Saturday December 7th, 1996 was the third evening of performances of Speak Easy, a text and language series at N.A.M.E. Gallery that I curated with Lorraine Moretti. The line up featured a selection of Chicago artists who use text and language as a prominent part of their performance practice, including Doug Stapleton and Beth Tanner, Paul McComas, and the Aluminum Group
From the press release:
- More Bad Advice (by Doug Stapleton and Beth Tanner) is the continuing saga of beauty and tragedy of love. Motivated by desire and longing, the Lover and the Beloved converse through allegorical filters about the nature of Beauty as violence (the pearl and the clam), Narcissism, and Separation and Desire for a return to the Source (Song of Reed). Beth Tanner and Doug Stapleton (a.k.a. Gurlene Hussey) are both local performance artists. This piece is their fifth collaboration.
- Paul McComas’ monologues easily slip across the fuzzy borders of poetry, short stories and performance art. “Now I Know my ABC’s ” is a moving description of a young woman’s mental breakdown, with an appearance by Christine Kozlowski-McComas.
- The Aluminum Group performs in a number of different venues, while incorporating lyric with sound and working in sound design. Some years back, brothers, John and Frank Navin performed locally as the punk theatrical bleak house…. Now they are the Aluminum Group, but metal’s not what they peddle.
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