live readings




queer biennial presents: (in)appropriate(d)


Saturday, June 4th
7:00pm

ONE Gallery
626 N. Robertson Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90048

A reading of inappropriate, appropriate and appropriated texts, organized by marcus kuiland-nazario for “QUEER DIASPORAS: Lavender City of Dreams,”

marcus kuiland-nazario brings together some of his favorite writers and troublemakers for an evening of spoken word, titled (in)appropriate(d). Inspired by and reflecting on the current state of queerness, gender politics and the rainbow spectrum of identity, the evening’s participants will be reading a blend of inappropriate, appropriate and appropriated text. Expect some appropriately inappropriate surprises.

(in)appropriate(d) participants:

dl alvarez is an artist working with narrative in multiple mediums. They’ve shown internationally (Venice Biennale, New York MoMA, Armand Hammer Museum…) which is in part a reflection of alvarez’ wayfaring existence, having lived in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, New York, and more. Their prose was published most recently in Impossible Voices, Panda’s Friends, and Crooked Fagzine, and they currently reside in LA.

ron athey is an American performance artist associated with body art and extreme performance art. He has performed in the U.S. and internationally. athey's work explores the relationships between desire, sexuality, and traumatic experience. Many of his works include aspects of S&M in order to confront preconceived ideas about the body in relation to masculinity and religious iconography. athey has been working at the vanguard of performance art for 25 years. Their approach to performance art was informed by the club actions of johanna went and the formulation of Industrial Culture.

d. nathan birnbaum is a playwright and composer, and the recipient of many musical theater commissions for music, book, and/or lyrics. He has more than 100 regional theater productions and workshops to his credit around the U.S. Nathan is also an actor and producer, and was one of the first sound designers, helping to give birth to that field. Teachers and professional collaborators have included john cage, lou harrison, robert wilson, steven soderbergh, anthony minghella, pauline oliveros, hirokazu kosaka, goenawan mohamad, daniel sullivan, robert egan, adrian hall, eugene lee, licia perea, luis alfaro, michael john garcés, and shahid nadeem, among many others. Preparation for his current play, which focuses on two young poetry fanatics, has resulted in mentorships with three brilliant LA poets, whose remarkable tutelage has him immersed in a consciousness of escalating literary adventures.

marcus kuiland-nazario is an interdisciplinary artist, performance curator and producer. He is a founding artist of 18th Street Arts Center and Highways Performance Space as well as co-founder of Oficina de Proyectos Culturales, a contemporary art center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and LA Community Health Project, a harm reduction street based needle exchange program. kuiland-nazario’s works are long-term research based cross-genre projects exploring extreme states of emotion such as grief, anger and loss influenced by the cultural and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora.

His performance works have been included in national and international festivals including the Rapture Festival, ICA London, London;  the Rompeforma Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, Los Angeles. kuiland-nazario is the recipient of the 2020/2021 Santa Monica Artist Fellowship award. Currently he is in the inaugural Los Angeles cohort of Artists At Work. His is interactive installation MACHO STEREO is on view as part of Sonic Terrains at the Vincent Price Art Museum and he is co-curator and producer of FREEWAVES fall performance extravaganza investigating masculinities exaMENing taking place at the LA State Historic Park.

paul outlaw, born in Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital and raised in the Jacob Riis Projects on Avenue D, is a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary performing artist whose award-winning solo projects have been presented across the United States and in Europe. The central themes of his artistic practice are the constructs of race and sexual identity, and how violence has haunted them throughout Euro-American history. paul's current project in development, BBC (Big Black Cockroach), will premiere in Fall 2023 at Los Angeles' REDCAT (Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater). 


cesar padilla is a Chicano LA native multi disciplinarian artist. His practice includes music and curation. padilla is an award-winning filmmaker. cesar’s writing and photography have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, Fantastic Man, and BUTT magazine. He has directed music videos for Brujeria, plays with LA gay punk guitar legend Kid Congo Powers, fronts the band Ritchie White Orchestra, and has collaborated with numerous people, including lydia lunch and stephen merritt. cesar is also the author of the Rizzoli book “Ripped: T-Shirts from the Underground.”

anuradha vikram is a Los Angeles-based fiction and nonfiction writer and curator of digital, biological, and time-based art. Their book Decolonizing Culture is a collection of seventeen essays that address questions of race and gender parity in contemporary art spaces (Art Practical/Sming Sming Books, 2017). Recent articles have addressed the NFT’s applicability to the business of art, pandemic education, and the work of queer novelist-playwrights sarah schulman and jean genet. They recently curated the mid-career survey exhibition jaishri abichandani: Flower-Headed Children for Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. www.curativeprojects.net

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queer biennial presents:
In conversation with traci kato-kiriyama

virtual zoom event
Thursday, June 16th
TBA

Organized by ONE Archives Foundation
Dr. Umi Hsu

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lavendercity@art— @ruben__esparza — ruben@rubenesparza.com

This program is supported by a grant from the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division as part of the City's WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival (May 22 - June 30). More info at www.weho.org/pride. With additional guidance and venue support from ONE Archives Foundation and the Tom of Finland Foundation. Curated and care of Rubén Esparza Projects. Additional Curators and organizers include: Dr. Umi Hsu, Marcus Kuiland Nazario, Marval A. Rex, José Tinoco, Stuart Sandford and John Moletress.

Tel: 323-333-5449