UNDOXX: Collective Reading and Conversation with sister sylvester

Join sister sylvester for a collective reading from handmade books that are part of the artist’s performance The Eagle and the Tortoise. The Eagle and the Tortoise tells the story of a young student from Turkey who became an icon of leftist resistance, an armed militant, a political prisoner, and finally, a proxy soldier in an American war. It traces the history of the aerial view—in art, mythology, journalism, and warfare—to make the case for other ways of looking. Collective reading will feature one chapter from the book, and open into a conversation with sister sylvester facilitated by undoxx curators on censorship the artist and collaborators encountered in presenting The Eagle and the Tortoise.

Audio describers and readers will be available to make this event accessible to low vision and blind attendees.

Artist talk with sister sylvester to follow Collective Reading.

sister sylvester is a multimedia artist based in New York and Istanbul. In collaboration with Deniz Tortum she created the VR documentary Shadowtime (’23), which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and continues to tour to festivals including IDFA, GIFF, Thessaloniki Film Festival, and SXSW; and the film Our Ark which premiered at IDFA (’21) and has screened at festivals internationally. In her live work she creates visual essays and books that become performances as well as spatial narratives that play with spoken and written text to create communal reading experiences. Her work has been called ‘genuinely subversive’ by Time Out NY; ‘imaginative and original’ by New York Times; ‘pulse-raising’ by Exeunt Magazine, ‘perplexing’ by Theaterscene, ‘apocalyptic’ by artforum, and ‘otherworldly, intimate, off-kilter, queer artistic orgasm’ by Life Magazine, Greece.

Across three weeks, UNDOXX will present performances, films, and new media works, conversations, teach-ins, and resource-sharing events for artists seeking tools to navigate the shifting landscape of censorship in the arts. Censorship of artists in the U.S. is currently surging as a powerful force, yet it is not unprecedented. By bringing together global majority artists, queer artists, marginalized artists who have understood its inner workings for generations, UNDOXX will spark conversation and generate resources for artists and audiences in the U.S. to understand censorship in the arts, its history, and its current evolutions. UNDOXX will make space for people to learn in community and present work by censored artists as their primary intervention.

For more information check out: www.jackny.org/undoxx-2024

About our ticket prices: JACK operates with a sliding scale ticket model and a standard general admission price of $25.

This covers only a small fraction of what it takes to make this work and keep JACK’s doors open. We subsidize ticket prices as much as we can to ensure accessibility to our performances for all audiences. Please know that your ticket purchase goes directly to supporting the artists (50% directly to the artist and 50% towards the fee JACK guarantees them to present their work .

Host or Publisher JACK