Harness Art as a Tool for Resistance at the Queens Museum
Social Practice Queens will bring two projects, "Resistance Theatre" and "DebtBank," to the Queens Museum on June 11.
You’d be hard-pressed to find an art event happening in New York City this weekend that sounds more timely than this one: “Art as a Tool for Resistance,” a collaboration between the Social Practice Queens (SPQ) MFA program and the Queens Museum. Taking place on Sunday, June 11, at the museum, the event consists of two parts: “Resistance Theatre” and “DebtBank.” The former — led by artists and SPQ students Julian Phillips, Zaid Islam, Floor Grootenhuis — will create a forum “to explore the practical and interpersonal facets of protest and authority”; participants will engage in such exercises as a discussion of how resistance is manifested in protest signs and using their bodies to explore how space is restricted during demonstrations. The latter — organized by artists and SPQ students Alix Camacho Vargas and Jeff Kasper — is “a surreal bilingual (Spanish/English) resource desk” that aims to demystify and share resources about debt; visitors are invited to ask a question or answer someone’s else’s about debt.
If that’s not enough politics and art for you, you could also check out a great-sounding exhibition at the museum that opens this week. The Lavender Line: Coming Out in Queens, presented by the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, traces the history of the Queens LGBTQ community from the 1990s to today. Using photographs, flyers, video footage, and audio recollections, with a special focus on the evolution of the Queens Pride Parade, the show should shed important light on an under-explored community.
When: Sunday, June 11, 1–4:30pm (email nung-hsin@queensmuseum.org to register for “Resistance Theatre”)
Where: Queens Museum (New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens)
More info here.
