Monday Night -- 03.22.04 -- Field Trip -- Suheir Hammad -- Artists network

Contents:
1. About this Monday Night
2. About Suheir Hammad
3. About Inside the Culture of Resistance
4. About Artists Network
5. Following Monday Night 03.29.04 /
about the political in John Currin exhibition

___________________________________________________
1. About this Monday Night

What: Public Interview - Discussion - Performance
When: 7:00pm, Monday March 22th, 2004
Where: Tischman Auditorium, 66 W.12th St. NY, NY
Who: All are invited

Artists Network invited us to participate in the discussion with Suheir Hammad, we were thinking of inviting Suhair anyways.

hope you can make it.

___________________________________________________
2. About Suheir Hammad

The Artists Network of Refuse & Resist! presents
Inside the Culture of Resistance / conversations with artists

This conversation is part of a series of videotaped public
interviews that explore questions confronting artists who have pioneered in reaching a broad audience with art that challenges the world as we know it
and celebrates the spirit and resistance of the people.

reg e. gaines interviews SUHEIR HAMMAD

Monday MARCH 22, 2004 7pm
Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 W.12th St. NYC
tickets $8, info: 212-229-5353 or www.artistsnetwork.org

The evening will open with a performance by Suheir.

SUHEIR HAMMAD is a daughter of Palestinian refugees, born in
Amman, Jordan, and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Suheir is a
poet and author of "Born Palestinian, Born Black" and "Drops of
This Story". She is an original writer and cast member of the
TONY Award winning Russell Simmons Presents DEF POETRY JAM ON
BROADWAY. Suheir's produced plays are BLOOD TRINITY and
REORIENTALISM.

REG E. GAINES is a poet and playwright. He is director and
co-founder, along with Jam Master Jay and Rob Principe, of
Scratch DJ Academy. He is artistic director of Scratch
Theatrical and the 2004 Downtown Urban Theater Festival. reg is
currently directing Marcella Goheen's BLAK, OTHER ASPECTS (which
he also wrote), and Regie Cabico's STRAIGHT OUT. He is in
rehearsals for his play TIERS. reg wrote the book for Broadway’s
BRING IN DA NOISE, BRING IN DA FUNK.

This conversation is produced by the Artists Network of Refuse &
Resist! in cooperation with the Vera List Center for Art and
Politics at The New School.

What I Will

I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat
it is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
and hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin break for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own
drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This
heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain't
louder than this breath.

(dedicated humbly to June Jordan)

Suheir Hammad

___________________________________________________
3. About Inside the Culture of Resistance

INSIDE THE CULTURE OF RESISTANCE: This is a series of videotaped
public interviews produced by the Artists Network that explore
questions confronting artists who have pioneered in reaching a
broad audience with art that challenges the world as we know it
and celebrates the spirit and resistance of the people. Earlier
interviews in the series have been done with actor Danny Hoch,
poet/playwright reg e. gaines, theater groups Culture Clash and
Universes, R&B singer/composer Oscar Brown Jr., filmmaker David
Riker, poet Willie Perdomo, and painters Arnold Mesches and
Brett Cook-Dizney. Tapes of these interviews are being edited
for broadcast and distribution.

___________________________________________________
4. About Artists Network

THE ARTISTS NETWORK OF REFUSE & RESIST! is a group of artists
and arts presenters working in NYC and LA, dedicated to creating
and promoting art that contributes to a culture of resistance in
these mean-spirited political times. We help develop new works
and new collaborations, host salons and discussions among
artists, and produce events. Check out our website:
www.artistsnetwork.org

___________________________________________________
5. Following Monday Night 03.29.04 /
about the political in John Currin exhibition

the following monday, the Culture and Conflict Group suggested discussing the political in the John Currin exhibition which recently closed at the Whitney.

here is their initial idea, we will send another email later in ther week. stay tuned.

Ay,

 I think that Monday March -- would be fine. Let me just check with Conor. I think he has an exhibition of his work opening at Red Dot gallery that week.

I don't think that it matters that the Currin exhibition at the Whitney will have ended by then.
We could show slides of the paintings for anyone who has not seen the show.

It would be interesting to frame the discussion on some of the issues Jerry Saltz brings in the first paragraph of his review in this week's Village Voice  particularly the idea of conservatism in art and relate those issues to the discussions of strategies of resistance that have taken place at 16 Beaver Street.

Reaction Shot
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0406/saltz.php

also Kim Levin's recent review also in the Village Voice
Agent Provocateur
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0348/levin.php

From the listings section of The New Yorker Magazine:
"The sparkling mid-career painting retrospective John Currin  should be this season's major conversation piece. Topic: how have super old-fashioned, alternative academic-and schlocky-looking figure paintings become the bee's knee in contemporary art? Currin's mostly imagined winsome nudes, pathetic males, society dames, gay couples, and ,oh, yes, women with breasts as big as the Ritz make everybody nervous in one way or another."

some other reviews to check out
Nymphs, Messengers and Muses by Jerry Saltz   Village Voice 1999
http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/saltz/saltz11-24-99.asp

Defending John Currin  by Charles Finch   Artnet
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/finch/finch11-10-03.asp

all the best,
Kevin