benjamin lundberg torres sánchez

about

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curation

  • se aculilló?
  • From Procession to Possession

I. performance

  • Ancestres
  • No Wet Materials
  • The Island
  • TO THE BONE
  • El Montón
  • Incorporated Mark: a skin-to-skin for two
  • Safety Pin Removal
  • A Lengua for Mi Boca
  • Audition for Trinity
  • Baudio (Tape 1)
  • Limpieza de Sangre
  • Parachute, (circa 1988 - 2006)
  • i dug 54 stones from the providence river
  • Product of Colombia
  • Lundberg/Torres-Sanchez (L/T-S: Pts. I-III)
  • Hold/Release
  • Naturalization (L/T-S: Pt. I)
  • Colombioplasty (L/T-S: Pt. II)
  • WHITE LIES/ EXIST TO PROTECT PRIVACY
  • Mic Check After the Zimmerman Verdict
  • Prism
  • The Same Colombian: a tête-à-tête for two
  • Memoir: Draft 1

II. visual art + installation

  • others in losing
  • Choqué: Otra Vez
  • #ColorPoll2017
  • Color Poll
  • Casa de Casta

III. video

  • for our sake, not the wind's
  • Bendiciones
  • SPIT/TAKE/PAY/BACK
  • Empire: Can’t Remember to Forget You [Pt.1]
  • The more I hold you
  • Choqué: I collide

IV. spectacles

  • Miss La La & the Roustabouts
  • There's a time and a place...
  • A New Game:
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Mic Check After the Zimmerman Verdict

Mic Check After the Zimmerman Verdict
Performance. (2013)

An improvised performance of/about power as the beneficiary of white supremacy and anti-Black racism.

In a performance directly inspired by the writing of El Jones, I dress in Zimmerman drag and use the human microphone technique, re-popularized by Occupy Wall Street, to amplify messages about white and light-skinned privilege, in response to the “I am Trayvon Martin” meme. Though largely improvised, the performance includes the full text of El Jones’ writing beginning “Instead of saying ‘I am Trayvon Martin’…” and also briefly references 2050 Legacy‘s performance, How It Ends.

The retroactively named Mic Check After the Zimmerman Verdict begins with the supposition that the BIPAF organizers, “relative strangers”, trusted me with 10-minutes of uninterrupted performance time because my body does not “pose a threat.” It next identifies the space of performance art as a space of privileged voice. Next, El Jones’ writing is spoken, before concluding with a personal account recounting racist neighborhood watch-doggery in the performer’s home suburb of Plano, Texas.

Performance History:

Performed 15 July 2013
at Goodbye Blue Monday
as part of BIPAF’s 10-Minute Marathon
during the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival
Acrhival photos by Hrag Vartanian
Archival video by Alex Berry & Rae Goodwin
Another performance remnant captured on Hrag Vartanian’s Instagram.

Note: I am incredibly indebted to El Jones, 2050 Legacy, my then partner, Marika Kent, and many other friends, colleagues, and fellow artists for their challenging work, questions, and provocations that have allowed me to expand self-reflections on my own privilege and power as a beneficiary of white supremacy and anti-Black racism as a light skinned Latinx. This performance represents a moment in time in this ongoing process.

Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival<br>© Rae Goodwin 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival
© Rae Goodwin 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival<br>© Rae Goodwin 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival
© Rae Goodwin 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival<br>© Hrag Vartanian 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival
© Hrag Vartanian 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival<br>© Hrag Vartanian 2013
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival
© Hrag Vartanian 2013