Forward Union Fair 2017
An annual social action info fair, bringing together diverse activist organizations, topical art installations, and public programs.
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11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
DIEGO DE LA VEGA COFFEE CO-OP WITH ARTISTS FRAN ILICH AND GABRIELA CEJA
The Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op offers organic coffee sourced locally in Chiapas from Zapatista autonomous farms. Cups of coffee can be traded for alternative currency, barter, and time deposits as well as voluntary money donations.
Their goal is to connect anti-capitalist social movements in New York City with their pairs in Chiapas to create a horizontal financial flow between them.
11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
"UNTITLED" (PORTRAITS OF IMMIGRANTS IN LIMBO)
Artist Andrea Arrubla will make a corner pile of hand-painted cardboard Social Security cards, referencing the candy pile portraits made by artist Felix Gonzalez Torres, while reminding viewers of the pressing immigration crisis in America. Each time this piece is shown publicly, more cardboard cards are created for the pile. While Gonzalez Torres asked viewers to think about the decay of his partner’s body as it was ravaged by AIDS in “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in LA) — Arrubla asks us to consider the growing body of humans trying to be seen and recognized as valuable citizens within our country.
11:00 AM
PROTEST POETRY WORKSHOP
11:35 AM
FROM THE GALLERY TO THE CLASSROOM: LOOKING AT THE ENDURING LEGACY OF SCHOOL SEGREGATION
Curator and former educator Katie Fuller will lead a conversation with artist and special education teacher Uraline Septembre Hager. They will share their experiences and perspectives on teaching in segregated New York City public schools and how their first-hand experiences have inspired them to use art to advocate for education equity.
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
ALT_BREAK ART FAIR PRESENTS A WORKSHOP WITH ARTIST VANESSA ALBURY
Vanessa Albury invites participants to work with clay and consider our relationships within the natural world and how artists use materials from nature or interpret natural phenomena in order to create symbolic narratives. In her work, Albury uses nature as material, collaborating with the natural environment to document the symbolic essence of the majestic things around us before they’re lost forever.
12:10 PM
ASSEMBLY
Artist Shaun Leonardo, accompanied by Assembly youth, will lead a public-participatory presentation informed by the Assembly curriculum and co-created by program collaborators.
Operating out of the Recess satellite space in Downtown Brooklyn, Assembly is at once a public storefront gallery and an artist-led diversion program for court-involved youth in partnership with Brooklyn Justice Initiatives. Assembly seeks to dismantle the dominant narratives of the “criminal” through a series of workshops designed by artists Melanie Crean, Sable Smith, and Shaun Leonardo, in collaboration with individuals who are court-involved, formerly incarcerated, or otherwise affected by the criminal justice system. Through a curriculum based on visual storytelling, participants translate personal narratives into performance in order to replace a culturally embedded conception of criminality with new language, so that the mind and body may think, feel, and move in a way not defined by their previous experience with arrest and incarceration.
1:05 PM
ON CLASS: CRITICAL PRACTICES AND THE PEOPLE’S CULTURAL PLAN PRESENT LATABLERONDE
What are the myriad ways the art world benefits from inequity? What comes into focus if we examine the connections between philanthropy, capitalism, class, and the arts? How might we dismantle, re-envision, and restructure the relationships of of philanthro-capitalism, the art world, artists and culture workers, and to what ends?
LaTableRonde (LTR) is an unmoderated forum for the discussion of contemporary social and cultural issues. The outcome of an LTR is the ideas and concepts that each participant helped to formulate, contributed to, and acquired through the means of exchange itself.
The People's Cultural Plan is a collective of artists, cultural workers, and activists responding to the city's first cultural plan. Their 17-page document based on the commitment to reparations and against persistent disenfranchising and displacement of communities of color is divided into three parts: Housing & Displacement, Labor Equity, and Funding Equity.
Critical Practices, Inc. (CPI) is an all-volunteer non-profit founded in 2010 and incorporated in 2012. CPI was established to support the emergence and development of new practices within the field of critical cultural production. Critical Practices, Inc. provides platforms for the exchange of diverse points of view necessary for the evaluation of critical, theoretical, and practical objectives that currently impact cultural production. By promoting self-reflectivity, and self-criticality, CPI calls into question the increasingly normalized conditions and terms of corporate culture’s definition of creativity, criticality, and opposition.
2:45 PM
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WITH LESLIE CAGAN
3:30 PM
COMEDY HOSTED BY RIVER RAMIREZ
Amy Zimmer is a comedian and writer, based in New York. She performs at venues all over New York City, and has performed at the Upright Citizen's Brigade, the Annoyance Theatre, Ars Nova, BHQFU, The Cinderblock Comedy Festival, MoMA PS1, and the Brooklyn Museum. She hosts a monthly variety called "That Was Fantastic" at New Women Space in Brooklyn. Her work and writing has been featured in McSweeney’s, Reductress, The New York Television Festival, and The New Yorker. She is so deeply online: @oneamyzimmer on Twitter and _aezimmer on Instagram.
Eudora Peterson is a comedian from New Jersey, but she performs in New York because the rules there are much more lax. For example: in New York, you can be a prop comic and people will still respect you, even if you don't have credits. That said, she's been featured on Splitsider, Jezebel, The Huffington Post, and she's never used a prop during a performance. Never.
Patti Harrison is a comedian, actor, and writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her television credits include appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "Broad City," and TBS's "Search Party." She is also featured in Paul Feig's upcoming film "A Simple Favor." Her work can also be seen on MTV, Comedy Central, Billboard.com, VICELAND, Conde Nast's "The Scene," and Seriously.TV. She's been called "Upsettingly funny" by Time Out New York, and featured in write-ups in The New York Times, Vulture, Splitsider, A.V Club, Paste Magazine, and more. She cohosts the monthly live comedy show "It's a Guy Thing" at Union Hall. She is tarnsgarnder!!!!!
River Ramirez is an artist, comedian, performer, and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. They’ve appeared on VICELAND and Adult Swim. They’ve performed at Caroline's, UCB, Ars Nova, The Special without Brett Davis, The Chris Gethard Show, The Annoyance Theatre, BHQFU, The Cinderblock Comedy Festival, and The Brooklyn Comedy Festival. They has exhibited their work at Family Business Gallery, The Living Gallery, Cloud City, and The Experiment Comedy Gallery and contributed to VICE's The Creators Project and Cracked.
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
LEAGUE OF KITCHENS
Join Lisa Gross, Founder/CEO, Sonya Kharas, Program Manager, and Yamini Joshi for a conversation about the business that Conde Nast Traveler called “quite possibly the coolest foodie thing to do in NYC whether you're a visitor or local." Delicious homemade Indian snacks will be provided!
The League of Kitchens is a unique cooking school in NYC where immigrants teach intimate cooking workshops in their homes and participants encounter a new culture, cuisine, and neighborhood with every experience. Each class offers opportunities for meaningful connection and social interaction, cultural engagement and exchange, culinary learning and discovery, and exceptional eating and drinking.
4:00 PM
BAR OPENS
Refreshments by donation!
4:00 PM
PERFORMANCE BY THE MOVING COMPANY
Performance art ensemble, The Moving Company, will work in the public space of the fair to create a temporary sculpture dealing with empathy.
Led by Tamar Ettun, The Moving Company strives to develop an inter-media genre of performance that originates from and expands the definitions of dance and sculpture: non-dance dance, performance art that can be read in sculptural terms, and sculptures that talk back to post-modern dance. TMC hopes to contribute to expanding performance art to include creation of social spaces and temporary communities where people can interact and connect to one another on an immediate human level. TMC is a new model which invites an ever-growing roster of participants and serves as a laboratory for movement research and partnerships.
4:30 PM
PUERTO RICO: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
A discussion regarding the repercussions of Puerto Rico's colonization, the impact of the Jones Act, and current policy decisions that negatively impact growth and sustainability for the island's economic and cultural future. Participants will include the United Confederation of Taino People and Baruch College's Department of Black and Latino Studies. Additional prompts for discussion: "Why are there so many Puerto Ricans in New York?" and "How did Justin Bieber win a Latin Grammy for Despacito?"
5:15 PM
GENTRIFICATION, HISTORIC PRESERVATION, AND THE FATE OF NEW YORK CITY
Moderator: Patrick Waldo, Masters Candidate for Historic Preservation, Pratt Institute
Guest: Michael Henry Adams, Executive Director, Save Harlem Now!
As the forces of gentrification continue to threaten communities of color, how can the tools of historic preservation protect neighborhoods like Harlem? Can landmarking buildings and creating historic districts help fight displacement? And what role does race play in what buildings and neighborhoods we choose to preserve?
6:00 PM
EL SALÓN, FORWARD UNION EDITION
In this edition, El Salón founders will facilitate a discussion with the audience and invited special guests around the topic of monuments: past, present, and future.
El Salón is a series of curated dinners with the aim to start conversations that contextualize artists, collectives, creative endeavors, personal journeys, and histories. The open forum allows for conversations to be an active response to socio-political systems, materiality, and cultural exchange--especially among underrepresented and marginalized folks.
7:00 PM
CHRIS TYLER AS PROJECT VERITAS'S JAIME T. PHILLIPS
Chris Tyler is a performing artist examining the intersections of popular culture, collective action and digital identity. Recent projects include the ongoing MAKE AMERICA series (Ars Nova), TOXIC IF SWALLOWED (Ars Nova, New Ohio, Irondale) and flesh failure (The Civilians' R&D Group). His performance style has been called “equal parts hilarious and chilling” (Fusion) and “precise-yet-butchered” (Out Magazine). Follow him @NOTCHRISTYLER.
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11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
FREE HOT COFFEE / RECOVERY ROAST
John Freyer’s Free Hot Coffee bike will serve Recovery Roast coffee to attendees. Freyer’s work offers a unique opportunity to engage people in recovery with broader publics, emphasizing creative expression as means of assisting in the recovery process and reducing the social stigma and isolation associated with individuals struggling with addiction. It also revives the simple yet meaningful practice of face-to-face dialogue ‒ a growing rarity in an increasingly technologically mediated world. Freyer’s consideration of these elements of health and wellness speaks to the interdisciplinary and socially-engaged nature of his work.
11:00 AM
FORWARD UNION OPEN FORUM
Hear from the coalition of causes participating in the fair: what they do, what they need, and how you can help.
11:45 AM
RAP ON RACE WITH RICE
Artist Dominique Duroseau will facilitate an interactive discussion as performance, inviting participants to separate black and white rice from each other as they discuss issues of race and racism.
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
FOR HER OWN GOOD, PARTICIPATORY PERFORMANCE WITH OFRI CNAANI
“Have you ever been told to stay silent for your own good?” In this participatory performance, artist Ofri Cnaani sits down with visitors to share and exchange personal silencing stories.
"Like a note from a self-help booklet, the stories convey some useful everyday tactics of how to communicate a message in the face of conditions that silence the spoken voice, despite oppression and against all odds," writes curator Shirly Bahar. The ever-growing archive of silencing stories was originated as part of Cnaani's project at AJHS that retells three months in the life of feminist and anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and marks 100 years since the trial that sent her - then "the most dangerous woman alive" - to exile. The piece highlights Goldman’s legacies as an activist whose speech and free thoughts were her only weapons, and as a voice that remains unpopular and challenging even after 100 years.
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
THIS IS NOT A GUN
Artist Cara Levine and creative producer Jade Thacker will lead a participatory ceramic workshop alongside Jessica Angima and Jen Martínez-Lynch, founders of MNDFL Meditation POC group.
A sandwich is not a gun. A hairbrush is not a gun. A wallet is not a gun.
These items come from a list of 23 objects that have been mistaken for guns by police officers in civilian shootings since 2001. The workshop encourages participants to give presence to these objects, calling attention to their not-gun-ness by sculpting their shape in clay. This Is Not A Gun endeavors to carve out time and space to site these issues within our own bodies and stories, without presuming a total understanding of this historically dense and complicated crisis. This gathering upholds a non-judgemental space for sharing amongst anyone who participates. Please join in an effort to honor and unpack what is before us through a collaborative art-making workshop and dialogue. All materials are provided. Drop-ins are welcome, and you are encouraged to stay a while.
12:45 PM
ART AND COMMUNITY: RESPONDING TO AND PREVENTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Moderator: Chauntel Gerdes, LMSW Mount Sinai Beth Israel Victim Services Program
Participants: Emma Sulkowicz, artist; Annie Malamet, artist; Sarah Sandman, artist; Jillian White, documentarian and political educator
This panel will explore the relationship of art to activism and ways the creative process can reflect both individual and collective narratives around sexual violence and other forms of harm. We will be discussing how art can help communities cultivate dialogue to respond to, prevent, and heal from harm.
1:45 PM
BRICK X BRICK: THE MAKING OF A MOVEMENT
Brick x Brick co-founder Sarah Sandman will describe how a small participatory performance art project transformed into a nationwide movement.
Brick x Brick is a public art performance that builds human “walls” against misogyny. During the wall performances, participants wear brick-patterned jumpsuits adorned with colorful brick patches bearing statements of misogynistic violence made by Donald Trump. Placing divisive words on the jumpsuits is a symbol of the performers' resistance and determination to maintain control over their bodies. Brick x Brick is a project by Public Displays of Affection (PDA), a collective of artists, designers, educators, and organizers that engages in nonviolent direct art action. Current members include Andrea Lauer, Nikki Juen, Katy Kirby, and Sarah Sandman.
1:50 PM
THE WALL IN ACTION
Put on a jumpsuit and join the Brick x Brick team for a silent performance against Trump and misogyny.
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
WELLNESS GATHERING STATION
Shervone Neckles, assisted by Rashiida Richardson, will facilitate conversation around wellness that includes the creation of teas with participants.
The Creative Wellness Gathering Station is a social experiment that channels the knowledge and wisdom of Neckles’s community to recall remedies and natural methods folks use to heal and cure everyday ailments. Together with local residents, Neckles is interested in forming a collaborative process that uses lively conversation and interactive demonstrations with the sampling, mixing, and blending of loose herbs and spices on the cart to address health and wellness issues directly affecting the neighborhood. It brings together a variety of experiences, values, and notions completely motivated by genuine inquiry, meaning, and positive intention.
2:30 PM
AMANDA LITMAN: RUN FOR SOMETHING
Amanda Litman will read from her book, Run for Something. She is the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, a PAC that helps recruit and support young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office. Previously, she was the email director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, digital director for Charlie Crist's 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign, deputy email director for Organizing for Action, and an email writer for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
2:55 PM
ARTIST CAMPAIGN SCHOOL
Reynaldo Piniella, David Gottfried
The Artist Campaign School, a new initiative from Fractured Atlas, will train artists in the practical skills necessary to successfully run for elected office. The Artist Campaign School wants candidates to run for political office anywhere from local school boards to zoning councils and city councils, to the statehouse and even county sheriff — any position that allows the officeholder to help determine the policies that will impact the lives of the residents of a city or district. Artists new to the retail political arena will be trained in skills such as targeting voters, message development, media interaction, fundraising, developing a campaign online presence, scheduling, and staffing.
3:35 PM
BLACK GOTHAM EXPERIENCE WITH KAMAU WARE
Imagining forward, Kamau Ware will lead a workshop creating a character of 2117.
The Black Gotham Experience started in 2010 as a visual and physical intervention in the cityscape combining history and visual storytelling to bring New York’s Black heritage into public consciousness. The initial walking tour was organized into three unique stories: Other Side of Wall Street (1609-1699), Caesar’s Rebellion (1700 – 1781), and Citizen Hope (1782-1883). In 2015, the Experience was further extended when production began on a graphic novel series to complement the walking tours and add the missing visuals of Black life in New York City.
4:30 PM
HEALING MUSIC FOR A TROUBLED WORLD
Performing healing music as the Black Rock Negative Energy Absorbers: Artist Rudy Shepherd (as the Healer) and his son Rhys Shepherd on midi controller, Theremin, and various noise making objects; Brian Alfred on guitar; Elia Einhorn (Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Fashion Brigade) on keyboards; and Christof Knoche on bass clarinet. This performance will serve as a catharsis for all involved, using the power of art to reinvigorate people to get out and continue doing the work that needs to be done, to resist and insist on equal rights and justice for all people.
Participating Organizations
Participating Artists
Slinko
Athena Soules
This Is Not A Gun
Chris Tyler
Justin Valdes
Cultural Partners
ART OMI
Recess
Spring Break Art Show
Supporters
NURTUREart
Time Equities Inc.
Anonymous, Rikki Asher, Mr Billot, Chelsea Wells Butterfield Branch, Sonya Burke, Laura Burton, Chris Butterick, Susan and Greg Clark, Frank Coluccio, Seth Coston, CreativeMornings/SP, Emie Diamond, Kristen Dodge, Stacylyn Doore, JiaJia Fei, Flux Factory, Sarah Garvey, Lauren Gibbons, Jesse Gill, Paul Gottsegen, Dave Harper, Monica Hebein, Patton Hindle, Christopher K. Ho, Birdie Rose Hudson, Nene Humphrey, Joshua Jabbour, Alden Rivendale Jones, Mary Dama Mann Jones, Paul Katz, Leah Kaye, John Keabler, Ambre Kelly + Andrew Gori, Kath King, Michael Kleiman, Marci Kwon & David Reilly, Kathy and Michael Lamensdorf, Kevin Yong-Moon Lee, Victoria Liu, Katherine Maxwell, Johnny Mayall, Mari Rodriguez Binnie, Nat Roe, Lili Rusing, SEPTEMBER, Kate Seabury, Rachel Selekman, Daniel Sharp, John Shen, Mary Shen, James Turnbull, Jaime Young, Nichole van Beek and Justin Valdes
Founders
Julia Clark
Lauren M Jones
Jennie Lamensdorf
Rachel Nackman
Holly Shen
Team
Maggie Albert
Heather Bhandari
Abbie Hebein
Elizabeth Masters
Noam Segal
Rachel Selekman
Nichole Van Beek
Grace Earle
Allison Kadin
Becky Laughner
Nicole Rodill
Lauren Seiden
Lauren Thorpe
