Presenter biographies will be linked below as they become available. Final program subject to change.
In this session, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat will convene a long-table conversation called “PILLOWTALK—Post Gay Marriage Politics” to engage the public in an open-ended, “dinner conversation” that brings together multiple perspectives in a performance-based dialogue. Twelve chairs surround a table and the public will be invited to take a seat to talk, sit in the audience when they want to listen, and move in between as the mood strikes (or as requested by a moderator). “PILLOWTALK—Post Gay Marriage Politics” will be catalyzed with a 15 minute, video screening of an excerpt of PILLOWTALK and a quote from Bruce Benderson’s “Against Marriage,” to spark and provoke critical-thinking about the intersections of gay marriage and racial politics. This 90-minute long conversation will be facilitated by Stephanie Hsu (Pace University) and feature the participation of Beto O’Byrne, Bryan Glover (Founder, Harlem9), and the lead artists of PILLOWTALK—Raja Feather Kelley, Daniel K. Isaac, and Kyoung H. Park.
About PILLOWTALK: Since 2013, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat—a peacemaking theater company—has been developing PILLOWTALK, an experimental, new play exploring gay marriage politics. PILLOWTALK, written and directed by Kyoung H. Park, is an intimate two-character drama centered around Sam and Buck, a newlywed interracial gay couple. Using inventive staging incorporating elements of ballet’s pas de deux, the play looks at the evolving values of gay marriage through the shifting priorities of this young couple and asks, can queer communities of color truly celebrate gay marriage in the times of #BlackLivesMatter?