Nile Harris' THIS HOUSE IS NOT A HOME to be Presented at Abrons Arts Center This Weekend

Abrons Arts Center and Ping Chong and Company will present Nile Harris: this house is not a home July 14-16, 8pm.

A frenzied rant of online logic delivered outside an inflatable mausoleum, Nile  Harris' this house is not a home surrounds a bounce castle purchased by Harris' friend, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Trevor Bazile (born Miami, FL, 1996-2021). Over the course of the performance, the castle comes to represent an ephemeral monument, a besieged U.S. capital, and a simulacrum of hollow liberal care.

this house is not a home extends from Harris and Bazile’s collaboratively created, live-Google-document-based ‘you niggas in trouble’ manifesto (2020), a metaphorical board meeting that asked: will the revolution have 501c3 status? In and around the sound-responsive plastic shrine, this house is not a home situates this question within the detritus of the past two years—in bitter inheritance, fugitive avatars, political theater, Tucker Carlson redacted texts, and the cleansing of money through arts philanthropy.

Figures—a gingerbread minstrel, Dimes Square vape addicts, a beloved children’s movie cowboy—appear, haunted by the fraught question: what does it mean to be an American?  Enlivened by collaborators Crackhead Barney and Malcolm-x Betts, and featuring sonic composition by slowdanger and GENG PTP, this house is not a home uses clowning and live-mixed sound scoring to enact a memorial in an “Incellectual” spew of discourse.        

ABOUT Nile Harris

                    

Nile Harris is a performer and director of live works of art. His work has been presented at the Palais de Tokyo, Under the Radar Festival (Public Theater), The Watermill Center, Volksbühne Berlin, Prelude Festival, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, La MaMa, and Movement Research at Judson Church. His work has been supported by New York State Council for the Arts, MAP Fund, Franklin Furnace Foundation, Pepatián, Foundation for Contemporary Art, YoungArts, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Nile is a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of Ping Chong and Company and is a recipient of the 2023 Open Call commission at The Shed.

He has worked extensively as a performer in works by artists including Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Tina Satter, Robert Wilson, Nia Witherspoon, Lilleth Glimcher, Malcolm-x Betts , and Miles Greenberg in venues including Playwrights Horizon, New York Live Arts, The Walker Art Center, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, EMPAC, Danspace Project, Superblue, Stanford Live, Dublin Theatre Festival, and MESS Festival.

ABOUT ABRONS ARTS CENTER

                   

Abrons Arts Center is a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. A core program of the Henry Street Settlement, Abrons believes that access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. Through performance presentations, exhibitions, education programs, and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the transformative power of art.

Ping Chong and Company creates works of theater and art that reveal beauty, invention, precision, and a commitment to social justice. Founded by Ping Chong, the company is a welcoming home and site of experimentation for multigenerational artists. The company creates original interdisciplinary, community-specific work; and cultivates artistry through training and education programs.

Nile Harris: this house is not a home is the first production commissioned by Ping Chong and Company to premiere under the company's new Artistic Leadership Team.

To post a comment, you must register and login.