graduate Students’ Organization.
Featuring Karen Finley, Gary Indiana, and Richard Schechner.
Where: The Dean’s Conference Room, located at 721 Broadway (the Tisch Building) on the 12th Floor.
When: Tuesday, October 29th, 2002.
What Time: 7pm-9pm (Free Reception will Follow).
Who Is Invited: Everyone! Free and Open to both NYU Students and the Public at Large.
On behalf of “Memory Matters,” I warmly invite you to our first event of this year, “Memoir and Creative Response: An Evening on Ron Vawter.”Ron Vawter was an influential avant-garde performer who died of AIDS in1994. During his brief but prolific career in experimental theatre, Vawter worked with two famous New York companies: Richard Schechner’s PERFORMANCE GROUP, and Elizabeth LeCompte’s WOOSTER GROUP. Ron Vawter also collaborated on films, videos, plays, and theatrical works with a broad range of groups and individuals.
A very short list of his collaborative partners includes Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia), Karen Finley (Philadelphia and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf), Jill Godmilow (director of the seminal and (re)visionary film version of Roy Cohn/Jack Smith), Gary Indiana (Roy Cohn/Jack Smith), John Jesurun and Jeff Weiss (Philoktetes), Gea Kalthegener and Doug Ferguson (Free Fall), Richard Foreman’s Hysterical-Ontological Theatre (Symphony of Rats and Miss Universal Happiness), Ken Kobland and Jim Strahs (Foto Roman and The Communists Are Comfortable), Coco McPherson (Roy Cohn/Jack Smith), Greg Mehrten (Pretty Boy, Queer and Alone, Roy Cohn/Jack Smith), Mabou Mines (King Lear), Leslie Thornton (Strange Space and The Last Time I Saw Ron), and Marianne Weems (Queer and Alone and Roy Cohn/Jack Smith).
“Memoir and Creative Response: Reflections on Ron Vawter,” is an effort to reinvigorate scholarly and non-scholarly interest in Ron Vawter’s remarkable life and career. As part of this effort, three speakers will discuss their memories of and creative responses to Ron Vawter.
KAREN FINLEY,GARY INDIANA, and RICHARD SCHECHNER knew Vawter on various levels: as teachers, directors, fellow performers, writerly collaborators, and as his friends. They are also people with whom he worked on writing and performing the “memoirs” of others who had died before.
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18. Pamela Sneed, FF Alumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, October 23rd, 8 pm
Teeth Stories and Other Tales, A Benefit
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, NYC
Wednesday, October 23, 2002 at 8:00 PM
$12.00
For Ticket Information Contact:
Bowery Poetry Club
(212)-614-0505 or
Pamela Sneed (718)-858-3103
Award-winning author, Pamela Sneed will perform at The Bowery Poetry Club on Wednesday October 23, 2002 at 8:00 PM. Sneed, a New York-based poet, performer, writer, and actress, is the author of the critically acclaimed Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery (Henry Holt,1998). She has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Source, Time Out, Bomb, MetroSource, Blue, VIBE, New York Magazine, and on the PBS documentary, “I’ll Dream Me a World-Black Artists Changing America.” Sneed, a “performance poet whose writings are as smart and brave as her gorgeous body is agile.” (Village Voice) has performed internationally. In May 2001, she headlined the New Work Now Festival at Joe’s Pub (Joseph Papp Public Theatre). Sneed will be reading from her upcoming book, 20 Minutes Was Forever.
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19. Gearoid Dolan, FF Alumn, at DUMBO, October 19th, 7 pm – midnite.
Without: an outdoor multimedia installation with multiple projections onto building exteriors D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival, Simultaneous Projections Event. Saturday, October 19th, on the corner of Jay and Water Streets in Brooklyn. 7pm to Midnight.
for further information on this installation visit:
http://www.screamachine.com
for further information on the festival visit:
http://www.dumboartscenter.org
