Watch Rebecca Kelly-G of Theater of the Oppressed NYC leading a workshop on participatory and legislative theater.
A Pressing Conference collaborated with curator Helen Toomer to bring the project to Spring Break in Times Square. Over the course of the week, hundreds of people took part in open mic hours and captured statements to share with #apressingconference. There were also performances and speakers curated by Macon Reed twice a day, all offering resources for staying engaged in times of political crisis. From Theater of the Oppressed NYC leading games for problem-solving, dancers inviting the public to dance, lectures on ethics in our time, and artist-led meditations on eating breakfast with “terrorists,” each of these unique events aimed to bring diverse participants into the project. Performers included Adira Amram, Eva Boodman, Baris Gokturk, the First Hundred Days project, Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow, Aquilles Holladay, Rebecca KellyG (Theater of The Oppressed NYC), Amy Khoshbin, Jonah King, Zavé Martohardjono, Emily Oliviera, and Mackenzie Zev Reynolds.
Adira Amram performs improvised songs responding to political concerns raised by audience members.
Dancer Aquilles Holladay energizes the crowd to get out of their chairs and dance with each other. His performance was inspired by lesson #12 from Timothy Snyder’s text On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century, “Make eye contact and small talk.”
Volunteers read selections from First 100 Days, a book project created by thirteen writers journaling over the course of the first one hundred days of the Trump presidency.
Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow presenting on her viral guide to surviving a Trump presidency, “Oh Crap! What Now?”
Audience member Maya posing after reading a poem from the podium by Langston Hughes, entitled “Let America Be America Again.”
Artist Amy Khoshbin created the first of her series of guided audio political meditations, “A Moment With Amy,” for A Pressing Conference. Every day, people were invited to sit in the installation for a performative mediation on the artist's creative responsibility to make change.
Artist Emily Oliviera performed original songs in English and Brazilian protest songs in Portuguese in response to the prompt from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, “Do not obey in advance".”
Performance artist Zavé Martohardjono giving an “anti-electoral and anti-paramilitary populist poetic lecture on how not to obey.”
Art critic Jerry Saltz visiting A Pressing Conference.
Philiosophy Professor Eva Boodman discussing difficult ethical questions that rise under authoritarian regimes.
Curator Helen Toomer (left) and artist Macon Reed (right) in collaboration to bring A Pressing Conference to Spring Break in Times Square.
Audience members taking the podium during Spring Break, posting them with the hashtag #apressingconference