Vijay Iyer: The What of the World
Archived Event
No Longer Showing.
The Kitchen presents Vijay Iyer’s residency, The What of the World, for which he has assembled artists across musical disciplines to explore what he calls the “affective archaeology” of systemic racism. This multifaceted residency is an exploration, from many perspectives, of how racial oppression feels. Iyer’s residency features a series of evening performances, as well as Iyer’s new sound installation—titled How the Spotlight Sounds, with texts by Garnette Cadogan, author of “Walking While Black”—playing throughout the week.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS & SCHEDULE
MONDAY, JUNE 25
Sara Serpa:
Recognition
7pm, FREE
Portuguese vocalist Sara Serpa presents
TUESDAY, JUNE 26
Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
12pm-5pm, FREE Installation
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
6-7:30pm, FREE installation
Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith / Ganavya
& Rajna
8pm, $25/$20 members
Iyer joins trumpeter-composer and creative music icon Wadada Leo Smith in a duo work, Deep Time: American Meditations, a series of musical tableaux memorializing the ongoing struggle for equality. Vocalist Ganavya Doraiswamy and percussionist Rajna Swaminathan present new work at the nexus of Indian musical traditions and creative music, reflecting “on whiteness and the various alchemies of power.”
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
12pm-1:30pm, FREE
Mike Ladd: Blood Black and Blue / Imani Uzuri: WILD COTTON
8pm, $25/$20 members
Poet/producer Mike Ladd joins Iyer, poet Ursula Rucker, producer/emcee Hprizm, vocalist Imani Uzuri, and musicians Marvin Sewell and Kassa Overall in Blood Black and Blue, “a contemporary story about encounters of police of color with victims of the same race,” based on dozens of interviews with African Americans in law enforcement. Vocalist-composer Imani Uzuri presents WILD COTTON, a meditation on “the undocumented soundscapes of enslaved Black-American ancestors that still haunt us today.”
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
11am-3:15pm, FREE
Himanshu Suri: Kebab Uncle / Arooj Aftab: Bird Under Water / Latasha N. Nevada Diggs: Trix are for Kids
8pm, $25/$20 members
Queens indie rapper Himanshu Suri and Arooj Aftab collaborate with Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily, and Kassa Overall on Kebab Uncle, an incendiary memoir of being brown in post-9/11 New York. Pakistani American vocalist Aftab is joined by Iyer andIsmaily to perform excerpts from Bird Under Water, her latest album that undulates and scintillates with dark post-pop meets mystic muse. Poet and sound artist Latasha N. Nevada Diggs performs a solo set entitled Trix Are for Kids of “black and brown poetics that are never basic.”
This residency is presented as part of The Racial Imaginary Institute: On Whiteness. For more information about the exhibition and other programs please see our website.
The Racial Imaginary Institute: On Whiteness is made possible with support from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Poetry Foundation, Valerie Dillon & Daniel R Lewis, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Leslie Fritz; annual grants from Howard Gilman Foundation, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Special thanks to the Korein Foundation and the MacDowell Colony.
Photo: Barbara Rigon
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