Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's (PICA) 13th Annual TBA Festival
This annual event includes ten days of art, theater, dance, music, and public programs by international and national artists through the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). PICA would like to invite the CCC and its community members to take part in the festival, as many of the performances and events lift up critical narratives on the politics of race, identity and equity. Click HERE for the full line-up.
CCC Discount Code & Complimentary Tickets:
Visual art and many public programs are free, however PICA wants to ensure that the TBA Festival is accessible for all. PICA has set up a discount code unique to the CCC for 20% off tickets to any mainstage performance, WORKS late-night performance, workshop, or Field Guide program in the festival: CCCtba15. Use this code at time of checkout for online ticket purchases, or in person at the TBA box office (click HERE and scroll down for box office hours). To inquire about the possibility of comp tickets for community and nonprofit groups, contact roya@pica.org. To volunteer for free passes and tickets, contact volunteer@pica.org.
PICA’s recommended events and areas of interest:
Performances:
With Au temps où les Arabes dansaient, Radhouane El Meddeb recalls the atmosphere of early Arabic cinema, playing on the nostalgic revival of past popular forms of dance and music to address themes such as freedom of the body, cultural identity, and the overlapping politics of past and present.
Montreal based choreographer and performer Dana Michel explores the multiplicity of identity in Yellow Towel, a richly complex work that investigates black cultural stereotypes, constructions of normalcy and marginality, challenges of the body, and the variability of communication.
The solo work of Portland based performer keyon gaskin, it’s not a thing, addresses issues of lack radical politics, protest, and the experience of oppression through neo-institutional critique and performative nihilism.
Lectures:
PICA would like to highlight two particular lectures that might be easy to miss, but are sure to be amazing events. These are Sampada Aranke's A Very Brief History of 1970s Black Conceptual Performance (Sat, 9/12, 2pm at PICA) and Marc Bamuthi Joseph's A Seeker's Guide to Black Joy (Wed, 9/16, 6pm at PICA). Both lectures are free and open to the public:
Renowned artist, curator, and educator Marc Bamuthi Joseph will touch on the ethics of hip-hop generation organizing; as the true frontline organizers of the current Black Lives Matter movement are women, gender neutral, or queer, we are faced with the question of how the politics of the dance floor become inert when exposed to the politics of social liberation.
In her politically and artistically timely presentation, Sampada Aranke examines critical and often forgotten works by black conceptual performance artists. Taking the body seriously, these artists engage violent histories against black flesh, while opening up possibilities to imagine a fugitive future.