Saturday, October 29th 6 pm to 12 am

Join Recession Art and the artists of American Idolatry for our biggest bash of the season!  Featuring…

Performance: Danielle Abrams and Rance Palmer perform works for American Idolatry.

Danielle Abrams, video still “Early Bird” (2004)

Danielle Abrams, Gil Scott Heron could have been my Daddy

Gil Scott Heron was a poet and musician idolized for his sympathetic and mobilizing lyrics.  The song for which he is best recognized is The Revolution Has Not Been Televised – an anthem of many social protest movements in the early 70s. There have been many conversations about Gil Scott Heron’s early music surrounding his recent death.  Little has been said, however, about his groundbreaking work,  The Subject Was Faggots. Heron describes witnessing a queue of gay men and drag queens that are about to enter the “faggot ball”.  Although Heron’s words carry the predictable bite of homophobia, his moments of chuckling and speechlessness reveal sophomoric fascination and desire.

In my performance, I will be accompanied by my father, Gil Scott Heron’s contemporary who is also a human rights activist.  We will apply make up and adorn each other with feathers and jewelry, recalling the scene that initially confused Heron. At our “faggot ball”, my father and I will reshape the contours of Heron’s masculinity as well as our own.  In our adornment of feminine accessories, we will delve into the pleasure of playing with gender roles.  Make up will free us from the racist cast upon African-Americans with light skin.

Danielle Abrams‘ practice began in painting and installation and now encompasses performance and social engagement. Her works address the themes of cross-cultural history, bi-racial identity, and popular culture. She performs as her multiracial cast of family members, and incites participatory extravaganzas. From her New York City lineage of Jewish toomlers and bubbies, and African-American ancestry from the South, emerge a blend of personae that subvert a one-dimensional portrait. Abrams has performed at a wide range of art spaces, galleries, festivals, and museums including the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Jewish Museum (NY), Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum of Art, Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, The Kitchen, WOW Café Theater, and the Intervene! Interrupt! Conference. She is the former director of the San Francisco performance space BUILD (Performance. Art.Objects.). She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA),Urban Artist Initiative, Skowhegan School of Art, and Yale School of Painting. Abrams teaches at York College (CUNY) and at the MFA Program for Interdisciplinary Art at Goddard College.

Rance Palmer, 2011

Rance Palmer grew up in Minneapolis, MN and began experimenting with drag at a very early age. He received his BA in Visual Arts and Photography from Hampshire College in Western MA where he also developed his new drag persona, Jizzy Canal, a celebrated film actress of Hollywood’s golden era who lives in the present day. By crossing disciplines and media Rance’s drag challenges notions of glamour, femininity, and class. Rance is also a working freelance hair stylist and make up artist in NYC.

Music: DJ’d by WOAHMONE (Nath Ann Carrera, Savannah Knoop, and Nica Ross)

Nathan Ann Carrera has previously performed at Wild Project, in Mx. Justin Vivian Bond’s Re:Galli Blonde (A Sissy Fix), Lustre, and Christmas Spells, Amber Martin’s Amber Alert, Dave End’s F.A.G.G.O.T.S.: The Musical, Emily Nepon’sBetween Two Worlds, Big Art Group’s The Imitation, and Joe’s Pub.

Savannah Knoop is an interdisciplinary story-teller. Through writing, clothing- making, and performance, she explores the notions of perceived image and the prismatic quality of identity. In 1999, at the age of eighteen, she began to lead a double life when her sister-in-law asked her to be the face of her alter ego JT LeRoy. After a reporter for the New York Times unveiled JT in 2006, Savannah published a memoir about the experience titled Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy (Seven Stories Press). In 2001, with architect Parachati Pattajotti, she formed an eco-luxury clothing line called Tinc, followed by a padded underwear project under the moniker Tranc. She performs as the duo Amass, co-directed with Elizabeth Orr. Savannah Knoop currently lives and works in New York City.

Nica Ross- ASS TROLL PROJECTOR/CRISCO DISCO BALL. A Visualist via San Francisco, Chicago and Arizona. Grad schoolboy at ICP/BARD. Worked with the likes of The Joshua Light Show, Big Art Group and Matthu Placek.

Refreshments All Night: Thanks to Brooklyn Brewery