Through the Uncertainty, Agnes Borinsky and the Working Group for a New Spirit Are Taking Inventory of Our Lives

By Daniel Krane

NOV 2020 | Theater

How can we find assurance and community in our upside down world? It is an especially taxing effort for theater artists, whose work and livelihoods depend on collaboration and communion. Enter the Working Group for a New Spirit, playwright Agnes Borinsky’s free initiative that offers a virtual home for transient artists, seminars in how to take stock of our lives, and more. Daniel Krane dives into this effort—”a series of gatherings for clarity and direction in our messy moment of distance and collapse”—that the Bushwick Starr is hosting now through December 7.

Continuation and the Break: Notes on Black Lives and Tap Dance

By Orlando Hernández

FEB 2021 | Dance

In a layered essay, Orlando Hernández weaves together the history and practice of tap dance with insights into pandemic, US anti-blackness, native theology, and Western time. An intimate look at the syncopated art form offers countering modes of arranging our experience.

Hell is a Place on Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head.

By Kathleen Langjahr

MAY 2020 | ArtSeen

As COVID-19 continues to proliferate throughout New York City, forcing all art institutions to remain closed to the public, museums and galleries have been scrambling to convert their programming to an online-only format. A standout example of this adaptation is P.P.O.W.’s current presentation, Hell is a Place on Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head.

National Queer Theater: Building Community, Shining a Light, and Raising Hell

By Billy McEntee

JUL-AUG 2020 | Theater

New York’s theater scene is not an ecosystem short on gay plays. However when it comes to showcasing all the colors of the LGBTQ+ rainbow, these plays predominantly come in one shade: white and gay. To fill in the gaps and build bridges to underrepresented communities, Adam Odsess-Rubin founded the National Queer Theater.