JOE IS JOE
a reading performance from Joe Westmoreland’s 2001 classic novel Tramps Like Us
Sunday, December 27, 2020 at 6pm EST
participantafterdark.art

Hosted by Eileen Myles and Tom Cole

With special guests: Brontez Purnell, Erin Kimmel, Samuel Delany, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Tony Stinkmetal, Lori E. Seid, Ryan McGinley, Johanna Fateman, Roberta Colindrez, and with music by Anohni

This event includes live ASL interpretation by Candace Davider and Lisa Dennett

Tramps Like Us tells a virtually unknown saga of Joe and his buddies and girlfriends on a queer journey through 70s and 80s United States. Tramps lifts the lid on that increasingly utopian analog and mystic searching party time (sweet punk psychedelia) fueled by a flight from repressive family violence dropping us off at the traumatic edge of the early AIDS crisis. Joe banishes the cliché of the 70s and 80s by telling a really deep and felt account of sex and friendship before anyone or anything told us to stop. 

PARTICIPANT AFTER DARK is a virtual performance, screening, and event space launched by PARTICIPANT INC in October 2020. The site will host artist projects commissioned specifically for the AFTER DARK web platform and remote viewing. PARTICIPANT invited artist Glen Fogel to design and help develop AFTER DARK. Artists will work with Fogel ongoing through the Fall/Spring 2020-21 season, inhabiting the site and fully modifying it for their projects' specific needs. AFTER DARK is conceived of as a blank slate, removing as much institutional framework as possible. The site will only present current projects, and will often go ’dark’ in between events.