FAQ for Performers
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.
What time will you need us in our spots?
By 3:50pm
You can stop by Boom Concepts before you arrive to pick up your package that includes your stipend, the printed out lyrics, and whatever miscellaneous materials I might be supplying for your specific role
Do we have a central headquarters?
Yes. We are doing this with Boom Concepts who is the base camp for the day from 12pm - 9pm. Your materials will be there to pick up before performance and this will be our site after the performance to gather.
Boom Concepts is at 5139 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
What time can we leave?
By 6pm, as long as the film crew has already filmed your section. If they have not reached you yet, please remain in your position until they have come. But remember there is a gathering with food/drink at Boom Concepts for us after the performance.
Do I have to stay in one spot the whole time?
You are free to move about as you wish. Everyone is assigned a street corner but have the freedom of that whole block or street to use if that makes more sense to you.
Do we keep repeating our section over and over or do we sing other sections ?
You are free to take these lyrics and interpret them as you wish. Only a few sections of the route are choreographed and assigned verses to sing. This is a durational performance that allows you to find spaces, places, and ways to interpret the work. It becomes more of a ritual than a performance at a certain point, and the changes and pauses and breaks are natural.
Do I have to perform the whole time?
The piece begins at 4 and ends at 6 (as long as we have already filmed you). Whatever happens within that time is understood as performing. It is improvisational and durational, and you are free to do what you need to during this time. Breaks, stops, pauses, changes, getting up to go the bathroom, etc. is part of the performance.
Will I be able to hear others singing?
I am not sure, maybe if they are really loud. There will be at least one musician (percussionist, Eric) who roves the entire route to come and improvise with you, and possibly others too.
What about the weather?
Right now the forecast is 10% rain. I am hoping we are going to be OK, but if it is raining hard and storming we will have to postpone this because of the sensitive nature of the video and film equipment, and the instruments being used. Raindate is July 31. I will make the call that morning by 11am, and alert everyone through text/email.
Will there be any assistants to help me?
Yes, please let me know if you need assistance setting up, during the performance, or tearing down and I will have someone help you. Also, there will people moving up and down the route to see if anyone needs help throughout the 2 hours.
Post-performance gathering at Boom Concepts
After-performance party at Boom. Lowkey with food and drinks, and an open-mic for those of us who wanted to share the work we did with each other. Since there won't be much of a chance for us to experience it collectively during the performance, this might be a nice time to listen to one another. This will be very relaxed.
How will the public be engaged during the 2 hours?
There will be a free public tour led by Magicorgans Tour Operators (DSK and JM Artistic Duo) and they will come through your station at some point. There will also be anyone else on the street that day, trying to figure out what is going on. I will have printed flyers you can leave for people to pick up so they don't keep asking you what is going on and you can just have a pile to give to people. There will also be people who have come to experience it who are just doing it on their own, without the tour.
Will this be filmed?
Yes this is going to be filmed by at least one film crew, if not two. The footage will become it's own short film that i will edit together after the performance. It is part of a longer work I am making called Wild Clarity, which is a series of site-specific performances turned into short films. There will also be a still photographer shooting the entire work.
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. How to see this is to watch erasure of communities happen, it is what racism looks like on a policy and development scale, it is disturbing and happening fast
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