Special Issue: An Evening of Access Magic at Lincoln Center
NYC, wyd?
This Saturday, July 16th, on the plazas of Manhattan’s iconic Lincoln Center, we are casting access spells! I am delighted to share with you the details of the program I’m curating on the occasion of Disability Pride Month.
As I shared in last week’s issue, I’m curious about what we discover when we put access magic in the center of the mosaic of things we mean by “disability community.” I hope the program draws out new mystical pathways, ritual techniques, and complicated joys.
In Hearst Plaza from 6-8pm…
Fragmented Oracle by Cyree Jarelle Johnson (Temperance Queer Tarot) will be a collective tarot reading and group poem making.
Altar of Sorrows and Pleasures by Nocturnal Medicine (Larissa Belcic & Michelle Shofet) will be a multimodal ritual for sinking deeper into the idea of holding these two states of being, sorrow and pleasure, together at once.
An installation by The Society of Disabled Oracles (in the Outdoor Reading Room around the corner from Hearst Plaza) will feature telegrams of disabled wisdom from the past, present and future.
…and in The Oasis at Josie Robertson Plaza from 8-10pm…
Against astigmatic club lighting - whooshing greens and blues and red - Who Girl is looking at the camera through a neon green ski mask that has been given a zhuzh: big tufted orange under-eyelashes, pink spherical gems around the mouth, big gold hoop earrings, and a long set of white beads that come out the top like hair, which they are playing with by draping around their shoulder (which was also the mode of transport because they were so seriously heavy). x, a light brown skinned mixed/Black, hypermobile, agender person stands at one end of a wooden tunnel with a pointed arch. There are trees blurred in the background at the other end of the tunnel. x stands poised with attitude and confidence, one hand in the pocket of their black leather shorts and another hand gripping their black cane. x dons a chunky silver chain around their neck, a purple halter crop top, and dozens of tattoos. Their hair is shortly cropped with coils and curls that are orange, red, and pink. Brandon Kazen-Maddox is a BIPOC, LGBTQAI+, gender non-conforming third-generation native user of American Sign Language (ASL) and Grandchild of Deaf Adults (GODA), covered in bright body paint shapes, mid-sign in Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” A composite image of the Music: Not Impossible vibro-tactile suits shows people partying as they feel the music.
A silent disco dance party! The access fantasy includes…
A four-part DJ set by DJ Who Girl (yours truly!)
Individual headsets by Quiet Events
Vibro-tactile wearable suits by Music: Not Impossible
Choreographic activations by x
Artistic ASL by Up Until Now Collective
Monitors for live poetic sound descriptions + lyrics
Integrated audio description
Access Info…
Access is woven into the structure of this event, informed by the crip emotional intelligence of Ezra Benus & Jezz Chung. There will be chill-out spaces and seating in all spaces, in addition to the access features mentioned above and listed on Lincoln Center’s access website. A more detailed description of the access ecology will be on the event page soon. Please note: Lincoln Center does not require masks or proof of vaccinations for this event, but given the rapid spread of the BA.5 variant of COVID-19, I strongly urge everyone to come with well-fitting, high-quality masks.