On November 22nd, 1996, I organized OpenWord: Slip of the Tongue, as part of Speak Easy, a text and language performance series at N.A.M.E. Gallery in Chicago, curated with Lorraine Moretti. The series included four evenings of performances and a workshop located in the Time Arts Space which was transformed into an Independent Comic Book and Zine Reading Room curated by Suz Szucs, which included murals by Jessica Able, Carol Jackson, and Lisa Ormerod. Speak Easy corresponded with the opening of word up! in the Exhibition Space at N.A.M.E. Gallery. Speak Easy ran from November 22nd – through December 31, 1996
From the press release:
During the opening of the Independant Comic Book and Zine Reading Room in the Time Arts Space and the show word up! in the Exhibition Space there will be an open mic event.This event is an open opportunity for anyone who performs in a language medium, such as poets, writers, story tellers, performance artists, word alchemists, and rappers. Foreign languages, signers, mimes, transchannelers and people who speak in tongues are a plus!Plus! ALIVE! Madam Planchette will provide passages to the neglected powers of the psyche, readings between the lines, and glimpses of the illusive future. Promising cheap tricks, illusions and other means as necessary: which may or may not include Scrabble runes, ouija, automatic writing, voices from beyond, dowsing, scrying, etc.
SPEAK EASY EVENTS:
- Friday, November 22nd, 1996 – Open Word Slip of The Tongue, an open mic + the opening of a comic book and zine reading room, featuring a murals by Jessica Abel, Carol Jackson, and Lisa Ormerod
- Friday December 6th, 1996 – Iris Moore, Matthew Goulish, Byron Stewart, Elizabeth Salvia, and Robert Wynkoop, PhD
- Saturday, December 7th, 1996 at 4PM – a performance poetry workshop with Byron Stewart
- Saturday, December 7th, 1996 – Doug Stapleton and Beth Tanner, Paul McComas, The Aluminum Group
- Saturday, December 13th, 1996 – Anna Brown, Pamella Miller, and Maureen Seaton