Radical Edits: Reassessing Cultural Narratives

An afternoon of screenings, performances, and discussions with five artists and writers whose work counters racist narratives and foregrounds a reassessment of our collective cultural memory.

Taking Alexandra Bell’s public art project, Counternarratives, as a point of origin, the program features Bell, along with Sable Elyse Smith, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, D0UZE, and Devin N. Morris—founding editor of 3 Dot Zine—who will discuss how visual and written languages inform cultural perceptions. Through written text, video, installation, and performance, each of the participating artists seeks to negate language that perpetuates prejudices and to propose more equitable narratives.

Works from Alexandra Bell's current public art series, Counternarratives, are on view from November 9 through December 4 in the MoMA PS1 courtyard. A Teenager With Promise, Annotated, (2017) and Olympic Threat explore how language can perpetuate racist narratives and highlights mainstream media's latent bias.

Tickets: $15 (MoMA Members $13)

MoMA PS1’s acclaimed VW Sunday Sessions performance series welcomes visitors to experience and participate in live art. Since its founding in 1976, MoMA PS1 has offered audiences one of the most extensive programs of live performance in the world. VW Sunday Sessions highlights artists responding to contemporary social and political issues through a wide variety of creative and critical lenses. Encompassing performance, music, dance, conversation, and film, the series develops and presents projects by established and emerging artists, scholars, activists, and other cultural instigators. With a focus on artists that blur and break traditional genre boundaries, VW Sunday Sessions embraces the communities in New York City that create and sustain artistic practice.

Since 2012, VW Sunday Sessions has presented a commissioning program resulting in new work by Trajal Harrell, Mårten Spångberg, Anne Imhof, Tobias Madison and Matthew Lutz Kinoy, Hannah Black, and Colin Self. Additionally, the VW Dome Artist Residency offers a platform for creative development and experimentation for artists at all stages of the creative process.