Overlording the eighth Foundational Sharing was the specter of feelings himself, Canadian rapper Drake. But to be clear, it wasnât his music being evoked, rather it was his public image as a being with feels, and tears. The cover of the zine is him in a Selena t-shirt in front ofâwhat looks like a badâ FĂ©lix GonzĂĄlez-Torres installation, thus bringing together important ingredients for a successful Foundational Sharing: pop princesses, artistic allusions to the ongoing AIDS crisis, and bodies willing to show up and share. Last night, with the faint smell of the 2nd avenue fire still smoldering, hanging over the city, Tony Page, Anne Ishii and ZavĂ© Martohardjono did Drake proud by bringing themselves and then some.
Poet and visual artist Aldrin Valdez introduced Tony last night by evoking the film Interiors starting Geraldine Page. This was a meta moment because FS 8 was being hosted by Tony in his home cum performance space which is the house he grew up in with his parents Page, and the actor Rip Torn. Â Here we were in the interior of Pageâs home, embarking on a night of sharing our thoughts, feelings and artâand so, on some level, our interiors. Tony set the tone by not only opening his home to us, but opening up personally as well. He talked about his body and influences in an unguarded way. He is an actor, performer, and all around supporter of rigorous and challenging art. Having lived in Chelsea a majority of his life, he has seen the area go through multiple iterations including the barely recognizable and economically oppressive current version.That is why the performance space is so important to him and why, even though times are tough he is committed to keeping the place open. Called Torn Page it is home to an eclectic array of creative activities. His wife Lee Ann Brown runs the Page Poetry Parlor there, they host Speakeasy Cinema, and with friends and colleagues host many pop up events, classes and workshops. Tony's origin story as an artist himself was in spite (or despite) of his upbringing. He didn't think he wanted to be an actor. Witnessing his parentâs lives made him afraid of the scene. It wasn't until he had a metaphysical check in did he realize his body was his canvas for performanceâand there was no escaping the fact that he could perform if he wanted to. He was able to experiment with this realization through an influential working relationship with the theater director and playwright Reza Abdoh. If one of the messages Tony shared last night was that the body of an actor matters, as do their influences, it was something he gleamed by working with Abdoh. We got a window in to the greatness of the Iranian born creative, who died in 1995 due to AIDS related complications, via a preview of a documentary that Tony and his friends are working on about Abdoh. It brings together recordings of theater pieces from LA and NYC from the 1990s, and recent interviews with those who love and cherish the time they had with Abdoh. If we can know someone by who and how they impact, through Tony we learn Reza was complex, profound, sweet, unrelenting and funny. The ongoing loss of a brilliant mind was keenly felt. Tony said that in the last years if his life Reza went from making four hour productions to ones that were 90mins. The violence of his illness was breathing down his neck. It made me think of this passage we included in the FS8 zine: âš
There are few things more devastating than to have it burned into you that you do not count and that no provisions are made for the literal protection of your person. The threat of violence is every present, and there is no way to determine precisely when it may come crushing down upon you. In modern power politics this is called a war of nerves. The underprivileged in any society are the victims of a perpetual war of nerves.
Jesus and the Disinherited
Anne is a writer, translator and one of the publishers of Massive - a collection of gay Japanese comics. This providers her with a unique look at how text and sexuality shift, stall, and move through translation. Comparing English to white privilege she illustrated how the language's supremacy impacts translation choicesâsometimes in surprising ways. Well-meaning Japanese to English translators, often motivated by the liberal desire for the (unquestioned) authentic, look for the Japanese word for gay, or homosexual. This has resulted in the widespread use of the Japanese word Bara, which roughly translated means pansy. While maybe understood to not be the worst thing in the world to be called, more importantly, it's not what men who love, fuck and draw other men in Japan call themselves. What they call themselvesâand here is the big revelâis gay. Trying to go the distance to get things right, translators miss the simple truth. Adding further context to the conversation Anne and others in the room talked about the differences between what is often called Bara manga vs. Yaoi. Due to western influence manga by men for men about sex between men is called Bara, while manga produced by women for women about men being romantic with men is Yaoi. Confused as to why women would want such manga, Yaoi was compared to lesbian porn. Like, hey dude, if you like women, here are two women. So similarly if you are a woman who likes men, maybe you will be turned on by two men. As we discussed  this issue of translation, different forms of manga and porn, and maybe even a reason for the balkanization of sexuality in general, is the way sex and sexual difference becomes the site of violence and exclusion. When one has to make choicesâas Aldrin pointed outâbe it with sex or translation, something is abandon, left behind. Concluding her sharing Anne read the following from th FS zine:
âš
The vilification of bodies, including disabled bodies, bodies of color, and queer bodies, is a moral scandal of the highest order. To correct this injustice, a first step is to stop trashing LGBTQ and other non-normative people. A second step is to stop asking the wrong questions. For example, the moral problem is not homosexuality, same-sex love, or sexual difference. The moral problem is sexual injustice and the eroticizing of power inequalities to bolster the social privilege of some at the disadvantage of others. In this culture erotic desires is in trouble because sexuality has been conditioned by, or perhaps better said, annexed to sexism, racism, ablism and other injustices.
Making Love Just: Sexual Ethics for Perplexing
ZavĂ© is a multi discipline artist and for work he is a social justice, social media maven. He brought together these forces in a 2 part performance which begins with him as a sparkly cloaked figure in gold heels murmuring the lyrics: â Ainât Nothing Like The Real Thing BabyâŠ.Ainât Nothing Like The Real ThingâŠâ At first encounter this seems to be an invitation to the audience to explore the gender trouble commentary the artistâs own body may evoke in them. But what soon becomes clear is while that may be true, multiple truths are bring braided together in the performance. Stripped down to a backless black âSteve Jobsâ -esque turtleneck and pink boxer briefs ZavĂ© then inhabited an alluring scary progressive movement builder. With the passion and politics of someone you might meet at Bluestockings, ZavĂ© channelled that energy into a Tom Cruise figure, a la the film Magnolia, getting us to be excited, bold, and a follower for a vague movement. With both resistance and glee we the audience fell under his spell, shouting out and playing along thus becoming the movement. In a post performance talk we got to process together how uncanny and comfortable ZavĂ©'s performance was. Visibility for the sake of visibility while people's life chances are truly in danger was something that came up a lot in the discussion. Toying with being cathartic, it was clear ZavĂ©âs performance and the conversation that followed was never going to be about that. Something more ongoing was planted in the room that night instead. Before he went on, by means of introduction Bridget had the group read the following from the FS zine, setting the tone for the related duality:
...for our destinations choose us, choose us long before we are born. And exercise a magnetic attraction upon us, drawing us inexorably towards the source we have forgotten.
Descend lower, descend the diminishing spirals of being that restore us to our source. Descend lower; while the world, in time, goes forward and so presents us with the illusion of motion, though all our lives we move through the curvilinear galleries of the brain towards the core of the labyrinth within us.â (...) âI have found a landscape that matces the landscape of my heart.
âšThe coalition emerges out of your recognition that it's fucked up for you, in the same way that we've already recognized that it's fucked up for us. I don't need your help, i just need you to recognize that this shit is killing you too, however much more softly, you stupid motherfucker, you know? - Fred Moten
When Foundational Sharing works it is a weaving of shared concerns, hopes, and curiosities through art, text, and personal reflection. It allows things to work and not work together, to be aired and witnessed together. Last night the limits and power of language and the body in the face brilliance, and desire was front and center. Thanks to everyone in the room and all the influences we brought the 8th iteration of Foundational Sharing worked. Today, in the name of Drake, Reza, Gay Manga and Steve Jobs we cry, for joy, each other, and ourselves.
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