PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE DAVID WOJNAROWICZ FOUNDATION, P·P·O·W, & VISUAL AIDS

About the Event

On the occasion of what would be his 70th birthday, the David Wojnarowicz Foundation in collaboration with the New York City AIDS Memorial, Visual AIDS, and P·P·O·W will stage a production of Wojnarowicz’s seminal monologues, The Waterfront Journals, a collection of autobiographical fiction inspired by the many people he encountered in his early twenties. Readers including Tommy Turner, James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook, Nayland Blake, Morgan Bassichis, Paul Soileau, and Pamela Sneed, with introductions by Amy Scholder will be accompanied by the band Rimbaud Hattie—comprised of Wojnarowicz’s former 3 Teens Kill 4 bandmates Doug Bressler and Julie Hair, along with John Kelly. The Memorial will also unveil a park bench dedicated to Wojnarowicz to memorialize his championing of the fight against HIV/AIDS. Following the performances, a candlelit procession will move from the New York City AIDS Memorial to the LGBTQ Memorial in Hudson River Park, symbolically ushering Wojnarowicz’s spirit in communal recognition and celebration.

Born September 14, 1954, Wojnarowicz came of age enmeshed in and inspired by the countercultural scene of downtown New York in the 1970s. A prolific painter, printer, photographer, writer, and activist, Wojnarowicz spoke to the social iniquities he recorded firsthand in his memoirs, graffiti, and virtuosic multimedia compositions. His works were widely shown at such iconic downtown venues as Civilian Warfare, Gracie Mansion Gallery, and P·P·O·W.

Other programs will bring together multiple generations of artists, performers, musicians, and speakers to showcase Wojnarowicz’s original artworks and reify the relevance of his practice more than thirty years after his untimely passing from AIDS-related illness in 1992. The events will kick off with an outdoor screening at The Museum of Modern Art on the evening of September 11. Wojnarowicz’s late-80s films In The Shadow of Forward Motion (ITSOFOMO) (1989) and A Fire In My Belly (1986-87) will anchor a night dedicated to the artist’s incredible use of collaged footage to address socio-cultural topics while contextualizing Wojnarowicz’s output among his contemporaries and filmmakers one generation removed. Following this, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art will continue the festivities, hosting an evening of readings and activations on September 13. During the event, Wojnarowicz’s film, ITSOFOMO, will be screened with a live musical accompaniment by Ben Neill, former collaborator and composer of the film’s original score in 1989. This screening will mark the first time Neill has played alongside the film in six years, most recently performing a live score as part of Wojnarowicz’s retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art in 2018. Preceding the performance, a number of the artist’s friends and champions across multiple generations will recite passages that span the artist’s output, from his iconic memoir Close to The Knives to lesser-known personal notes and missives. Please visit this link for more information on all the programs.

About the Artist:

David Wojnarowicz (1954 -1992) was among the most incisive and prolific American artists of the 1980s and 90s. Wojnarowicz’s work has been the subject of career retrospectives at major institutions including: Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois (1990); New Museum, New York (1999); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2018); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2019); and Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2019). The artist’s work is held in prominent public collections worldwide, such as: Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles, California; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Tate, London, United Kingdom; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others. In 2022, the solo exhibition Dear Jean Pierre: The David Wojnarowicz Correspondence with Jean Pierre Delage, 1979-1982 at P·P·O·W unveiled an archive of letters, drawings, and photographs from Wojnarowicz’s early career, followed by the release of a catalog published by Primary Information in 2023. This year, amid the seventieth anniversary of his birth, Wojnarowicz’s work will be featured in group exhibitions at Saar Historical Museum, Saarbrücken, Germany, and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California.

Music:

David Wojnarowicz and Brian Butterick met at a poetry reading in Prospect Park in the 1970s. The concept of “Rimbaud in America” appears after Brian, who had attained the nickname “Rimbaud” (after the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, with a nod to his intellect) by his circle of friends while living in Provincetown, 1977, went on to portray Rimbaud in the majority of David’s “Rimbaud In New York” photography series from 1978 to 1981. The two lived together in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, and collaborated on many film and music projects including the band “3 Teens Kill 4”, which also included Doug Bressler and Julie Hair, who now play in Rimbaud Hattie.

Rimbaud Hattie was formed out of the deep love of Brian Butterick, also known as “Hattie” (Hattie Hathaway was his drag persona that was born at the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge). Each of the four artists in this collective - comprised of Doug Bressler, Julie Hair, John Kelly, and Heather Litteer - had creative relationships with Brian, and some of our songs also reflect the relationship between Brian and David. One mission they share is to keep the spirit of “Hattie” alive through an ongoing collaboration of music and performance.

Readers:

Pamela Sneed is a poet, performer, and visual artist. Among her four volumes of poetry is Funeral Diva, which was widely featured, and won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. She has been published in The Paris Review, Frieze magazine, Artforum, and the Academy of American Poets. Her visual work was featured in the group show Omniscient (2021–22) at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York.  She performed the music of Big Mama Thornton, as part of the Juke Joint at the Park Avenue Armory, in March of 2023, in Head Back, Eyes to Sky in June 2023, and Hope Against Hope in May 2024, both at the New York City AIDS Memorial.

Tommy Turner is from New York City. He's an artist and filmmaker, whose work has been shown in many galleries and museums. Tommy met David at a club that they worked at, in 1982. Tommy says, "We worked together and became friends. We went on excursions taking photos, and road trips in his car. We collaborated on several projects, from performances to mags to our film, Where Evil Dwells. He was such an inspiration in my life." 

The David Wojnarowicz Foundation’s mission is to preserve, advance, and honor the legacy and life of David Wojnarowicz—his art, his writings, his fierce commitment to social justice, and the cause of persons with HIV/AIDS. The Foundation is created to inspire and foster a new generation of queer artists and writers to find their voice, pursue their truth, and continue the activism that so defined Wojnarowicz’s life and art. Through scholarships and grants, the Foundation assists organizations and individuals supporting these ideals.

Location

Support

This event is presented in collaboration with the David Wojnarowicz Foundation and P·P·O·W, with support from Visual AIDS. Cultural programming at the New York City AIDS Memorial is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Photo Credit: Banner: David Wojnarowicz, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, 1978-1979. Gelatin silver print on paper, 32,8 x 24,6 cm, Courtesy of P·P·O·W and the David Wojnarowicz Foundation; Portrait: Andreas Sterzing, David Wojnarowicz (Sofa & Painting), 1983, Copyright Andreas Sterzing. Courtesy of the Artist