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Let’s process a legacy of art, activism and disruption through the lens of humor, social protest and performance research. This lecture and workshop is inspired by one of my favorite moments from the now infamous ACTUP protests held in NYC during the plague years of the AIDS Crisis. It recounts one of their many brilliant performative confrontations with the police.
Mid protest, a group of ACTUP activists were approached by police officers wearing super thick industrial neon orange rubber gloves that were fit to deal with highly radioactive material and in an act of tactical defiance and high frivolity the faggots, dykes and transgendered queens began to chant; “Your gloves don’t match your shoes!” This is where a sense of humor functions as a life giving force of solidarity in the face of machine-like oppression.
This is also a bunch of queens who are practicing a strategic form of tricksterism via disobedience and high flamboyance.
Mid protest, a group of ACTUP activists were approached by police officers wearing super thick industrial neon orange rubber gloves that were fit to deal with highly radioactive material and in an act of tactical defiance and high frivolity the faggots, dykes and transgendered queens began to chant; “Your gloves don’t match your shoes!” This is where a sense of humor functions as a life giving force of solidarity in the face of machine-like oppression.
This is also a bunch of queens who are practicing a strategic form of tricksterism via disobedience and high flamboyance.