QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 17-27 // 2014

ABEL AZCONA Spain BRANKO BREZOVEC Croatia DARKMATTER U.S. IVO DIMCHEV Bulgaria CARLOS FRANKLIN Colombia SUJATA GOEL U.S./India BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Croatia JAN MARTENS The Netherlands MARISSA PEREL U.S. QUEER CLIMATE CHAUTAUQUA MOR SHANI Israel/The Netherlands T.R.A.S.H. The Netherlands UNTITLED QUEEN & MERRIE CHERRY U.S. JEREMY WADE U.S./Germany / MARK TOMPKINS U.S./France JACK WATERS & PETER CRAMER U.S.

QueerNY.org

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2014

Queer New York International Arts Festival is taking place for the third time, presenting artists from the U.S. and around the world. We are proud to be able to introduce within the festival program a diverse range of works, aesthetics and topics, partnering with numerous venues in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Queer New York International will host over 25 events including 12 U.S. premieres of dance and theater per- formances, concerts, workshops, panels, discussions, etc.

The QNYIAF expands the meanings of what queer perfor- mances can be. Only reading of queer(ness) through sexuali- ty, gender or identity is too often neglecting norms like social status and background, race and ethnicity, geography and other aspects of what positions us in the world. Deliberately introducing these ways of exclusion into the discussion about queerness, QNYIAF deepens the very investigation of queer.

During the festival’s intensely paced 12 days, New York audi- ence will have the opportunity to see various performances by artists who are working in different performing art formats and challenging the margins of their own expressive forms.

One of the artists we are very excited about is Ivo Dimchev who has been a regular guest at the festival and who will bring his latest work to our audiences. There are exciting artists from Croatia that we are presenting this year. Branko Brezovec who comes with a theater work based on a coming of age story by a famous Austiran novelist Robert Musil and Bruno Isaković who will show two of his works at the festival, one of them being created for New York based dancers during Bruno’s residency at Abrons Arts Center. Earl Dax, who is the recipient of this year’s Andre von Ah Research and De- velopment Grant that the festival gives out in memory of the festival’s co-founder, will connect queers and climate change over a two day event. Jeremy Wade and Mark Tompkins will bring their latest work, a collaboration aptly titled Stardust. A special program in the festival will be dedicated to young and very strong choreographers working in the Netherlands (Jan Martens, Mor Shani and T.R.A.S.H.) and will feature perfor- mances, workshops, talks and film presentations.

The festival offers much more and we are looking forward to seeing you at some of the performances and events.

Zvonimir Dobrović Artistic Director QueerNY.org 4 //QUEERNY.ORG

DANCE/PERFORMANCE MARISSA PEREL U.S. More Than Just a Piece of Sky U.S. Premiere Wednesday, September 17–Saturday, September 20 // 8 pm The Chocolate Factory Theater $15 // chocolatefactorytheater.org

More Than Just a Piece of Sky mines personal and cultural exile as a site for exploring gender and sexuality, knowledge and power, ability and disability. Through the mythology of Yentl, largely based on Barbra Streisand’s 1983 movie musical and the story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Marissa Perel and the performers examine their relationships to oppressive cultural constructs and their inherited religious and nationalist narratives. Perel deconstructs the narrative of Yentl to tell a new story, one where difference can create new terms and ways of seeing self and other.

Marissa Perel is an artist and writer based in New York. Her interdisciplinary work includes performance, installation, criticism and curatorial projects, and she often uses collaboration as a platform for the exchange of disciplines, working methods, and discourses with choreographers, composers, and visual artists. Drawing from the polemics of identity and representation, Perel orchestrates an immersive world where text, objects, dance and video transmit experiences of personal and societal conflicts. Her work has been presented at numerous galleries, theaters, and performance spaces in the U.S. and abroad, including Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, The Poetry Project, the Chocolate Factory Theater, Center for Performance Research, Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery (Chicago), D.I.V.O Institute (Prague), and Medium Gallery (Bratislava, Slovakia).

Directed by Marissa Perel; performed by Marissa Perel, Jumatatu Poe, and Lindsay Reuter; music by Marissa Perel with Miguel Gutierrez and guest composers; video by Marissa Perel with Nicholas Steindorf and Kristiana Weseloh; Photo by Yasamin Ghanbari / PERFORMANCE DANCE 6 //QUEERNY.ORG

THEATER BRANKO BREZOVEC Croatia Confusions U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, September 17 // 9 pm Thursday, September 18 + Friday, September 19 // 9:30 pm Saturday, September 20 + Sunday, September 21 // 8 pm Abrons Arts Center Playhouse $15 // abronsartscenter.org

Confusions was conceived as a radical theater experiment created as a collaboration between different departments of the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Branko Brezovec, the highly innovative Croatian theater director, and a professor at the Academy, engaged students in staging Austrian writer Robert Musil’s 1906 novel, The Confusions of Young Törless. The novel follows the vicissitudes of the young military school student Törless, whose confused moral complicity with his classmates via brutality such as torture and rape reveals the dark side of homoerotic relationships. The work examines mechanisms of desire, the incomprehensibility of the other, and the pathology of normality.

Branko Brezovec studied philosophy and comparative literature before entering the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, where he graduated in theater direction. In the 1970s Brezovec founded one of Yugoslavia’s most significant alternative groups, the Coccolemocco Theatre Company. Brezovec’s performances have been presented at international festivals and in theaters around the world. Since 2002 he has worked as a professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb.

Dramatization and Direction: Branko Brezovec; Set Design and Photographs: Tihomir Milovac; Costume Design: Irena Sušac; Music: Peteris Vasks (Symphony No. 2), Richard Wagner (Siegfried; Act III, scene 3); Video: Ivan Marušić Klif; Assistant Director and Stage Movement: Natalija Manojlović; Assistant Director and Video Projection: Ivan Planinić; Light Design: Petar Strmečki; Technical Support: Stjepan Filipec Ges; Construction of the Set: Zvonko Sarić & Apscisa d.o.o. Cast: Romano Nikolić, Hrvojka Begović, Adrian Pezdirc, Domagoj Janković, Ognen Drangovski, Suzana Brezovec, Tihomir Milovac; Films: Kurt Kren and Ivan Ladislav Galeta; Production: Production: Academy of Dramatic Art Zagreb, Eurokaz, Domino THEATER 8 //QUEERNY.ORG

PERFORMANCE IVO DIMCHEV Bulgaria I-cure U.S. Premiere

Friday, September 19 // 8 pm Abrons Arts Center Experimental $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

If healing is a choice then why not make this choice while being in the theatre. Why should we waste another hour of trying to be more “cultural,” when we can use it for being “healthier.” This performance is made to heal not only par- ticular physical or psychological difficulties you have but also all of them simultaneously, I-cure can also heal people you love and care for, it all depends on where you would like to focus the healing power of I-cure. I-cure is not one to one therapy, its designed to cure the whole audience at the same time. Your involvement in the process will have a significant impact on the healing, even much bigger than the performance itself. As more you think of I-cure as a cultural experience as more general and temporal will be the therapeutic effect of it. Don’t waste your time in the theatre, take advantage of it!

Ivo Dimchev’s work is an extreme, colorful mix of performance art, dance, theater, music, text, and visual elements. He is the author of more than 30 performances presented across Europe and North America. He has received numerous international dance and theater awards, including the Iron Medal for Contemporary Art “Vencislav Zankov” (2013) and a Bessie Award nomination for his work Lili Handel (2011). After his master’s studies at DasArts Academy in Amsterdam, Dimchev moved to Brussels and opened his own performance space, Volksroom, where he presents young international artists. Dimchev is a master teacher at the National Theater Academy in Budapest, and founding director of Humarts foundation in Bulgaria. He is currently artist in residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels.

Text, music, choreography by Ivo Dimchev PERFORMANCE 10 //QUEERNY.ORG

INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE GROUP SHOWCASE

Saturday, September 20 // 8 pm Grace Exhibition Space & Gallery $10 suggested donation // grace-exhibition-space.com

This will be a site-specific event where the artists are invited to create projects that reflect their unique artistic universes in innovative ways that are a departure from their usual form or media. The evening will include numerous international and U.S. artists who have been selected to take part. During the course of an evening, the artists will present their work with each performance / installation / intervention / happening starting in consecutive intervals, and lasting from several minutes to several hours.

The work presented will range from performance art, installation / video work and happenings. The artists are creating work that is both intimate and personal, engaging and demanding to perform. Queer New York International Arts Festival is pairing with Grace Gallery Exhibition Space on creating this event that will surely be an experience for the audience. / PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION 12 //QUEERNY.ORG

WORKSHOPS/INSTALLATION QUEER CLIMATE CHAUTAUQUA + QUEER PLANET INSTALLATION

Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21 Abrons Arts Center Experimental abronsartscenter.org

Drawing inspiration from the Chautauqua movement of the early 20th century and converging with the People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21, the Queer Climate Chautauqua is designed to mobilize and inspire queer participation in the March, an unprecedented mobilization to address the climate crisis. The weeklong project begins with community workshops in puppet building and other participatory activities leading to the creation of Queer Planet, a temporary public installation in the Experimental Theater at Abrons created by Bizzy Barefoot, Quito Zieglar and dozens of volunteers. Beginning Saturday, September 20, the public is invited to visit Queer Planet to make signs, props, and puppets for the march. Live performances, teach-ins, and video screenings will occur throughout the day and into the evening, and people are encouraged to bring a sleeping bag and spend the night. On Sunday, September 21st, we will leave from Abrons as a group to join the People’s Climate March. Please visit the Abrons Arts Center website for an up-to-date schedule of activities and participating artists.

This event was commissioned by Queer New York International through the 2014 André von Ah research and development grant. In 2013 the festival established the André von Ah Research and Development Grant for queer art, in honor of the work of the late co-founder and curator of Queer New York International Arts Festival, André von Ah (1987–2013). The grant supports artists and curators in the U.S. whose work challenges conventions of queer art.

Lead Organizer and Curator: Earl Dax Installation: Bizzy Barefoot and Quito Ziegler / INSTALLATION WORKSHOPS 614 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Croatia Denuded U.S. Premiere

Tuesday, September 23 // 8 pm Abrons Arts Center Experimental $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

A constantly evolving piece, Denuded was created by choreographer and dancer Bruno Isaković in 2013, and performed by him in last year’s festival. This new version is interpreted and performed by dancer Ana Vnučec. Denuded is about the body, movement and stillness, breathing and, most importantly, about a constant contact with the audience. The confrontation of the naked body and the gaze is the work’s driving force. Isaković’s collaboration with Vnučec broadens the original work by taking into account the female body together with a different performing experience, at the same time playing with and emphasizing stereotypes and clichés that arise therein.

Bruno Isaković graduated with a degree in contemporary dance from the Amsterdam School of the Arts in 2009. In 2010 he returned to Croatia to continue his activities in the field of dance art, and in September 2011 became a member of Contemporary Dance Studio. Ana Vnučec, also a member of the Contemporary Dance Studio, is one of Zagreb’s most interesting young dancers.

Author: Bruno Isaković; Performer: Ana Vnučec; Consultation: Iva Nerina Sibila; Production: Studio za suvremeni ples / Perforacije / Domino DANCE 616 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE T.R.A.S.H. The Netherlands DUTCH FOCUS T†Bernadette U.S. Premiere

In an intense pace during Part of Dutch Focus / New Amsterdam Program three days, the New York audi- ence will have the opportunity Wednesday, September 24 // 8 pm to experience the outstanding Abrons Arts Center Experimental moments of contemporary $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org Dutch dance appearances of one of the most prominent On the stage with a washing machine, several wigs, names of the Dutch dance and lots of costumes, a man and a woman live out scene, Jan Martens, their relationship. This emotional dance-duet exposes Mor Shani and T.R.A.S.H. ecstasy as a precondition for the merging of the two With the program, which people, who are soon each wandering in their own world, represents a cross-section of losing themselves and each other. Through the daze of dance forms, workshops and desire they encounter the dark, unknown sides of their dance film, and with the latest personalities. work by Jan Martens and his extensive production of The Concept & choreography: Kristel van Issum; Music Dog Days Are Over, which composition: Arthur van der Kuip; Set design: Paul van just finished a very successful Weert; Performed with and created by: Joss Carter European tour, the QNYIA (Guilherme Miotto original cast) and Lucie Petrušová and/ festival offers a kaleidoscopic or Oona Doherty; Musician: Jacqueline Hamelink (Cello) view of what is now being created in the field of dance in the Netherlands.

Dutch focus discussion and workshop program is created in order to create a quality American-Dutch connection, and includes workshops from professionals and amateurs, dance films, meet and greet with American programmers and an after talk organized by American artists. The encounter of the artists and professionals will bring to exchange of different tech- niques and understandings of performative arts in different countries, especially specific- ities in artistic understanding of the perception of identities, body and movement.

Detailed information on the schedule of additional events: DANCE www.queerNY.org 618 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE JEREMY WADE U.S./Germany / MARK TOMPKINS U.S./France Stardust U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, September 24 + Thursday, September 25 // 9 pm Abrons Arts Center Underground $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

“Mark and I put this thing together and called it Stardust. The rules are simple: we meet one day before the gig, find some crappy costumes in a party shop, talk about the stuff of life, then go on stage the next day and make people laugh until they cry. What we have on stage is a bit like falling in love. You are so out of your mind that you believe anything is possible, and for a little while it is. You don’t really know what’s going on or why it’s working, but you just open up to this not knowing. Even when it falls apart, because that’s when it gets real and subsequently makes for some damn good material on stage. It’s the stuff of life, and we milk it hard, hands on the udder, pull, squeeze, pull, squeeze. The underlying core of this chemical romance, aside from the terrible jokes in matching green sequin mini- skirts, is that we both deeply believe that improvisation is important. We fight for this improvisation thing because we know it has the capacity to shatter the construct of Theater — a thing so terribly over-coded to the point of full-blown stratification. The task of shaking it up is a difficult one, but crucial to its wellbeing (and ours). So we propose a toast to the tension that exists on stage when the performers don’t know what the @%&$ they are going to do. This space full of possibility, a little fleeting chunk of queer utopia, a little future stardust space where we can laugh at the edge of impossible.”

Jeremy Wade is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Berlin. He graduated from the School For New Dance Development in Amsterdam in 2000. Wade pre- miered his first evening-length work, Glory, at DTW in New York in 2006, for which he received a Bessie Award. He is a co-founder of Chez Bushwick in Brooklyn.

Mark Tompkins is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher living in France since 1973. In 1983 he founded the company I.D.A., International Dreems Associated. His recent works have evolved towards musical theater. In 2008, Tompkins received the prestigious Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) Choreography Prize for his body of work. Illustration by Elisabeth Saint Jalmes by Illustration

DANCE Creation: Mark Tompkins, Jeremy Wade; Lights: Natalie Robin 620 | Queer// QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE ABEL AZCONA Spain Someone Else U.S. Premiere

Thursday, September 25 // 6 pm Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art $10 suggested donation // www.leslielohman.org

Abel Azcona uses his body to illustrate personal experiences of abandonment, pain, and empathy. In Someone Else he shows us interpersonal relations, both sentimental and sexual, in which in a parallel way, true feelings, true love, or the true object of desire are all hidden. The artist shares different intimacies with different people, making the antagonist-guest the protagonist. He presents dreams that become true in the mind, but never in the actual body.

Abel Azcona is a Spanish interdisciplinary and performance artist. He creates cathartic works as a means of self knowledge and personal construction. Azcona’s artwork has been presented in various museums, contemporary art centers, and galleries worldwide. Synergetically autobiographical and critical, his work takes audiences into his inner world and invites them to share their own experiences. His themes are directly informed by his experiences as the child of a prostitute, and his passing through multiple children’s shelters, mental institutions, and foster homes, as well as adelescent episodes of drug use, prostitution, and several suicide attempts. The resillient artist assures the public that when he practices self-harm, it is his own choice to alter the shape of his body, as opposed to an abused child or woman who has no choice. DANCE 622 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Croatia Denuded for two dancers U.S. Premiere

Friday, September 26 + Saturday, September 27 // 8 pm Abrons Arts Center Experimental $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

Created as a solo performance, Denuded bases its movement quality on the relationship between breath and physical tension and the ways in which it permeates the body in each moment. It sets these two organic body functions within the performing moment and uses gradation of their interdependence to radicalize, confront, and re-neutralize them. This creates the physicality that deconstructs and translates meanings out of constant transformations of the body and its need to relax, reactivate, and be conscious. First performed by Bruno Isaković, and then adapted for a female performer, the process revealed the specificity of each body and the whole new range of meanings. Denuded for two dancers will use the same physical practices in a duet form with U.S.-based dancers. It will explore the dependence of two bodies — how two bodies understand, cooperate, or are influenced by each other during their own constant transformation. The work was developed during a residency at Abrons Arts Center in August and September 2014.

Author: Bruno Isaković; Performers: Lorene Bouboushian; Production: Domino DANCE 624 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE MOR SHANI Israel/The Netherlands Love-ism U.S. Premiere

Part of Dutch Focus / New Amsterdam Program Thursday, September 25 // 9 pm Abrons Arts Center Experimental $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

Love-ism is a long-term study inspired by Erich Fromm’s seminal book, The Art of Loving. With this work Mor Shani takes a close look at the human experience of intimacy, challenging the perception and liquidity of the agreed upon, the sublime, and the condemned. The concept of Love-ism emerged from Shani’s personal need to reconnect to the community after three years of working in the hermetic surroundings of the studio and the production house. It is a reaction to the growing denial of the function of the arts in society, and grew out of the wish to expand the creative process beyond the premises of the professional field to be relevant to a larger audience and share not only a product, but also the act of making.

Mor Shani is a freelance choreographer based in the Netherlands. He started his professional career as a dancer in Bat Dor dance company in Tel Aviv. In 2009 he graduated from ArtEZ dance academy in Arnhem and has since been creating his own works in various productions houses. He was a resident artist at Dansatelier Rotterdam in 2010, where he created pieces such as Flatland, selected by the Aerowaves Network as one of the best young maker’s creations. His work Lu Carmella (in collaboration with Ron Amit) was nominated for the Dutch VSCD Zwaan award for “Most Impressive Dance Production” of 2009. Shani has been an artist in residence at the International Choreographic Arts Centre in Amsterdam since 2013.

Concept and Choreography: Mor Shani; Film and visuals: Paul Sixta; Performers: Pawel Konior, Majon van der Schot; Artistic management: Shiran Shveka; Photo: Paul Sixta, Ewa Szymczyk; Music: Jaap van Keulen; Artistic advice: Anne-Marije van den Bersselaar, Renée Copraij, Kristin de Groot; Production: Dansateliers Rotterdam, ICKAmsterdam and Frascati Productions DANCE 626 | Queer// QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE JAN MARTENS The Netherlands Ode to attempt U.S. Premiere

Part of Dutch Focus / New Amsterdam Program Friday, September 26 // 9 pm Abrons Arts Center Playhouse $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

Ode to attempt is a humorous deconstruction of the creative process, performed by Jan Martens. The work focuses on the different steps of process and the layers that become invisible in the final stage of a work. Ode to attempt gives these steps that never reached the stage or an audience a second life, positing their imperfect quality as something of equal value to final product. In this work, Martens thematizes the imperfect, this time not as an adjective (as in imperfect body) but as a state in itself, worth sharing and being seen.

From and with Jan Martens.

Thank you: Jeroen Bosch, Kristin de Groot, Joris van Oosterwijk and all the Bproject Partners: Jheronimus Bosch 500 (NL), Comune di Bassano del Grappa (IT), Dance Umbrella London (UK), La Briqueterie/CDC du Val de Marne (FR), D.ID Dance Identity (AT), Festival CEMENT (NL), Dansateliers Rotterdam (NL) DANCE 28 //QUEERNY.ORG

DANCE JAN MARTENS The Netherlands The Dog Days Are Over U.S. Premiere

Part of Dutch Focus / New Amsterdam Program Friday, September 26 // 9 pm Abrons Arts Center Playhouse $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

The Dog Days Are Over is inspired by photographer Philippe Halsman’s words: “Ask someone to jump and you’ll see their true face.” After engaging and intrusive solo acts about the beauty of the imperfect body, Jan Martens now creates something completely different, a critical performance about the thin line between art and trickery. The work asks what is the true face of dance in these uncertain times. What would we like to show, what would we like to see? The Dog Days Are Over shows the dancers giving in to one physical act: the jump―a repetitive and exhausting act that asks…what?

Jan Martens studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and graduated from the Artesis Conservatory for Dance in Antwerp in 2006. He has performed in the work of Koen De Preter, United-C, Mor Shani, and Ann Van den Broek, among others. In 2009 Martens started develop- ing his own choreographic work. his works explores the possibility of perfect balance and symbiosis between storytelling and conceptualism. Rather than create a new movement language, he molds and recycles existing idioms, placing them in a different setting, so that new ideas emerge. His internationally recognised duet Sweat Baby Sweat is still touring. In 2013, he received the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Award for dance. He is currently a guest artist at the International Choreographic Arts Centre (Amsterdam), where he coaches on the artistic and business of dance.

Author: Jan Martens; Performers: Cherish Menzo, Piet Defrancq, Julien Josse, Laura Vanborm, Nelle Hens, Steven Michel, Naomi Gibson and Kimmy Ligtvoet; Lighting design: Jan Fedinger; Dramaturgy: Renée Copraij; Technics: Michel Spang; Production: ICKamsterdam and JAN; Coproduction: Frascati Producties, SPRING performing arts festival, DansBrabant, La Briqueterie CDC du Val-de-Marne, tanzhaus nrw and TAKT Dommelhof DANCE 630 | Queer// QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 DANCE SUJATA GOEL U.S./India Dancing Girl U.S. Premiere

Saturday, September 27 // 9 pm Abrons Arts Center Playhouse $10 suggested donation // abronsartscenter.org

In Dancing Girl, Sujata Goel presents a fictional character version of herself, a mythical doll-like figure who reveals the artist and continually morphs―from broken doll to beautiful doll to dancing doll to a lonely doll―finally disappearing completely and returning to a dormant invisible state. Dancing Girl depicts a performer who seeks to step outside of her body and confront the image of herself. To create Dancing Girl, Goel She clinically mapped out her physical and psychological behaviors by documenting her qualities, moods, gestures, habits, and movement patterns in order to experience herself as data, as information that could be manipulated and reorganized to take on new meanings. Dancing Girl depicts a performer who seeks to step outside of her body and confront the image of herself.

Sujata Goel is a dancer trained in classical Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance. She graduated from Kalakshetra (Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts) in 2001 and worked with Chennai-based choreographer Padmini Chettur from 2002 to 2004. She continued her training in contemporary dance at P.A.R.T.S in Brussels. After she graduated, she was an artist-in-residence at WP Zimmer, where she produced three works: Lady, Disco Dancer, and Nightlife. Dancing Girl was created with support from the Indian Foundation of the Arts and a research and production residency at the Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research in Pondicherry, India.

Choreography and performance: Sujata Goel; Sound: Over the Edges by Andrew Chalk; Costume: Tabasheer Zutshi; Light design: Yap Seok Hui; Production: Tang Fu Kuen; Photo: Jesper Haynes DANCE 632 | //Queer QUEERNY.ORG New York International 2014 PERFORMANCE DUOS

featuring Darkmatter, Untitled Queen & Merrie Cherry + Jack Waters & Peter Cramer

Friday, September 26 + Saturday, September 27 // 10 pm Sunday, September 28 // 5 pm The Club at La MaMa $18 // $13 students and seniors // lamama.org

These three evenings will highlight the multicultural, multi- racial diversity of contemporary, young queer performing arts scene. The final evening will present the dual work of Jack Water and Peter Cramer, manifesting the history and lineage of queer performance, and the role of both Water and Cramer as mentors to the current generation of queer performance artists.

The program is co-curated by Nicky Paraiso and Dan Fishback. A co-presentation of La MaMa, the Queer New York International Arts Festival, and The Helix Queer Performance Network. Merrie Cherry photo by Tinker Coalescing; Untitled Queen photo by Stephanie Keith.

Friday, September 26 // 10 pm Darkmatter (Janani Balasubramanian & Alok Vaid-Menon) DarkMatter is a trans, South Asian spoken-word duo “hivemind flipping the scantron on your model minority narrative, returning that basic gayze, and spitting anti- colonial futures.” They perform regularly at universities across the country and venues in New York City. Individually, they have done social justice work at local organizations such as the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project and the Audre Lorde Project. Balasubramanian is also a writer at Black Girl Dangerous (an online forum for QTPOC).

Saturday, September 27 // 10 pm Untitled Queen & Merrie Cherry Untitled Queen is a visual artist, drag queen, and graphic designer who lives and works in Brooklyn. She was born and raised on Governors Island, New York, until PERFORMANCE 34 //QUEERNY.ORG

PERFORMANCE its shutdown in 1996. She received her BFA from the University of Connecticut and her MFA in visual arts from Parsons The New School for Design. She hosts a drag show/underwear party called Bottoms Up every Wednesday at Sugarland Nightclub in Williamsburg.

Merrie Cherry is one of the few power queens in Brooklyn, not stopping at being an entertainer she also plans special events such as the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards and hosts at various parties throughout the city. She sleeps during the day and throws glitter in your face at night. She can be found every third Thursday at Metropolitan Bar for DRAGnet. She performs all over Brooklyn and in select parts of Manhattan.

Sunday, September 28 // 5 pm Jack Waters & Peter Cramer Jack Waters & Peter Cramer have a long association with La MaMa from their 1986 One Night Stands cabaret performances to the more recent MIXploritorium 2011, and Visual AIDS’ 25th anniversary exhibit NOT OVER (2013), both at La MaMa Galleria. They are performers, filmmakers, founders of The Greenthumb Garden Le Petit Versailles, and the non-profit arts organization Allied Productions, Inc. They are former co-directors of ABC No Rio (1983– 1990). They were artists in residence at the 2013 Emily Harvey Foundation/Venice, and are working on a multi- media musical opus entitled Pestilence that has resulted in a presentation in collaboration with Harvestworks/ PASS Studio at the Emily Harvey Gallery New York. Recent publications that include their histories are Sur Rodney (Sur)’s revised chronology for Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art; Alternative Histories: New York Art Spaces, 1960–2010, edited by Lauren Rosati and Mary Anne Staniszewski (MIT Press); and Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Generation by Sarah Schulman (University of California Press). PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Wednesday, September 17 8 pm // MARISSA PEREL More Than Just a Piece of Sky The Chocolate Factory Theater 9 pm // BRANKO BREZOVEC Confusions Abrons Underground

Thursday, September 18 8 pm // MARISSA PEREL More Than Just a Piece of Sky The Chocolate Factory Theater 9:30 pm // BRANKO BREZOVEC Confusions Abrons Underground

Friday, September 19 8 pm // MARISSA PEREL More Than Just a Piece of Sky The Chocolate Factory Theater 8 pm // IVO DIMCHEV I-cure Abrons Experimental 9:30 pm // BRANKO BREZOVEC Confusions Abrons Underground

Saturday, September 20 8 pm // MARISSA PEREL More Than Just a Piece of Sky The Chocolate Factory Theater 8 pm // BRANKO BREZOVEC Confusions Abrons Underground 8 pm // GROUP SHOWCASE Grace Exhibition Space & Gallery 9 pm // QUEER CLIMATE CHAUTAUQUA + QUEER PLANET INSTALLATION Abrons Experimental Theater

Sunday, September 21 8 pm // BRANKO BREZOVEC Confusions Abrons Underground 9 pm // QUEER CLIMATE CHAUTAUQUA + QUEER PLANET INSTALLATION Abrons Experimental Theater

36 // QUEERNY.ORG FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Tuesday, September 23 8 pm // BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Denuded Abrons Experimental Wednesday, September 24 8 pm // T.R.A.S.H. T†Bernadette Abrons Experimental 9 pm // JEREMY WADE & MARK TOMPKINS Stardust Abrons Underground Thursday, September 25 6 pm // ABEL AZCONA Someone Else Leslie Lohman Museum 8 pm // JEREMY WADE & MARK TOMPKINS Stardust Abrons Underground 9 pm // MOR SHANI Love-ism Abrons Experimental Friday, September 26 8 pm // BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Denuded for two dancers Abrons Experimental 9 pm // JAN MARTENS Ode to attempt + Dog Days Are Over Abrons Playhouse 10 pm // DARKMATTER La MaMa Saturday, September 27 8 pm // BRUNO ISAKOVIĆ Denuded for two dancers Abrons Experimental 9 pm // SUJATA GOEL Dancing Girl Abrons Playhouse 10 pm // UNTITLED QUEEN & MERRIE CHERRY La MaMa Sunday, September 28 5 pm // JACK WATERS & PETER CRAME La MaMa FESTIVAL VENUES

Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street) Manhattan 212.598.0400 abronsartscenter.org

The Chocolate Factory Theater 5-49 49th Avenue (between Vernon Boulevard + 5th Street) Long Island City, Queens 718.482.7069 chocolatefactorytheater.org

Grace Exhibition Space & Gallery 840 Broadway, 2nd Floor (at 13th Street) Brooklyn 646.578.3402 grace-exhibition-space.com

The Club at La MaMa 74A East 4th Street, 2nd Floor (between Bowery and Second Avenue) Manhattan 212.475.7710 lamama.org

Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art 26 Wooster Street (between Grand and Canal Streets) Manhattan

38 // QUEERNY.ORG QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2014

Artistic Director & Producer Zvonimir Dobrović

Executive Producer Adriana Dobrović

Coordination and Production Karla Horvat Crnogaj, Vera Pfaff, Dina Jokanović La MaMa Music Series Curators Nicky Paraiso, Dan Fishback

Performances at Grace Exhibition Space Co-curator Jill McDermid-Hokanson

Queer Climate Chautauqua Curator Earl Dax

Discussions / Panels Jeremy M. Barker

Technical Support Tomislav Maglečić

Marketing and Promotion Patrick Duffy

Press Representative Janet Stapleton 212.633.0016 // [email protected]

Queer New York International 2014 is made possible with major support from Alphawood Foundation

Financial Support Domino, City of Zagreb, Croatian Ministry of Culture, Fonds Podiumkunsten/Performing Arts Fund NL, Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Media Support Culturebot, Gayletter, In*tandem Creatives

Presenting Partners Abrons Arts Center La MaMa Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Grace Exhibition Space The Chocolate Factory Theater This is a Domino project.