Our work is a web
A practitioner of the web, I am called to that form because that’s the way it's always been, that's the way I root, the form that holds our multitudes and sets us free.
Webbing in new ways always, ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS,
is going to try a new way of sharing this work with you,
The first part of this newsletter will be a BULLETIN BOARD with upcoming and current shows, projects, book releases and events, that I hope you will come to and share with your communities.
And the second part will be the ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES. A written offering, sharing of work, expansion & footnotes of what's going on in my studio, practice and brain.
This part will be paid and I invite you to support my work for $5 a month or $50 a year.
ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS is my practice, is labor, is my work.
Thank you for being here.
Part 1. BULLETIN BOARD
MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
Lewis Gallery
July 7, 2023- January 7, 2024
Opening reception: Friday July 7, 7-9:30 pm, free & please mask!
Curated by Finnegan Shannon
Featuring work by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Pelenakeke Brown, Sky Cubacub, Emilia Louise Gossiaux, Felicia Griffin, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Jeff Kasper and Finnegan Shannon.
Finnegan Shannon is a creator of loopholes. Their work is mischievous, methodically chipping away at traditional museum practices. By framing institutional change as artwork, the pace of possibility quickens. With Shannon at the helm, Don’t mind if I do is an experiment in more deeply collaborative exhibition-making, demonstrating how even temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff.
This project is the realization of my access fantasy !!
I’m disabled and I need to sit and I love to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me. So voilà! A conveyor belt of artworks surrounded by a variety of seating options.
When planning this project, a big question was: what artwork should the conveyor carry? The artists, writers, and thinkers featured nourish my life and practice, and I can’t resist a chance to share their work. Each of the objects presented asks for varied ways of interacting and opens up possibilities for how and what an artwork can convey.
-Finnegan Shannon
Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah, Book Launch & conversation
Carpenter Center for Visual Art at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Carpenter Center Level 3 Terrace
July 8, 3-4:30pm, free & outside!
Join us for the opening celebration of Morgan Bassichis: More Little Ditties and a book launch for Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah (Wendy’s Subway 2023), featuring readings and conversation with editors Morgan Bassichis, Jay Saper, and Rachel Valinsky, and contributors Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Khury Petersen-Smith, and Sandra Tamari.
Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah invites 36 writers, artists, scholars, and activists to offer accessible reflections on 36 questions to help young Jews—and anyone else who picks up this book—feel grounded in the Jewish radical tradition, unlearn Zionism, and deepen their solidarity with Palestinians, offering the B’nai Mitzvah as an opportunity for political awakening open to all. Edited by comedic performance artist and activist Morgan Bassichis with artist and educator Jay Saper and writer Rachel Valinsky, with a foreword by seminal scholar-activist Angela Y. Davis, and illustrations by the artist Nicole Eisenman, this essential volume offers an accessible and challenging set of personal and collective responses to critical questions for our time.
Questions included range from “What even is a Bat Mitzvah?” and “I’m queer/nonbinary/secular/old/not even Jewish—are Bat Mitzvahs for me?” to “Why are there Israeli and American flags in my synagogue?” and “Why do people plant trees in Israel as a Bat Mitzvah gift?” and “What does the olive tree symbolize to Palestinians?” and “What does the watermelon symbolize to Palestinians?” and “What do Palestinian kids do when they turn thirteen?” and “How do I talk to my family about this stuff?”
COMMON SHAPES Podcast, Episode 5: Our Work is a Web
COMMON SHAPES is a podcast about Practices, Systems, and Rituals for a Creative Life, hosted my Marlee Grace.
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo (they/them/Lukaza) is an artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller, cultural worker and person of multitudes. Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of B.I.Q.T.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, queer, trans, people of color) stories.
Listen in to hear us discuss—
The web shape for creative work
How to craft a studio practice
Claiming our work as our main income stream
How to weave your values and your activism into your sharing practices
The radical history of newsletters
Good Hot Sauna, Pt. Richmond, CA
Up until August, 2023
Sweating as Sanctuary in the second Good Hot Flag Series Edition, up from April to August, 2023, designed by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo and fabricated by Cora Lautze.
After flying in the bay for five months, the flag will be raffled off and all proceeds will go towards supporting the incredible work of Transgender Gender-variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP).
Purchase a raffle ticket for a chance to win the flag itself (all purchases include an 11"x17" risograph poster of the flag design), $20
FLIGHT SCHOOL Artist Talk featured on CRIPPLE
~~Endings don’t exist in Flight School, only perpetual growth~~
We are honored to add Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo’s FLIGHT SCHOOL Artist Talk & Transcription, to our curated list of free resources pertaining to disability, Disability Justice and accessibility.
cripple is an extension of the art and design practice of emily sara * an initiative supporting the endeavors of disabled artists and designers. wanna chat? you can email us at the info above or you can also follow the cripple ig account if you want the most current updates, contemporary disabled art and design news, or a good disability themed meme
Part 2. ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES
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