Assembly 2020

Roshani Thakore and Zeph Fishlyn

To begin the Assembly 2020, we are going to make space to discuss the question:

What does being a socially engaged artist mean in the current moment?

We’re not going to answer anything today, we’re just starting the conversation that that we hope will continue all weekend and that really needs to be part of everything we do. This is a space of unpacking of questions, and confront these questions together.

Sun June 7th 8pm-9pm PDT (sunset dance!)

For the final event in Assembly, let’s get our bodies and spirits in motion with KBOO’s DJ Seamstress of Sound!

In the early, deadly days of the AIDS epidemic, activists brought celebratory safe sex education to bars and clubs to bolster LGBTQ+ communities while learning new habits to keep each other healthy. As the final event in Assembly, Zeph Fishlyn hosts an in-person Emergency Dance Party with props to facilitate careful social distancing while playing together in a NE Portland park. Participants can also join online.

Please RSVP at bit.ly/emergencydance to reserve an in-person spot or to get online details.

We are training to be responders in a global pandemic of paralysis, disorientation, dangerous leadership, and a sudden distrust of our physical and human surroundings. The first step to being a responder is to be grounded and connected to ourselves and others. Together we’re going to shake out the news and the anxiety, explore our bodies and senses, and wrap ourselves in a virtual gauze of collective curiosity.

This is also the wrap up event for City Repair’s Village Building Convergence! More info: https://villagebuildingconvergence.com

David Wilson

PSU Art and Social Practice Guest Artist in Residence David Wilson hosts a studio visit from his Oakland studio.  Sharing pieces from his archive of invitation prints, he will talk about the evolution of group singing ideas, in particular sharing the We Song project and the Song Book project.  The session will move into a little group singing exercise where we will test the limits of long distance singing.

We Song
A Sound
Made Singing
By My Voice
By My Voice

Justin Maxon in collaboration with Aaron Ochoa

The Field Guide will activate a population of formerly incarcerated individuals at various stages in their recovery from substance abuse, currently residing in sober living homes in Eureka, CA, as storytellers whose experiences uniquely qualify them as educated voices on grieving the loss of community amidst crisis.

Roshani Thakore, Garima Thakur, Jenny Chu, and Felecia Graham

The year is 2024.

Lauren Oya Olamina is the daughter of a Baptist minister who serves their walled-in neighborhood. Olamina suffers from hyperempathy, which causes her to share pain or perceived pain with any living creature she sees. When her community is attacked, burned, and looted, seventeen-year-old Olamina barely escapes with her life. She travels, at great danger, into northern California in search of a haven where she and others can build the first Earthseed community. The beliefs of Earthseed are recorded in the fictional book Earthseed: The Books of the Living.

Friends of the East Portland Art+Justice Lab will read excerpts of Octavia Butler’s book, Parable of the Sower. The excerpts reflect moments within the story where Lauren, the main character, is processing the dark realities around her and envisioning a new world.

Illia Yakovenko

Roz Crews, Amanda Leigh Evans, Harrell Fletcher, Lisa Jarrett with MOE and Nicolette Hall

For the first part of the hour, the KSMoCA team will discuss the museum’s new online project, Learning Outside the Lines, with second grader from Dr. MLK Jr. School, MOE and his mom Nicolette Hall. Afterwards, attendees will participate in an experience-as-artwork writing workshop led by Roz and MOE where they’ll have an opportunity to reflect on unusual, impactful moments from K-8 education. http://www.ksmoca.com/learning-outside-the-lines

Rebecca Copper, Kevin Acton

Auditing Ohio is an experimental art project that asks us to look more closely at materials used in schools to teach students. Specifically, the social studies textbook used in a 4th grade classroom of Colonial Hills Elementary. The project is facilitated by artist, Rebecca Copper in collaboration with teacher, Kevin Acton. Join them as they come together in a conversation as they reflect on how the project unfolded in the classroom.

Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr.

Mary Olin Geiger with the Carlisle Tool Library in Carlisle, PA

live presentation with conversation at 3pm PST (6PM EST) on Sunday, June 7

register here: https://www.mixily.com/event/8485824275098230823

In collaboration with the Carlisle Tool Library, we are documenting the labor of residents in and around Carlisle, PA through their repairs, home improvement work, and creative projects. The Archive is in an initial stage of development after being launched in April – beginning to grow. 

This free event will be part presentation and part conversation. We’ll have a few guests sharing their experiences, and there will be time for discussion. If you’re interested in learning more about what we’re doing, building relationships through tools, and reimagining the borrowed tools in your environment, come hang out and please register ahead of time. Bring along a pencil/pen and paper if you can.