Friday, May 10, 2019 │12:30–1pm
ADMISSION: Free with Museum admission.
Hear Bay Area poets present works in dialogue with the exhibition Show Me as I Want to Be Seen. Many of the poets speaking in this bi-weekly series are rooted in the New Narrative tradition, an experimental writing movement and theory that evolved in San Francisco.
Brandon Brown is the author of several books of poetry, most recently The Four Seasons (Wonder) and The Good Life (Big Lucks.) He is a regular contributor to Art In America, and was the inaugural winner of the Toni Beauchamp Critical Art Writing Prize in 2018. Recent work has also appeared in Frieze, Open Space, Berkeley Poetry Review, and Fanzine. He is a co-editor at Krupskaya Books and edits the zine Panda's Friend. He lives in El Cerrito.
How do we depict “the self” if it is unknowable, inherently constructed, and ever changing? How does the concept of portraiture shift when categories are in crisis, and visibility itself is problematic? Jewish thought on performed and fluid identity can be interpreted in the book of Esther, and in the notion of G-d as “I am that I am,” ineffable and non-binary. These ideas uphold a Jewish understanding of the self as intrinsically mutable, unknowable, and yet self-determined, themes that animate Show Me as I Want to Be Seen.
Tschabalala Self, Perched, 2016. Oil, acrylic, flashe, handmade paper, fabric, and found material. Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photo: Elizabeth Bernstein.
The CJM is committed to creating an accessible environment for all of our visitors. The Museum offers accessible seating for all public programs, a friendly environment for service animals, as well as FM assistive listening devices (ALDs) and portable gallery stools. American sign language interpretation (ASL) can be scheduled for all programs with at least two weeks notice by emailing access@thecjm.org or by calling 415.655.7856 (relay calls welcome).
The CJM’s Gallery Chat Program is made possible by Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt.
Public Programs are made possible by the Koret Foundation. Program support is provided by the Alan Templeton Endowment in Memory of Lieselotte and David Templeton.