this week in (live)streaming

JODY SPERLING/TIME LAPSE DANCE PERFORMANCE SERIES

Wind Rose is part of special performance series by Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance (photo by Annie Drew)

Who: Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance
What: Climate-change-themed performance series
Where: The Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 East Fourteenth St. between Second & Third Aves., and online
When: May 5-7, $10-$100
Why: New York–based choreographer, dancer, writer, and scholar Jody Sperling, the founding artistic director of Time Lapse Dance (TLD), continues her climate-change-themed collaboration with Alaskan-born composer, sound artist, and eco-acoustician Matthew Burtner with a series of live events May 5-7 at the Theater at the 14th Street Y. TLD will present four shows that investigate the relationship between the body and the environment, with dancers Frances Barker, Morgan Bontz, Carly Cerasuolo, Anika Hunter, Maki Kitahara, Sarah Tracy, Nicole Lemelin, and Sperling and live music by Burtner.

The bill, which marks the company’s return to live, indoor performance in front of an audience after having made numerous dance films during the pandemic, includes the stage premiere of Plastic Harvest, about plastic pollution, performed by dancers immersed in a world of plastic bags; 2019’s Wind Rose, a work about breath and atmosphere for five dancers in flowing white costumes and a soloist in black; 2015’s Ice Cycle, about the melting of the ice caps; and an excerpt from the processional American Elm. It all begins with a gala on May 5 at 7:00 featuring a full performance, an artist talk, and a benefit reception. On May 6 at 7:00, a full performance can be experienced in-person or livestreamed. There will be a family-friendly in-person program May 7 at 2:00, followed by an in-person-only finale at 7:00.

HARKNESS MAIN STAGE SERIES: AMOC’S WITH CARE

AMOC’s With Care comes to the 92nd St. Y this week (photo by Natalia Perez)

Who: Bobbi Jene Smith, Or Schraiber, Keir GoGwilt, Miranda Cuckson
What: New York City premiere of work by AMOC (American Modern Opera Company)
Where: Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Ave. at Ninety-Second St., and online
When: In person Thursday, April 28, $30, 8:00; online April 29, noon, to May 1, midnight, $15
Why: In November 2018, married former Batsheva dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber debuted With Care at ODC Theater in San Francisco, a co-commission with AMOC (American Modern Opera Company). The piece, which explores caregiving, carelessness, and loss — as perceived prior to the pandemic, when those issues took center stage — was created by Smith in collaboration with violinist Keir GoGwilt; the latter performs with violinist Miranda Cuckson as current L.A. Dance Project artists-in-residence Smith and Schraiber, portraying a caregiver and a wounded spirit, move around them.

Directed by Smith and featuring music by AMOC cofounder Matthew Aucoin, the work includes chairs, small wooden slats, and sand with dance, music, and spoken word that should take on new meaning in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. “The original impetus for With Care came out of the last section of my previous work with Keir, A Study on Effort,” Smith said in a statement. “This piece consists of seven efforts, the last of which is the effort of taking care. We thought to expand this study of emotional and physical labor into a theatrical context, investigating the dynamics of caregiving and taking between four characters. Adding Or and Miranda opened a world in which the dynamics of care spiral from empathy to apathy. The more our characters attempt to break free from this cycle, the more they become lost in the maze of their commitments to each other. Yet ultimately the only solace they find is in each other. Never stop caring.”

With Care will be performed live at the 92nd St. Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall on April 28 at 8:00; a recording will be available online from April 29 at noon to May 1 at midnight. For more on Smith and Schraiber, check out Boaz Yakin’s 2019 film, Aviva, and Elvira Lind’s 2017 documentary, Bobbi Jene. The Harkness Main Stage Series continues in May with the Future Dance Festival and in June with Jonathan Fredrickson of Tanztheater Wuppertal.

I LOVE THIS POEM: AN ONLINE READING

An all-star cast celebrates the power of poetry in online benefit for Literacy Partners

Who: Common, Julianne Moore, Liev Scheiber, Danai Gurira, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Tayari Jones, Cleo Wade, Kiese Laymon, Tommy Orange, Dinaw Mengestu, Kevin Kline, John Lithgow, Megha Majumdar, Zibby Owens, Mira Jacob, more
What: Online poetry reading benefiting Literacy Partners
Where: Literacy Partners online
When: Thursday, April 28, free with RSVP (donations accepted), 8:00
Why: On April 28 at 8:00, Literacy Partners will stream an encore presentation of “I Love This Poem: An Online Reading,” consisting of short works read by such actors as Common, Julianne Moore, Liev Scheiber, Danai Gurira, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Kevin Kline, and John Lithgow, hosted by Zibby Owens and Mira Jacob. Part of the organization’s literary and social justice series, the event, which was held on May 20, 2021, also features favorite poems read by two students, Angie and Monica. “We present this public reading in celebration of the power of poetry to heal, connect, and inspire us to advocate for a more just and equitable world,” Literacy Partners explains.

The evening includes poems by Fion Lim, Langston Hughes, Natalie Diaz, Billy Collins, Rabindranath Tagore, Lucille Clifton, John Keats, Alice Walker, William Shakespeare, Kim Addonizio, Pablo Neruda, Adrienne Rich, Rodolfo Gonzalez, and Maya Angelou. Literacy Partners was founded in 1973 to “emphasize support for individuals excluded from education because of racial or ethnic segregation and discrimination, economic challenges, sexism, or immigration status.”

GALERIE LELONG: DIALOGUES — ANDY GOLDSWORTHY WITH BRETT LITTMAN

Who: Andy Goldsworthy, Brett Littman
What: Live and livestreamed discussion about new Andy Goldsworthy exhibition, “Red Flags”
Where: Galerie Lelong, 528 West Twenty-Sixth St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., and Zoom
When: Saturday, April 23, free, 11:00 am (exhibition continues through May 7)
Why: In September 2020, Cheshire-born, Scotland-based environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy installed 109 hand-painted “Red Flags” in Rockefeller Center, replacing state flags and now featuring the color of the earth from each state. “Collectively I hope they will transcend borders,” he said when he started the project. “The closeness of one flagpole to another means that in certain winds the flags might overlap in a continuous flowing line. My hope is that these flags will be raised to mark a different kind of defense of the land. A work that talks of connection and not division.” He also compared the red earth to the blood running through our veins.

Installation view, Andy Goldsworthy, Red Flags, 2020 (courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York)

The installation has now been reconfigured as an indoor exhibit at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea — whittled down to fifty flags and accompanied by two related videos — where it will be on view through May 7. Goldsworthy’s work with natural materials is well documented, in such films as Thomas Riedelsheimer’s 2001 Rivers and Tides and 2016 Leaning into the Wind as well as Goldsworthy’s permanent Garden of Stones at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “Red Flags may not have been conceived as a response to recent events, but it is now bound up with the pandemic, lockdown, division, and unrest,” Goldsworthy added back in September 2020. “However, I hope that the flags will be received in the same spirit with which all the red earths were collected — as a gesture of solidarity and support.”

In conjunction with Earth Day, the gallery is hosting a free conversation with Goldsworthy and Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum director Brett Littman, taking place in Chelsea and Zoom on April 23 at 11:00; admission is free in person and online. You can also check out a September 2020 virtual interview Goldsworthy did with the Brooklyn Rail about his flags project and career here.

BETTER THINGS: ADVANCE SCREENING / PAMELA ADLON IN CONVERSATION WITH ISAAC MIZRAHI

Who: Pamela Adlon, Isaac Mizrahi
What: Advance screening and discussion of Better Things (92Y Recanati-Kaplan Talks)
Where: 92nd St. Y, Buttenwieser Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave. between 91st & 92nd Sts., and online
When: Saturday, April 23, $25 in person, $20 online (talk only), 7:00
Why: One of the best virtual talks during the pandemic was 92Y’s conversation between Better Things cocreator, producer, director, cowriter, and star Pamela Adlon and actor and comedian Mario Cantone. Emmy winner Adlon, who plays Sam Fox, a single mother of three girls and a former child star still working in the business, and Cantone, who plays her agent, Mal Martone, cracked up each other, and the online audience, as they talked about the hit comedy and dealt with Zoom issues. After five seasons that began in 2016, Better Things is concluding its run on April 25 with its final, fifty-second episode, entitled, “We Are Not Alone.”

But on April 23 at 7:00, you can say goodbye to Sam; her daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Riley), and Duke (Olivia Edward); Sam’s expat mother, Phil (Celia Imrie); Rich (Diedrich Bader), Sam’s best friend; Mal; and other characters when the 92nd St. Y presents an advance, in-person-only screening of the finale, followed by a live discussion between Adlon (King of the Hill, Louie), herself a single mother of three daughters, and Brooklyn-born fashion designer and television presenter Isaac Mizrahi, that can also be accessed online. Better Things is an extraordinarily funny and moving show that is, first and foremost, about family, dealing with familiar issues in unique ways as three generations of women face the challenges of daily existence with charm and humor. If you haven’t been watching, start bingeing now.

THEATER OF WAR: THE NURSE ANTIGONE

Who: Tracie Thoms, Taylor Schilling, John Turturro, Ato Blankson-Wood, Keith David, Craig Manbauman, Sandy Cayo, Elizabeth Hazlewood, Jumaane Williams, Bryan Doerries
What: Dramatic reading and community discussion
Where: Theater of War Zoom
When: Thursday, April 21, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: Theater of War Productions teams up with the Greater NYC Black Nurses Association for its latest live, interactive presentation, exploring caregiving and death. On April 21 at 6:00, an all-star cast will deliver a dramatic reading of Sophocles’s Antigone, about one of the daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta who is determined to give a proper burial to her brother Polynices, who has been branded a traitor, his body left to rot.

The fifth-century play will be performed by actors Tracie Thoms, Taylor Schilling, John Turturro, Ato Blankson-Wood, and Keith David, joined by frontline nurses Craig Manbauman, Sandy Cayo, and Elizabeth Hazlewood and New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams; the discussion, which explores the themes of the play as they relate today to the coronavirus crisis and other health issues, will be facilitated by Theater of War artistic director Bryan Doerries and held in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Resilient Nurses Initiative — Maryland.

JENNIFER PACKER: THE EYE IS NOT SATISFIED WITH SEEING

Jennifer Packer, A Lesson in Longing, oil on canvas, (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Dawn and David Lenhardt. © Jennifer Packer. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Image courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, and Corvi-Mora, London)

Who: Jane Panetta, Jennifer Packer
What: Video tour of “Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied with Seeing”
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art YouTube
When: Exhibition continues through April 17
Why: While everyone else is crowding into the Whitney Biennial, you should break away from the pack and check out one of the best exhibitions in the city over the last six months, the revelatory “Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied with Seeing,” on view at the museum through April 17. The Philadelphia-born, New York City–based artist uses painting and drawing to explore communal and personal memory through dramatic use of color while incorporating art historical tropes associated with portraiture and still-lifes.

In an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist in the catalog, Packer explains, “I like the idea that I’m the only one who can make a certain painting, and I tend to want to push that, whether it’s technically, conceptually, or emotionally. What I also like about painting is, if I say a word, I can make an image that pertains to that word, and that’s my ideal version. I can paint anything and see anything I’d like to see, even things that I’m not sure I want to see. I saw Titian’s The Flaying of Marsyas (c. 1570–1576) when I was in Rome, where he’s strung upside down, and I was thinking about Titian painting this body and deciding how much care to give to Marsyas. I feel the same way: the idea of painting as an exercise in tenderness.”

In paintings such as The Body Has Memory, The Mind Is Its Own Place, Say Her Name, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Breonna! Breonna!), Vision Impaired, and A Lesson in Longing, Packer creates eye-catching imagery that demands careful attention from the viewer, as some mysteries are answered but many remain.

Packer, who had two works in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, continues in the interview, “I feel a kind of responsibility. Painting can go where photography cannot. I think my task as an artist is to be more attentive. Everyone should be attentive, but I ask myself to look and reap the benefits and witness pain with that consciousness. I think it’s impossible not to talk about politics, even in the most casual way. I’m thinking about Black representation in portraiture. I’m thinking about walking through the Met and looking at the Rubens, or any other large paintings of that nature, which are about a decadence that was funded through procuring riches from other parts of the world in questionable ways.”

Even if you can’t make it to the Whitney this weekend, there are several worthwhile videos available on YouTube that delve into the exhibit, including a thirteen-minute walkthrough with curator Jane Panetta and an hourlong conversation between Packer and Panetta from February. The title of the show comes from a quote from Ecclesiastes: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” Packer’s extraordinary work goes well beyond both those senses.