Video Previews of May Day Artists for your viewing pleasure!
More about CounterPULSE’s 4th Annual May Day Festival here:
W. Kamau Bell (Fri.)
Flyaway Productions (Fri.)
Jess Curtis/ Gravity (Sat.)
KUNST-STOFF (Sat.)
Katya Smirnoff-Skyy (Sat.)
Fauxnique (Sun.)
Scott Wells (Sun.)
Sara Shelton Mann (Sun.)
More about CounterPULSE’s 4th Annual May Day Festival here:
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Seth and Remy - Photo by Adam Paulson By Seth Eisen In 2006 after Remy Charlip had a stroke I was given the
As you may or may not know, today is Giving Tuesday. A day where we can repent with our dollar, and generate enough warm fuzzies
A colleague of mine, Katharine Hawthorne, came to our recent work-in-progress showing and asked me a few questions about the work. Below is our interview
Has Kirk Read really been banned from CounterPULSE? Say it isn’t true! I’m almost – but not quite – speechless. And totally scared at what this portends for one of SF’s true open spaces.
I saw his smart and sassy send-up of the hysterical idolatry that arose around the Obama campaign at the Center for Sex and Culture on 4/18. (You go CSC!) Who exactly are you afraid of offending? What (presumably monied) toes are you afraid to step on? WTF!
I have to assume that I’m missing something here and I will continue to believe that C/P is one of the City’s most amazing and important revolutionary resources and cultural incubators. But please, help me understand this distasteful fly in the ointment.
Regards, Mark
Mark McBeth
415.235.9130
Good morning Mark,
Thanks for sharing your concerns, but Kirk has definitely not been banned from CounterPULSE– not even close! We had a long discussion about Kirk’s piece, and ultimately felt that in order to present the content responsibly, we needed to give it better context– not the tiny 8-minute slot in a packed program with no introduction or post-show discussion. It didn’t seem fair to his piece or the audience to plop it down without supporting it better, an we didn’t have enough notice to build it in to the program in ameaningful way.
We’re not afraid of “stepping on monied toes”… or any toes for that matter! But when we’re dealing with issues of race in a diverse audience, it’s important to do it in a way that preserves not only freedom of speech, but the freedom and safety of self-expession for ALL the performers. Our job at CounterPULSE is to create a free space for expression for ALL of our artists, and for me choosing the right context is an important part of creating and permanently maintaining that freedom. It’s a tricky balance, and we’re really doing our best.
I personally am excited to present this piece, and am in discussions with Kirk right now about the possibilities of presenting an “Obama free speech” performance later this summer, which could spur even more dialogue. I’d also like to make my dialogue with Kirk public, and we may do that on this blog soon with his permission.
Thanks for you concern– as a community space, it’s important to have community voices to “keep us honest”…. keep it up!
Warmly,
Jessica