We are pleased to announce the next online chapter of Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA, co-curated by Jessica Cooley (UW–Madison, Art History, Ph.D. Candidate) and Ann M. Fox on Wednesday, June 9th from 6:00 to 7:15 pm EDT/5:00–6:15pm CDT.
Chapter 5 | Melancholy as Medium was conceived by Professor Jill H. Casid (UW-Madison, Professor of Visual Studies) and debuts a screening of their short film, Untitled (Melancholy as Medium).
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What to do with the ways we’re being undone? Chapter 5: Melancholy as Medium brings us together for an activist wake that refuses to move on. The evening unfolds a ritual of mediumship to conduce our outraged grief as catalytic for the uprising and care work of living with more than one virus, amidst more than one pandemic, carrying our as yet unaddressed losses into the battles we’re still waging in the name of supports for the thriving of Black, Brown, Indigenous, crip, queer and trans vitalities.
The evening’s session begins with Transmission V (2021) by #fiercepussy. Holding space to ask such questions as “what does a collective grief doula do?”, members of the What Would an HIV Doula Do? collective @wwhivdd Pato Hebert @volandito and Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad @mxabdulaliy read the introduction of their co-edited zine, What Does an Uprising Doula Do?. Prof. Casid debuts a screening of their short film, Untitled (Melancholy as Medium) made especially for Indisposable that conjures with the material fragility of analogue photography to commune with the incalculable but still powerful presence of unredressed loss. Intervening in the telling of HIV/AIDS as history and honoring the transformative powers of Black lesbian litany and elegy, @pamela_sneed performs selections from Funeral Diva (2020) to remind us of the forms that resistance shouldn’t have to take—like survival. Master of ceremonies for the evening Heather Lynn Johnson @heatherjmet will read from her own work and gather session participants for a culminating convocation.
Image: abstract dark black rectangular outline reminiscent of Sicilian funeral announcements flanked by black and pink lines with the slight blur of the fax machine. Courtesy of fierce pussy.
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