category : other

“Special thanks to the Songs Brain and Body Trust who’ve helped me think about this work at its various stages: Mei Ann Teo, Susan Heyward, Jess Applebaum, Dominique Rider, Tuce Yasak, Kris Sidberry, Brandon Webster, Stephanie Weeks, and Sara Stern.”

-JW

Songs of Speculation (excerpt) is a lecture that explodes into multi-form performance, calling on the body, time, and the power of music to reclaim histories forgotten or lost. It is performed with a black feminist instrument known as a looper pedal. This pedal allows for the recording, layering and amplification of live vocal composition channeled through spirit of ancestor and muse.

This instrument (much like the black feminist), is meant to be taken seriously and handled with great care.

Songs happens in:
~A lecture space
~Ancestral spaces
~A ripple through dimension beyond the playing space

Songs of Speculation has been embodied in various physical forms at Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, JACK (world premiere), Judson Memorial Church, Park Avenue Armory and is now here on the inter-webs forever (?).

written and performed by Jillian Walker

designed and engineered by Ben Williams

recorded at The Collapsable Hole NYC 2019

from the novel Queer and Alone, by James Strahs
adapted and performed by Greg Mehrten
directed by David Schweizer
sound design and engineering by Ben Williams
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC 2019

Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Biopsy Beast appears for the first time in category : other

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Biopsy Beast appears for the first time in category : other

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Lonesome Beast first appeared in Fusion Magazine

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Alva and the Online Fishermen was first published in New Madrid

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.

Alva on Getting Dumped in the Desert was first published in New Madrid

Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.

recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.