Links in the Time of Corona and Black Lives Matter (June 16)

June 15, 2020: Legally working….the United States Supreme Court Rules that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer workers are a protected class, at last. Sylvester time!

Art: Time and The New Yorker covers this week:

Performance: Juneteenth Celebration at The Greene Space on Friday, June 19 at 7 PM

“This year, we celebrate Juneteenth by highlighting beautiful, urgent and thought-provoking performances and conversations in The Greene Space by Black Americans. We’re revisiting important talks — touching on art and art-making, American history, 21st-century schooling and racial integration, police abuse and much more — and bringing you incredible moments through song, dance and theatre, all curated by our Black staff. Click  Juneteenth

Featuring: musician Mr. Reed, actor Wendell Pierce, tap dance legend Savion Glover, author Isabel Wilkerson, solitary survivor and organizer Mark Hopkins, writer and activist Sonia Sanchez, founder of Raheem AI Brandon Anderson, reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, ballerina Misty Copeland, Ethel’s Club founder Naj Austin, The Honey Bees Double Dutch Team, author Kiley Reid, jazz and experimental singer Melanie Charles, comedian Ike Ufomadu, composer Damien Sneed, philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West, climate change activist Vic Barrett, rapper Yoh, the Morehouse College Glee Club and Wynton Marsalis & Members of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.”

What is Juneteenth? From the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: “Juneteenth marks our country’s second independence day. Though it has long been celebrated among the African American community, it is a history that has been marginalized and still remains largely unknown to the wider public. The legacy of Juneteenth shows the value of deep hope and urgent organizing in uncertain times. This Museum is a community space where that spirit can continue to live on – where histories like this one can surface, and new stories with equal urgency can be told.” 

Kids: La MaMa Kids “A Thing Called…” Thursday June 18 at 4PM (EDT)Puppet Artist Nehprii Amenii will lead children and families in an interactive storytelling session on a thing called Racism …and a thing called the Human Being.

This session will ask our children to help us to imagine…some new things. Materials Needed: Paper and Markers or Crayons

Click Here to register for this interactive storytelling session on ZOOM. You will receive a link before the session to participate on Zoom. Families on Zoom can interact with Nehprii in real time. Space is limited.

Documentary Screening free from PBS until July 4 – The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

“In the turbulent 1960s, change was coming to America and the fault lines could no longer be ignored — cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over equality and civil rights. A new revolutionary culture was emerging and it sought to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that change.  The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature-length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails.” Click Independent Lens

Dance by Northwest Tap Connection to Hell You Talmbout (2015) by Janelle Monáe

Video Art to enthrall you (and your children!) akin to a Rube Goldberg machine. The Way Things Go (German: Der Lauf der Dinge) is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects.

Reveal – now that I’m completely protected in my job by law – first lesbian artist crush! Joan Armatrading Love and Affection, 1976