Younger Than Jesus / Older Than AIDS
March 25, 2012
Magnet features an evening of story-telling across the queer generational chasm.
Younger Than Jesus / Older Than AIDS
A Pan-Generational Event
Monday, March 26, 8:00-10:00pm
San Francisco, CA — Magnet is proud to present Younger Than Jesus / Older Than AIDS, an evening of performance, poetry, and video. This program looks into and across the generational chasm carved by the AIDS crisis years (1985-1997). It is one element of this month’s featured visual arts exhibition, Daniel Dallabrida: In Now’s black waters burn the stars of Then. (see below for details)
Hosted by Dallabrida, the program will include writer/poet/historian Kevin Killian, artist/writer/film maker Andrew Printer, poets Ryan Funk and Tom Comitta, artist/poet Solis and performance artist/filmmaker Noah Krell.
“Plan for an evening where artists born after the advent of AIDS compare notes with those who knew a world before it,” says Dallabrida. “We will explore what was, what happened, what was lost and what we want for our future.”
For those of us lucky enough to have lived through the AIDS crisis, we accept the possibility, if not the probability, of imminent death. Our time horizon shrinks. We lose our capacity to think about the past or the future. We surrender our memories. We stop telling our stories.
For those who came of age after the crisis years, we struggle to figure out who we are in the absence of mentors. We lost access to an entire generation of elders. How could we have the language to identify the impact of stepping into a community mourning in silence? We have never heard their stories. We have never shared ours.
Join these men, artists, writers, poets and performers from different times and generations as they look into and across this chasm. Become part of the stories they tell.
“Ultimately, all art is a variation of people sitting around a campfire telling stories,” says Dallabrida. “Each story is a pattern that helps explain the chaos that surrounds us. Stories calm the cyclones in our heads. They provide the symbols and words to speak with each other about the human condition.”
About the participants:
Tom Comitta is the editor and publisher of Calmaplombprombombbalm.com. Additionally, Comitta is the co-founder and conductor of SF Guerrilla Opera. His writing has appeared in journals, bookstores, galleries, public space and online.
Daniel Dallabrida’s art exists along a continuum of process, ritual, installation and artifact. He uses sculpture, photography, words, sound and social gatherings to share his stories. In 2003, after 35 years of queer and AIDS activism, Dallabrida closed the doors on his professional career. He moved to Italy to reboot and to learn the art, culture and language of his heritage. Dallabrida received a graduate certificate from Studio Arts Center International in Florence (2009) and his MFA in Visual Arts from California College of the Arts (2011).
Ryan Funk moved to San Francisco to finish the journey that dropped his Mormon family in the high desert of Utah 150 years ago. He edits End of Business, a journal created in one business day, while he is at work. He curates The Slide reading and music series with his roommate and friend Francisco Delgadillo. Like Ryan, his work is forthcoming.
One of the original New Narrative writers of the 1980s, Kevin Killian lives and works in San Francisco. His most recent books include an edition of Jack Spicer’s Collected Poems; Impossible Princess, a book of stories from City Lights Books; and a second volume of his Selected Amazon Reviews. Upcoming projects include a new novel, Spreadeagle from Publication Studio, and a book of intimate photographs of poets, musicians, artists and filmmakers, called Tagged. His poems, many of which deal with the AIDS epidemic, its aftermath and its desolation, are gathered in two volumes, Argento Series and Action Kylie.
Noah Krell, born 1978 in Harrisburg, PA and raised in Hiram, ME, received his BA from College of the Atlantic in 2001 and his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2011. His photo and video work has been exhibited at venues such as the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, DUMBO Art Center, Southern Exposure, Queens Nails Projects, Center for Maine Contemporary Art and SPACE Gallery. Noah Krell currently lives, works, and teaches in San Francisco.
Andrew Printer’s art career began 20 years ago with two widely screened videos, Rojo Vivo, about prostitution as a way of life for young men crossing the US/Mexico border, and My Elbows Collapsed, an early documentary about families living with HIV/AIDS. More recently, Printer’s practice has expanded to include photography, text-based work and performance. His photographs are part of several collections, including the Museum of Art, Houston. Printer’s fiction is included in the recent anthology, The Frozen Moment. He has an MFA from U.C. Irvine and is in the process of producing two new performances. He lives and teaches in San Diego. www.andrewprinter.com
Solis writes, “My pen & paper are my closest friends. Drawing and storytelling are the best way for me to process feelings and emotions. I am most free when making art. My formative years were spent in the Salinas Valley. My aesthetic is influenced by the pictographic storytelling of the people of the first nations, urban styles and heavily reference sci-fi/classic video game genres. Native American folklore has inspired me throughout this process, as I create my own versions of ‘spirit figures.’ The final incarnations of my ‘kachinas’ can be seen in my new series: We Are Wildewood.”