Join us for a weekend of disability culture arts-based research and community building, centered on twin inquiries of environmental and interspecies gentleness, and on mad memory and archival intermedial/technological play.
All public events either outdoors or masked, free
October 31, Thursday, 2-5pm: Matthaei Botanical Gardens, University of Michigan
Crip Drifts: Tree Engagements
Provisional Program (respectful and ideally plant-engaged Halloween costumes are welcome)
Welcome Invitation/Access Doula: moira williams
Contributions and performances by:
Kyle Whyte: Introduction to the Local Tree World
Petra Kuppers: Crip Drift (2.30pm and 4.30pm)
Ashwini Bhasi: Visual/Poem/Kerala
Angela Schöpke Gonzalez: Bananabodies
Biba Bell and Christopher Woolfolk: Tree dances: becoming epiphyte
November 1, Friday: Turtle Disco, Ypsilanti
5.00pm Thin Veils: Creative Sharing
Cynthia Ling Lee: crip time/moss time, video
Workshops:
Orchid Tierney: Future Plants
Marc Arthur: Viral Drifting through Geologic Time
7pm: [Fireside] Crip Hangout Time
Poems, Writing, Art Offerings by Liz Orvis, Stephanie Glazier, Gwynneth Van Laven
November 2, Saturday:
10.30am ET (virtual): activist portrait drawing presentation/workshop + Flowers While We Are Living video with Syrus Marcus Ware
(followed by in person event for Gathering participants who follow COVID protocol/masked/etc): portrait drawing workshop in Turtle Disco
2-4pm: Ann Arbor Arts Center
Mad Conductors Participatory Performance &
Crip/Mad Archive Dances Screening
with Stephanie Heit, Alexis Riley, and Petra Kuppers
November 3, Sunday, 11am-12.30pm: Ann Arbor Arts Center
Workshop “dancing st. elizabeth’s” with Alexis Riley and Ali Pappa (documented by moira williams)
We are happy to welcome people joining from elsewhere, and can help put people up with local folx. All Gathering events unspool in crip time, with rest and relaxation practices built in, from fireside hang-outs to watercolor/drawing playtime. For the smaller, in-between happenings, we ask for COVID tests and communally agreed masking procedures.
Please be in touch about any access provisions you require: petra@umich.edu.
Symposium website: https://www.petrakuppers.com/disability-arts-and-culture-gathering-2024
Image Description: Print material Alexis Riley found in the Oregon Asylum historical archive, of mad people dancing – collaged one sunny afternoon by the organizing team in Turtle Disco with acrylic color, gel plates and glue: crip joy and crip relics as our performance substrate.
petra.kuppers