How To Build A Fire: Sanjana Nair
WHEN:
APRIL 29TH, 2022
8PM (LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH)
WHERE:
IN PERSON AT OPEN SOURCE GALLERY AND ON ZOOM (Meeting ID: 892 0295 3868)
WHO:
SANJANA NAIR
Sanjana Nair is a tenured, full-time professor at the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Previously a professor at Miami University and then New York University, she served as the first Treasurer for the Asian American Poetry organization Kundiman. Her poetry has been published in a variety of journals spanning from Spoon River Poetry Review to The Southampton Review.
Deeply invested in collaboration, her work has been performed in multiple Emotive Fruition shows New York City and her piece The Lady Apple, a collaboration between poet and composer, was performed at Tribeca’s Flea Theater and featured on National Public Radio’s Soundcheck. She has appeared at Barnes & Noble in Union Square, NYC’s Rubin Museum and many other venues. Recently, she has been translating old German fairytales into English from the private, vaulted and protected collection of Von Schoenwerth; tales all but forgotten that have never been translated into English. These translations have been the inspiration for multiple digital and light art shows, both in Berlin and projected larger than life on the Manhattan bridge in New York City. She resides with her daughter and husband in Brooklyn.
WHAT:
SEASON 8
It’s mind-boggling that we are into our 8th season of storytelling at Open Source Gallery (our third during the pandemic era). In Season 6, hosts Christina Marks and Stacie Evans were tasked with taking HTBAF online. Last Season, Jackie Reason and Lily White worked in a hybrid environment by bringing many of the storytellers to the gallery and zooming from that vantage point on 17th Street, to an online audience. For Season 8 we are making two changes that feel appropriate to the times. When the series began, we wanted to reflect the part of the nature of the gallery itself: that art isn’t just about entertainment, and that stories can breach the inherent gaps that exist within our local communities.
Terence Degnan will be returning as curator and host for Season 8 and the format will shift to long-form narratives, which will give our audiences a more immersive encounter with the stories, themselves. There will be twelve storytellers and the gallery audience will be limited to ten invitees, in compliance with social distancing protocols. Attendees will be asked to bring proof of vaccination for entry. There will be one story every month (for up to 45 minutes) and, as always, the event will be livestreamed. In the grassroots world of arts programming, pandemics breed change. While long-form stories aren’t wildly original, maybe the idea of taking one in -in a time of tailored news and flash floods- is. Stories do not always entertain. They can, on rare occasion, serve to break down societal barriers that divide communities. They humanize us. And if they find a rhythm, they can even be meditative.
This program is supported by the Puffin Foundation
