Welcome to Judson Arts’ Spring 2024 Season!
All performances take place in Judson’s Meeting Room,
accessible at the 243 Thompson St. entrance,
with doors and free food at 6:30pm and art at 8:00pm.
Coming up:
5/8 Black Aesthetics - Chloe Marie
5/15 Black Aesthetics - Crackheadbarney
5/22 METRA by The Hartfords
5/29 - OPERA: SITE by Luc Vitková
6/5 Black Aesthetics - Amina Ibrahim & Reason Wade
6/12 NO EVENT
6/19 Black Aesthetics - Malcolmx Betts
+++ May 8 +++
6:30pm Free food + Doors | 7:30pm Show
Afraid of the Abstract
by Chloe Marie
Curated by Malcolmx Betts & Arien Wilkerson as part of the Black Aesthetics Series
This performance explores being bound to an eternity of self-exploration. Dance helps process fear, music and sound frame the external atmosphere. I am catapulted into a realm of introspection, where shadows of uncertainty intertwine with the luminosity of discovery. Within this enigmatic piece, each step becomes a testament to resilience, indicative of the human spirit's capacity to transcend survival. Through the volatility of movement and the resonance of space, fragments of identity coalesce to present humanness. It is within this realm of introspection that I find solace, a sanctuary amidst the tumultuous cadence of life.
Genre: Existential Dance Theater
Performance by Chloe Marie @saturn_as_a_girl
Chloe Marie is a multi-disciplinary artist based on the Lenni Lenape Land also known as Philadelphia. In 2013, Chloe moved to Philadelphia to attend The University of the Arts where they received their BFA in 2017. While at UARTS they worked with artists of varying styles of performance and technique. Chloe currently collaborates with multiple artists in Philadelphia and occasionally teaches. Chloe realizes the immense privilege they have to live life as an artist; they are extremely thankful for those in their life who continue to support and care for them.
Music/Sound by Lee Clarke @leeclarkeonline
Lee Clarke is a producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Philadelphia. Early musical experiences with his grandmother, a NYU-trained pianist, paved the way for formal study in jazz and synthesizers at University of the Arts. Inspired by depth explorations in harmony and beat-making through the works of Stevie Wonder and J Dilla, he went on to arrange and produce for artists in the Philadelphia and New York areas. Projects with long term collaborators Kingsley Ibeneche and Ivy Sole have been featured on Pitchfork, NPR, The Fader, okayplayer and Afropunk. HIs first solo project, Off Nights, was released on Astro Nautico in 2020. His latest project Genes, a beat tape, draws on themes of memory, degradation and the evolution of sound and bloodlines.
+++ May 15 +++
6:30pm Free food + Doors | 7:30pm Show
A Venereal Encounter with the Qanon Shaman on a Hill in Arizona
by Crackhead Barney
Curated by Malcolmx Betts & Arien Wilkerson as part of the Black Aesthetics Series
This satirical investigative journalism project, directed by and starring Crackhead Barney, is an extensive interview she conducted with Jake Chansley, aka the Qanon Shaman. Chansley became a notorious face for the Jan. 6 attack after storming into the Capitol bare-chested, face painted, in a fur headdress with horns. Barney and the Shaman speak together about a wide array of topics as they hike North Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona in mid December 2023. Crackhead Barney initially met the QAnon Shaman in Washington DC back in December 2020 before the January 6th insurrection occurred. He had rocketed to fame due to his absurd presentation as the media interviewed him many times and Crackhead Barney honed in on him as fodder for her ambush interview channel. After the insurrection and the whole world witnessed the brazen attack on the United States Capitol, the QAnon Shaman was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. After he was released from prison in mid 2023, Barney, to everybody's great surprise, was able to get him to agree to meet for a follow-up interview to shed light on his experiences leading up to the insurrection as well as the consequences he faced after the riot and what he is planning moving forward. Crackhead Barney conducted the interview dressed as a cow. She painted her butt and her lips white and had balloons inflated in her bra that made her breasts look enormous. The film takes a deep dive into the motivations and the ideas behind the wild character that took over the media leading up to January 6 and on the day of the insurrection itself. Barney expertly pushes the Shaman's buttons and gets him to express his ideas about race, politics, BLM, Antifa, Palestine, economics, and many other topics in an offhanded way that is captivating from start to finish. MAAF funding will support the post-production and public presentation of this work.
Genre: Performance Art
Performance by Crackhead Barney @crackheadbarneyandfriends
Crackheadbarney is a desperate and defiled Performance artist of the 21st century. Many people think that Crackheadbarney is a performer, but she is not rather she is an extraterrestrial from a planet entitled Zorcon. Not only does she not speak the language of earthlings, but she communicates with wild gestures and bombastic movements that has humans enthralled with all that she states. Crackheadbarney has been performing in the planet entitled NEW YORK CITY, where she sees and observes people who don’t act or talk like her but feel like her. As a visitor to the United States of America, Crackheadbarney likes to play, hide, and seek out her ideas and try to understand these ways of the humans who have compelled her to try and understand their needs to be seen and understood. Crackheadbarney plans to run for president in the 2024 election because she feels that since other clowns are running she might as well too!
Music/Sound by Jacob Cohen @rabbistravinsky
Jacob Cohen is a Brooklyn-based experimental cellist, instrument maker, visual artist, and educator. He began playing the cello in 1995 and over the years has developed a unique improvisational style that grew out of his days as a street performer in New York City. He brings the cello into non-traditional spaces and adapts the sound to fit any environment, putting performer and observer in a trance together that disrupts the routines of life and brings focus to the present. Cohen’s music was featured in the 2014 film Foxcatcher which was nominated for 5 grammy awards. From 2014-2018 He ran a music program for youth incarcerated at Rikers Island Correctional Center. He brought his cello into the jail and facilitated jam sessions and performed for the youth, but also drew portraits of them which were exhibited at the Queens Museum in 2018 in a solo show titled “Dispatches from the Ghost Ship.” In 2020 he and a group of activists founded the Free Prakash Alliance with the goal of getting murder charges against Prakash Churaman dropped. At the age of 15 Churaman had been accused of a murder in Queens he did not commit and interrogated for hours before making a false confession with no lawyer present. All chargers against Churaman were dropped on June 8, 2022.
Crackhead Barney at Wave Farm