Sept 13 | 'I Want a President' Collective Reading at Anacostia Arts Center -- Free!
What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see
in government that seems impossible from where we stand now?
I Want a President...(a collective reading - DC)
A public art project to reimagine presidential politics
Writing workshop at the Anacostia Arts Center
1231 Good Hope Rd SE
Tuesday 9/13, 6-8pm
FREE!
RSVP online HERE.
The first collective reading of I want a president… was initiated by Swedish artists Malin Arnell, Kajsa Dahlberg, Johanna Gustavsson and Fia-Stina Sandlund in 2010. Faced with a general election that brought an explicitly fascist, racist and homophobic party into the Swedish parliament, they turned to Leonard’s 1992 battle cry against American political indifference to the AIDS crisis and systemic inequality. In collaboration with Leonard, they adapted her text into Swedish, and on the day before the election, gathered over a hundred concerned citizens in a square in Stockholm to read the two texts together. This first action inspired a series of invitations from other countries facing critical elections, from Estonia to Puerto Rico to the United Kingdom, where readings have been organized. The D.C. reading will be the eleventh in this series, and returns Leonard’s text to the U.S. context at a time of increasing disillusionment with electoral politics. The project aims to create spaces for dialogue, outside the frustrations of the status quo, about how to collectively expand the horizons of political possibility and give voice to shared desires for something better. The workshops focus on adapting the text for a new moment, asking what has changed and what has stayed the same since Leonard first typed, “I want a dyke for president.” The D.C. reading will also include Spanish versions of the texts, affirming a multilingual America.
I want a president… (a collective reading - DC) is being produced with curatorial support from Furthermore and in collaboration with Anacostia Arts Center, Creative Time Summit, the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University, The Coven DC, the DC Public Library Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pleasant Plains Workshop, Potter’s House, Transformer, Visual AIDS, and a growing list of community partners.
For press inquiries & high res images, please contact Saisha Grayson, iwantapresidentdc@gmail.com, or 917.561.3655.
For up-to-date schedule & project info, visit the website; register for workshops at Facebook & follow @iwantapresident on Twitter/Instagram.