FAQ for Audience
Where does this all take place?
Along Penn Avenue, from Highland Avenue to Main Street.
This is a 1.5 mile route that we are activating continuously.
On every corner, roughly, there will be another performer or performance.
What is the duration of the piece?
The work goes from 4-6pm on Sunday June 26, 2016.
How can I experience this?
On your own or with a tour.
- The tour leaves from Highland and Penn at 4:15 and will be led by Magicorgans. These two tour guides will narrate and navigate this route with you.
- If you choose to do it on your own, it can be done anyway you want. You can start at Highland and Penn avenue and walk the entire route to Main Street, or start at Main Street and walk to Highland. You can also enter or leave at any section. It is up to you.
Who are the performers that are part of this?
The full list is on the main page for this work. They are all Pittsburgh-based musicians, poets, dancers, performers, and performance artists.
How is this work structured?
Inspired by the performance works from the early 1960's called happenings, this work engages in that same spirit which was to celebrate and activate public spaces as sites for performance in simple, creative, and ephemeral ways.
I gave performers the score (lyrics) and told them to respond to it in whatever ways they wanted. Once I give the performers the score, it is theirs to interpret. This could be to sing the entire song, to sing one verse, to find one line that resonates and turn it into a dance performance, or to take a line and turn it into their own poem. It is infinite, endless, and open-ended to what this will result in.
The only sections that I choreographed are the beginning and end pieces, that take place on Highland Ave and Penn and Main Street and Penn. In these sections, which I consider the book-ends for the piece, the first and last verse of the song is being sung and performed in duet. Because these first and last verses are identical, they create a circular effect wherein the end is the beginning and the beginning is the end.
What exactly is this?
I am thinking of this as a collaborative composition. It is unrehearsed, has never been made before and will never be made again in this exact configuration. This will also be turned into a short film.
What is The Pittsburgh Festival of New Music?
Produced by Alia Musica, one of the premiere contemporary music organizations in Pittsburgh, the second edition of The Pittsburgh Festival of New Music in May 2016 featured world touring soprano Tony Arnold and percussionist Allen Otte, in addition to a premiere by Ken Ueno, and a performance of Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning. 7 events, indoors and out, with multimedia shows and a flashmob of the finale of Stravinsky’s Firebird—celebrating new music, the local scene, and our world-touring guests.
The Long Song was originally scheduled to take place the 3rd Sunday in May, but got rained out. More info can be found here about PFNM.
Will this be filmed?
Yes. The Long Song is one of the site-specific performances I am directing for short film. These are all being made under the title Wild Clarity, which has been in-development while I have been an artist in residence at Pittsburgh Filmmakers for the last year, supported by The Heinz Foundation and The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Where is the score? Where are the lyrics?
This work only exists right now as lyrics. They are here.
Is there anything I can look at as a reference?
I made a video of my own rough rendition of this, you can reference that here if you wish. I do not think I am a very good singer, but it gets the point across from my perspective. Some of the lyrics have since changed from this version I sing/shout/say.
What inspired this work?
My artistic community of Pittsburgh. With certain and specific appreciation, awareness, and insight upon my queer artistic community who behave like radical warriors of justice, love, and equality like no other artists I have ever seen
My community of Pittsburgh, the entire city. Especially, and mostly, for all those who live in this city and are not finding it to be - at all - the most livable city
The Gentrification of East Liberty, Lawrenceville, and all of the East End of this city
The rampant, violence, sexist, homophobic, disease of White Supremacy in this city, county, state, country, world
The ridiculous insanity that people are not more important, and completely more valuable, than bottom-line profits
My own never-ending artistic spirit that wants to overflow daily with the best minds and spirits around me
My own desire to create new experiences through collective, collaborative artworks and performances in public spaces
To create our own alphabet and languages of dialogue that are non-narrative, based in poetry and song and dance and art and music and theater and performance, that become ritual, symbol, visual
The desire to reclaim public spaces for sites of creativity
My true love for writing and singing songs, no matter how long
Every movement for justice, every movement for equality, but especially the Black Lives Matter movement, which is everything and right now
Our spinning earth - green and dying, green and alive