Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras forwarded to me recently a review in the old indie music periodical Option of Glen Meadmore's album Chicken & Biscuits from the 1980s. The dude reviewer lambasted Glen's record showing his contempt and rampant homophobia in no uncertain terms. That was typical in the 1980's and 1990's, and I could give a million other examples of such behavior in the print media both mainstream and so called underground press.
I remember quite vividly in the early 1990s getting into a playfull voice mail battle and letter writing calling out with Mike Shea, the queer normative publisher/editor of AP (Alternative Press) Magazine out of Ohio. The publication had printed a rather snarky review of the premiere issue of Fertile LaToyah Jackson Video Magazine.
Looked up AP online recently and they still exist. Now thats a major achievement as both Option and SPIN Magazine bit the proverbial fairy dust years ago. Saw pics of Mr. Shea and he has aged quite well looking like a distinguished skateboarder silver fox. I've only been to Ohio a few times. The first time with Margaret Cho's Notorious C.H.O. Tour back in 2001-02 and then in 2006 when Jenny Klein invited me as a visiting artist at Ohio State University in Athens, Ohio where I did my infamous Tom Cruise Loves Women-The Women and Tom Cruise presentation that enthralled the campus.
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Its the new year so i want you all to see a new sun in the sky and help support Lia Gangitano's Participant Inc. Gallery in New York City. Participant is the only Not For Profit Gallery in New York and needs your support. Donate donate donate now and then donate again.
Someone from Los Angeles was telling me the other day that the Silverlake pub Akbar had raised over $150,000 in less than 48 hours in a Go Fund Me campaign. This particular person seemed to think that the owners of the bar used Covid relief money to pay for a lot of personal business and home expenses and didn't extend money to employees. I've known the owners of Akbar Scott and Peter since the old Theoretical days and I hope that this is just some idol gossip. One of my dearest friends Kimberly Kim of North Korea who use to be the head bartender at Bricktops at the Parlour Club in the Russian Quartier of Hollywood and has been a longtime employee of Akbar and does the amazing club Day Goth with Bradford Nordeen. I hope some of the money raised will go to helping Kimberly Kim.
I hate to think that the owners weren't supporting employees, especially as they are very successful entertainment industry players. Of course i know nothing about the ins and outs of running a business being a right brain personality type. Back in the mid 1990s i would sometime take the place of Divinity Fudge checking ID's at Akbar which was always fun and flirty.
I wish that legendary LA queer bars like The Score and The Spotlight had been able to have fundraisers that could have kept them in business.
2020 2021 THANK YOU
2020
Jordan Strafer, No Bag
On view through January 10, 2021
participantafterdark.art
Untitled (Unintelligible Yoruba prayer)
Performed by Raymond Pinto
Organized by Serubiri Moses
Video & Lighting Director: Glen Fogel
Production Manager & Camera: Jordan Strafer
Audio & Video Engineer: Lazar Bozic
Video Premiere upcoming on Participant After Dark starting January 17, 2021
JOE IS JOE
a reading performance from Joe Westmoreland’s 2001 classic novel Tramps Like Us, hosted by Eileen Myles and Tom Cole, with special guests: Brontez Purnell, Erin Kimmel, Samuel Delany, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Tony Stinkmetal, Lori E. Seid, Ryan McGinley, Johanna Fateman, Roberta Colindrez, and with music by Anohni
Jordan Strafer in dialogue with Darla Migan
Jonathan Berger, An Introduction to Nameless Love
Co-commissioned and co-presented with the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
The Most Important Moments in Art in 2020 in The New York Times
Johanna Fateman's Best of 2020 in Artforum
Thomas J. Lax's Best of 2020 in Artforum
Andrea K. Scott in The New Yorker
Jerry Saltz Best of 2020 in New York Magazine
Roberta Smith in The New York Times
Evan Moffitt in Frieze
Abraham Adams in Artforum
Emily Steer in Elephant
Brienne Walsh in Forbes
Ksenia Soboleva in The Brooklyn Rail
Gabriella Angeleti and Wallace Ludel for The Art Newspaper
Stephanie Simon with Spectrum News NY 1
VAGINAL DAVIS PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
DJ set by: April Hunt
Welcome by our host: Justin Vivian Bond
Toast to our outgoing Board President Jacqueline Humphries by:
Lia Gangitano and Jeffrey Gibson
Presidential Acceptance Poem for Participant Inc
by our incoming Board President: Vaginal Davis
Followed by remarks, performance and video interludes by: Jonathan Berger with Michael Stipe, Baseera Khan, Susanne Sachsse, Sofia Moreno, Charles Atlas, Glendalys Medina, CHRISTEENE, Narcissister, Ron Athey, and a closing astrological forecast by Constantina Zavitsanos and Tourmaline.
ASL Interpretation: Candace Davider
Technical Director: Glen Fogel
Cameras and video tech: Lazar Bozic and Jordan Strafer
CHRISTEENE
LIVE VIRTUAL SHOW AND VIDEO RELEASE
In October 2020, we launched PARTICIPANT AFTER DARK, a virtual performance, screening, and event space with a full-length live performance by the artist labeled "CHRISTEENE" in anticipation of a worldwide viral release of their new music video NIGHT WINDOW directed by PJ Raval and presented by Barrett Barrera Projects. Performed at Coffey Street Studio in Red Hook BK, Principal Designer Guy Smith of Free Radical Design Group Inc on sound, lighting, cameras, and live-stream with Technical Director Glen Fogel.
The site hosts artist projects commissioned specifically for the AFTER DARK web platform and remote viewing. PARTICIPANT invited artist Glen Fogel to design and develop AFTER DARK. Artists will work with Fogel through the Fall/Spring 2020-21 season, inhabiting the site and fully modifying it for their projects' specific needs. AFTER DARK is conceived of as a blank slate, removing as much institutional framework as possible. The site will only present current projects, and will often go ’dark’ in between events.
CONTEXT-CON
An online book launch (in the form of a Comic Con) event celebrating Alexandro Segade's graphic novel The Context, published by Primary Information. Co-hosted by Human Resources, Los Angeles. Interpreting The Context’s superheroes, special guests include: Ei Arakawa as Drives; Jennifer Doyle as The Body; Jonah Groeneboer as Form; Mary Kelly as Cathexis; Jennifer Moon as Barelife; Tavia Nyong’o as Objector; and David Velasco as Biopower; followed by Alexandro Segade in conversation with scholar andré Carrington; and live drawing with graphic novelist Luciano Vecchio.
Divas nos Queremos
A conversation with Sofia Moreno, KJ Freeman, and Laura Brown
Co-hosted by HOUSING NY
See Terremoto
Shrine: DJ Set, Poetry Reading, Public Discussion
Raymond Pinto, Serubiri Moses, Pamela Sneed, Jaime Shearn Coan, and Kojo Abudu; an evening of commemorations dedicated to Assotto Saint and Rotimi Fani-Kayode, conceived as a platform for re-memory and revisiting 1980s sexually dissident history in NYC.
