Cage-free & Non-conforming: A Long Table Conversation/Installation at Gallery Seventy Four

21st Century Arts presents "Cage-free & Non-conforming," an afternoon of art, community and liberation on March 23– featuring the work of Jahmal B. Golden, a film screening, and a Long Table Conversation at Gallery Seventy Four in Rochester, New York. This is the 5th event of "At the Crossroads: Activating the Intersection of Art and Justice" initiative. "Cage-free & Non-conforming" is held at Gallery Seventy Four, which is located at 215 Tremont Street (Door 3/Floor 3) in Rochester, New York. Registration is $15 and to register go to http://CagefreeandNonconforming.brownpapertickets.com.

“Cage-Free and Non-conforming” is a Long Table discussion exclusively between queer/trans/gender non -conforming individuals, set off by film screening and other visual provocations as well as a presentation and art installation by Jahmal B. Golden, a trans-femme artist and creative director who is based in New York City. Golden is a Rochester, New York native. Golden and other Long Table participants will share stories of resilience as well as the realities of what stifles and plagues them and others like them.

“Cage-free & Non-conforming: A Long Table Conversation and Installation” is presented by 21st Century Arts and is an event of “At the Crossroads: Activating the Intersection of Art and Justice”/co-curated by Rachel Y. DeGuzman and Jahmal B. Golden.

“Black transgender and gender non-conforming people face some of the highest levels of discrimination of all transgender people according to a new analysis… ‘Injustice at Every Turn: A Look at Black Respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey’.…anti-transgender bias coupled with structural racism meant that transgender people of color experienced particularly devastating levels of discrimination, with Black respondents often faring worse than all others.” According to Sharon Lettman-Hicks of the National Black Justice Coalition, “from education to employment and housing discrimination, from police brutality to health care disparities, Black transgender people are suffering at extremely high rates due to bigotry and transphobia. Nearly half of all Black transgender respondents’ report being harassed at work and at school. Twenty-six percent are unemployed and 34 percent report annual incomes of less than $10,000 per year. These numbers are appalling, and these living conditions are unacceptable for any human being — gender conforming or not.”

What is a Long Table Conversation? “The Long Table is an experimental open public forum that is a hybrid performance-installation-roundtable designed to facilitate dialogue through the gathering together of people with common interests developed by the artist and academic Lois Weaver.”

This is a performance of dinner table conversation where everyone seated at the table is a guest performer. Talk is the only course (though refreshments will be served before the conversation begins). There is no moderator just assistance from the host. It is a democracy. After the invited participants have chatted for 30-minutes, other attendees can tap someone’s shoulder to take a seat at the table. The original participants are welcomed back to the conversation through the same process. There is an end, but no conclusion.

The image in this post is art by Jahmal B. Golden - "CRISTOBAL (A Gap In Between)," 2017.