In March 2017, Half Straddle presented Here I Go, pt. 2 of You, an installation and colloquy hosted by The Kitchen.
The centerpiece of the project was a series of free public lectures organized by Tina Satter with the curation guideline: who should be our current public intellectuals. You can watch each of the these Public Lectures below.
"We were setting up an environment in the installation and the lecture hall itself that was quite formal and controlled, but I was totally down with the speakers feeling like they were using their talk as a place of experimentation for themselves—that it could be a place where they said some ideas out loud for the first time." — Tina Satter
Jess Barbagallo
The Burden of Identity: I Prefer Not To
Music Performance by Enver Chakartash and Seth Braley
On March 9, 2017, actor and writer Jess Barbagallo gave a talk that encompassed his work in the theater and the conflicted pressures of identity.
“While I was hanging back at the straight sock hop, wallflower style, I was always watching. Watching, watching, watching.”
Jeremy O. Harris
Theater for Love
Music Performance by Ella Moore
Jeremy O. Harris is a playwright attending the Yale School of Drama. On March 10, 2017, he considered a radical reconfiguration of theatrical transactions: who writes reviews; who reads reviews; who sees plays, and how?
“Daddy is a play I consciously wrote for one audience member in mind, and that audience member is my mother.”
Lumi Tan
Being a Good Woman in the Art World
Music Performance by Seth Braley, Eben Hoffer, Julia Sirna-Frest, Lucy Taylor
Lumi Tan, curator at The Kitchen, discusses the problematic intersection of identity, power dynamics, and gatekeeping within the art world.
“Caring feels emotional in a way that curators are really not supposed to be, particularly women, and women are often said to care too much.”
Jennifer Krasinski
A Raincheck to Oblivion
Music Performance by Enver Chakartash and Seth Braley
Critic Jennifer Krasinski uses Jill Johnston as a jumping off point to consider how and why criticism can operate. Her talk was held on March 9, 2017.
“There is a terrible lie we have told ourselves for far too long, that of the passive audience, that the people in the theater not onstage are doing less than those who are. And to those who believe that, I say, Prove it.”
Emily Davis
John Davis: For All I Know
Music Performance by Curry Puffs
Actress Emily Davis gives an art-talk on the practice of her brother John Davis—an artist who suffered a traumatic brain injury in adolescence—and considers the value of communication beyond the neurotypical. She spoke on March 16, 2017.
“Learning is hard, a radical unlearning is harder.”
Ariel Goldberg
Notes on the Estrangement Principle
Music Performance by Enver Chakartash and Hanna Lea Novak
Critical theorist and artist Ariel Goldberg uses their recent book, The Estrangement Principle, as a starting point to discuss queer labelling, New Narrative, strains of visibility, and more. Their talk was on March 8, 2017.
“Some people don’t want to be visible, and it’s like on what terms do you become visible? And for who?”
Heidi Hahn
The Body is Not Essential
Music Performance by Enver Chakartash, Seth Braley, George Truman
On March 17, 2017, artist Heidi Hahn discussed working from a place of intuition, despite being trained otherwise, to explore explicitly female spaces and feelings in her paintings.
“I like these quiet gestures. I’m not trying to be provocative. I really want to talk about the inner lives of women.”
Sarah Schulman
CONFLICT IS NOT ABUSE: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair
Sarah Shulman is a novelist, playwright, historian, educator, and activist. On March 18, 2017, she read from and discussed her recent nonfiction book, Conflict is Not Abuse.
“When we abdicate our own responsibility in conflict we enhance the power of the State.”
Cecilia Gentili
Jesus Changed My Life
Music performance by Ella Moore
Performer and activist Cecilia Gentili talks about coming of age as a trans woman in Argentina. Her talk was held on March 10, 2017.
“It came to me! UFOs left me there by mistake and I really belonged to a planet where girls like me had penises.”
Julia Jarcho
Negativity (and Theater)
Music performance by Seth Braley and Ilan Bachrach
Playwright and scholar Julia Jarcho uses her distinct identities as experimental playwright and theater scholar as an entry point to consider the notion of negativity as a necessary insistence on difference. Julia spoke on March 18, 2017.
“When I use the word ‘negativity’ I’m not just talking about melancholy and pessimism and anger, all of which obviously I love. I’m also thinking about really any kind of insistence on difference.”
Talia Kwartler
The First Papers of Women
Music Performance by Ella Moore
On March 10, 2017, art historian and MoMA curatorial assistant Talia Kwartler proposed a feminist intervention to Duchamp’s “First papers of Surrealism.”
“Every one of us plays a role in telling a more equitable history of Modernism.”
Isaiah Quinones
Queer, Poor, and A Lot to Perform
On March 8, 2017, performer and theater artist Isaiah Quinones spoke about navigating art spaces within the frameworks of intersectionality and class.
“When you are queer and you are poor, you have to set aside one of your identities to affirm the other.”
Karen Sherman
From K-Hole to Glory Hole
Music Performance by Enver Chakartash, Ilan Bachrach, Seth Braley, Eben Hoffer
On March 17, 2017, choreographer Karen Sherman spoke about glass blowing, attempted murder, sensory palettes, and problematic language paradigms in a consideration of dance in the current museum moment.
“I get tired of saying ‘visual art world,’ instead of just ‘art world’—but if I don’t make the distinction you might think dance was separate from art.”
