baldwin[GIOVANNI]brando

baldwin[GIOVANNI]brando is an interrogation of the way black bodies, specially Baldwin’s body, become mythologized by removing the complexity and humanity of the lived experience in order to fit comfortably inside a heteronormative white social ideology and a fractured exploration of oppression and the struggle to connect through it. On a narrative level baldwin[GIOVANNI]brando uses the conceit of the room in the novel as the foundation for it’s exportation. The piece takes place in the room of the novel but inserts Baldwin’s body into the narrative through projection, recordings, writings and images. Baldwin’s gaze and voice are seen and heard throughout the piece. The performers weave between histories and identities imagined and real, fictional and biographical. It is an attempt to explore oppression and the complexities of normativity and otherness through paying tribute to Baldwin’s work, biography and legacy. It is a RE-membering of Baldwin through the collective consciousness of queer artists influence by his work and live in his wake.