“Affirmative ethics is not about the avoidance of pain, but rather about transcending the resignation and passivity that ensue from being hurt, lost and dispossessed ... Taking pain into account is the starting point, the aim of the process, however – is the quest for ways of overcoming the effects of passivity, the paralysis brought about by pain. The internal disarray, fracture and pain are also
the conditions of possibility for ethical transformation ... This [sic] constructs hope as a social project.”
➽ Rosi Braidotti, Affirmation, Pain and Empowerment
The Affirmative Project is a Social Practice Arts Initiative in Western New York directed by University at Buffalo Master’s in Fine Arts Candidate Galia Binder. The project began as a disability arts initiative in the Spring of 2017, and transformed in the Summer of 2017 to become a community-based arts initiative dedicated to radical inclusivity and accessibility. Social Practice Art is a form of Participatory, Relational, and Public Art. Social Practice artists create interactive aesthetic worlds, and dynamic social environments for audience members to experience and participate in. Such artists value the process of making a work together over any object, “outcome,” or finished product. The act of engaging and collaborating produces an aesthetic in and of itself. Social Practice projects are predicated upon collaborative engagement with a specific community, located in a specific environment. Each project is uniquely tailored to its collaborative elements—the community members and environment. Social Practice artists can use any number of mediums in a work, such as visual art, or performance art, but it is the collaborators, their environment, and their relationships that form the primary medium of such works. The other mediums serve as modes of production for the primary medium. Social Practice artists affect their communities in real ways to facilitate personal, social, and political change for collaborators and audience members. On June 1st of 2017, The Affirmative Project put out an open call for all Western New Yorkers ages 18+, to become “creators,” joining a temporary community slated to collaboratively generate a multidisciplinary performance art piece emphasizing the intersection of the arts, activism, and healing. This open call for “creators” was directed towards folks passionate about ritual, community-based knowledge systems, social movements, activism, healing arts & modalities, somatic therapies & movements, self-awareness and empowerment, music/sound, movement/dance, visual art, writing, theatre arts, performance art, social practice art, public art, mixed media art, digital art, media art, film/video, photography, sculpture, carpentry, architecture, design, inclusive/universal design, accessible/assistive technology, lighting, scenography, makeup & costume design. Caregivers, spouses, family members, assistants, friends, colleagues, and other supporters of Creators were invited to attend rehearsals/creation times, and to join the project as Creators if they wished. The creators assembled for the first on Jim Bush Studios on September 1st and have been hard at work in the space ever since creating the structure for Between People from the ground up, together. Between People was not scripted or devised in any way before entering into the space. Between People was created using a collective consensus process, incorporating the creative ideas, needs, limitations, and abilities of each creator separately, and then each creator as part of a collective. About The Affirmative Project’s premiere performance, Between People:
Between People is a site-specific performance in Jim Bush Studios designed to take audience members through a one hour thirty minute participatory affirmative ritual. The piece will combine visual art installation, lighting, projection art, sound design, scenography, live music, dance, poetry, theatre, and performance, to create a complete aesthetic environment and immersive journey. Between People invites a return to the source of what we hold sacred as humans. This performance welcomes us into contained environment whose mission is medicine and whose prescriptions are designed to fulfill the specific needs of each individual moving through its circles of care. Intimacy, sustainability, and interdependence are primary in this place. Its inhabitants are situated in a permanently liminal, or in-between state, where ritual is the most effective form of language and change is the only constant. Here, assimilation is rejected, non-linear narratives are embraced, and multiple dimensions can be accessed simultaneously. This makes possible the kind of radical healing that can contain both the forest fire and the tree planting ceremony. This is a space that has room for every kind of narrative, reality, or emotion. You make the space, I make the space, we make the space. The creators of Between People invite themselves and the audience to unite as one entity. An entity that embraces vulnerability as a fiercely honest way of living, and radical honesty as the necessary condition for vulnerability. An entity that does battle with systemic injustice and forces of structural oppression by first embracing its own demons, holding space for its own pain, and beginning to build the beloved community. This is a world where magic truly is happening, even right now, as we are unknowingly choosing it. About Between People’s performance environment:
Between People will be a “relaxed performance”. A relaxed performance is one that is accessible for and accepting of any audience member’s behavior during the performance, as long as it is not self-destructive or destructive to another audience member or performer. In the words of Salette Gressett, U.S. arts manager for the British Council: “Fundamentally, relaxed performance opens doors to audiences who otherwise feel like they’re not welcome because of traditional theater etiquette ... It’s the hushed reverence, that you must be quiet, you must be still. ‘Relaxed performance’ means that people who might find it difficult to adhere to those codes of behavior are welcome to that show — whether that’s due to learning difficulty, or a sensory or communication disorder, or Tourette’s syndrome, or perhaps somebody who has to pop up to go the bathroom a couple times an hour.”
The performance space is wheelchair accessible and will offer ASL interpreters, sound design emphasizing vibration and resonance, noise cancelling headphones, the option to participate (or not participate in) participatory activities throughout the performance, descriptive voiceover, various kinds of seating available throughout, food and drink available, and a separate space for people to take a break and relax. The Affirmative Project’s Between People runs
Friday, October 27, 7:30-9:30pm
Saturday, October 28, 2-4 pm and 7:30-9:30 pm
Sunday, October 29, 2-4pm and 7:30-9:30 pm
At Jim Bush Studios, 44 17th Street Buffalo, NY 14213. Limited tickets are available. Ticketing link coming soon. Tickets are pay what you can with a suggested donation between 1.00 and 25.00. To be followed by
A Party for Art + Activism in Buffalo: an Affirmative Project Fundraiser
Saturday, November 4th, 8-11 pm at Jim Bush Studios 44 17th Street Buffalo, NY 14213
Part networking extravaganza, part dance party, part Affirmative Project Fundraiser, this is a chance to build community around neighborhood-led, grassroots initiatives for justice, social practice arts, socially-minded community businesses and centers, creative placemaking, holistic health, arts in healthcare, mental and physical health groups, and all of the valuable organizations and individuals that foster diversity, inclusion, accessibility, justice, and creativity in WNY! The Affirmative Project hopes to partner with even more local organizations and individuals to secure sustainable funding to build a vital, cornerstone of Community-Based Arts, Activism, and Healing in Buffalo. The Affirmative Project is sponsored by:
University at Buffalo: The Department of Media Study, The Department of Theatre & Dance, The Department of Communicative Disorders & Sciences
Deaf Access Services
Starlight Studio & Art Gallery
PDDance of WNY (National Parkinson’s Foundation of WNY)
Buffalo Gamelan Club
Jim Bush Studios
The Affirmative Project Creators
Buffalo Gamelan Club Players directed by Matt Dunning
Starlight Studio & Art Gallery Artists
featuring the performance work of
Ebony Valentin
Janet Harrison
Kelly Evans
Andrew Calderon
And the visual work of
Janet Harrison
Kelly Evans
Saaed Dubaishi
Shamika Long
David Feickert
Eric Johnson
Rosita Scott
John Montedoro
John Price
Kimber Rodgers
Paul Chandler
Chace Lobley
John Budney
Ray Barret
Ron Steele
Dana Graap
And
Lisa Kobis
As supported by Carrie Marcotte, Kyle Butler, and the Starlight Staff
Cynthia Pegado and PD Dance Dancers of WNY
Brooklynn Jay of The Pit
Jenece Ge**er
Chavis Day
Justin Hoggard
Alexander Glenfield
Florian Ayala Fauna
Arrow Fitzgibbon
Morgan Arnett
Gloria Matthews
Jordan Brown
Melvin Griffin Jr. Jim Bush
Rachel Kerr
Dietrich Schifeling
Matthew Crane
Brenda McCabe
Ally Pawlowski
Elise Alaimo
Mindy Jo Rosso
Stephanie Dugan
Steven Boyar
Ronald Westlake
Jasmine Frazier
Bella Poynton
Miranda Bashwinger
Ashley Johnson with Exchange Studios
Benjamin Madoff and Nina Vega-Westhoff of the Bird’s Nest Circus Arts
Brianna Battista
Alicia Sanders
Emyle Watkins
Jesse Miller
Jesse Rodkin
Robert Harris
Samantha Sugarman
Stanzi Vaubel
Vira Needle
Nick Stroczkowski of Brothers and Sisters Film
John Shotwell of Indigo Productions
Chris George
Joseph Piotrowski
Layla Gentil
Liz Mariani
