Pope.L. Member a.k.a. Schlong Journey. 1996
Pope.L: Someone said, “Well, why don't you ever do any of these things in a black community?” (laughs) And I said, “Sure, I'll think about that. Taking the work to black folk.” And I said, “Well what do black folk need? What would they like in their day? I thought well, yeah, a little whiteness. And in what form? That was a problem, like what form would that whiteness take.” And since I was bringing it, “What form would a black person want to bring to his own people?”
It was quite a puzzle, until I came upon this idea. I found the bunny first and then I found the schlong. It's a penile object, but its parts are kind of wonky. They don't kind of belong together. So I took on this role of being the fool. But a fool with things to do and places to go. And I knew it had to have moments where okay: He has his rabbit. He has his schlong. He has his rabbit-schlong moment. Oh, here comes the egg! What's that about?
And I really love it when this condom like object. The fact you could see my headness through the gloveness - was of interest to me. For me, it's all about producing this set of signifiers that inform each other.
I knew that from having spent time on 125th Street for most of my life, if you're gonna do anything in a theater space of New York, this would be a really interesting place to do it. The people on the Street in Harlem, they really made the work. I knew that they would be very judgmental. You know, they would have things to say. And in a sense, I wanted them to have something to say something about.