NEWS
December 1, 2020
Retrospective last year December 1, 2019
Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague
Curated by Kairon Liu
Last year i was invited to be part of the Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague exhibition in MOCA-Taipei
i wrote then:
Yesterday here in Taipei, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei I had the honor to open the World AIDS Day culminating events to the Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague exhibition, curated by Kairon Liu, with:
Blood Brothers: A multi-media performance installation
authored and performed by poet Brad Walrond
with original collage and visual art by Steven A. Williams
Steven A. Williams beautiful work can be seen here:
Kai is a brilliant photographer, artist, curator, and activist. We met 2018 in New York City during his Residency Unlimited (RU) residency in connection with our work on the launch of the
Luv ‘til it Hurts project.
God knows, when I returned to my creative life, I could not have imagined how my HIV/AIDS activism would inform my new work and propel me into global spaces. My own proximity and witness to this community (which I count as my own) has transformed and magnified my own humanity. I’ve learned, there is no more efficient place to find God than among the sick, the affected, the shunned, the living, the dying, the overcoming, the marginalized. Here, in this community, where God’s diverse creation refuses to hide their own divinity from the world or from one another, I have witnessed kinds of human beauty and power I quite likely may have never known..
This tribe of lovers and livers and givers and healers bring me to my knees.
I’d especially like to thank the men of Taipei, who trusted me and my collaborator, visual artist Steven A. Wlliams with their images and their stories for this Blood Brothers project presented here in Taipei. Thank you Eathan for your generous spirit and your able translation.
Kai your brilliance, courage, and tenderness offer a light-bridge to the world. Your work and sacrifice lends so many, light, and comfort and hope.
Thank you for the honor to work among the sheer brilliance of these artists from around the world and these community workers in Taipei.
This woman right here, the esteemed visionary artist and activist shu Lea Cheang is brilliance BEYOND! There are moments where one’s only job is to listen. Meeting shu Lea and having the honor to share a panel with her during the MOCA-Taipei Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague exhibition curated by Kairon Liu is one of those moments. I believe our connections to others are portals to old and new portions of our own stories. Hearing, if only for a few minutes this being’s mind is a portal to new planets and galaxies in my creative work and practice. Thank you shu Lea for having had the courage to propel your creative visions into the Universe all these years. Your impact is never ending. #art #innovation #taiwan
November 20, 2020
lAbout Place Journal, November 20, 2020
Reading alongside some esteemed badass poets and storytellers for Black Earth Institute’s About Place Journal Works of Resistance, Resilience Vol. VI Issue II virtual reading hosted by Jacqueline Johnson
October 29, 2020
New Pride Agenda, October 29, 2020
Honored to join in with friends, family, and fellow artists in support of the NEW Pride Agenda inaugural fundraiser. Thank you Joey Pressley for thinking of me. It was awesome to meet Cecilia and Sara. And always a life sustaining joy to work with and be in the company of my friend the consummate artist Shelley Nicole Jefferson otherwise known as blakbushe. And I got to enjoy the sounds of Mylo Choy.
October 9, 2020
About Place Journal, October 9, 2020
So honored to have 3 poems: "The Coloring", "Naked", and "above or below" published in the
Black Earth Institute’s About Place Journal Works of Resistance, Resilience
Vol. VI Issue II, October 2020 edited by Jacqueline Johnson.
October 1, 2020
Wallach Art Gallery, October 1, 2020
Had the explicit honor of creating new work alongside Daniel Carlton and Shadenia Davis. The new work performed for the Wallach Art Gallery Harlem Renaissance ...Revolving ...Revisiting.. Re-generation event honors the voices of Harlem Renaissance in their own words and our own sprinkle of passion and insight. The new work is inspired by the writers of the Renaissance and by the incredible historical and contemporary art in the Uptown Triennial 2020 Exhibition at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery.
August 19, 2020
Vera Verão Ball, São Paolo
When the pics come back from Brazil a year and a half later a week before your birthday to remind you who you are.
Thank you:
photo: Luan Batistaph
style: As Nautas
makeup: Gil Oliveira
July 29, 2020
Bocas Lit Fest, July 29, 2020
Celebrating the poetry, activism, artistry, and scholarship of Colin Robinson. Honored to be invited to create new work inspired by Colin’s verse. If you don’t know who Colin Robinson is find out; grab his book off an amazon shelf; “You Have You Father Hard Head” This man’s life work has absolutely made the way of the black the global and the queer a bit smoother than how he found it. He’s brilliant and his activism and scholarship and art speak for itself. Thank you Colin for your friendship and inspiration.
May 23, 2020
Def Poetry Jam marathon of Healing, Power,& Poetry
A streaming event benefiting COVID-19 relief and hosted by Black Ice & Jessica Care Moore. Honored to be invited and to work with these mega talented actors, singers, poets, and activists. And too Jill Scott was on the bill and hit us with some killer poetry and story.
1.
May 22, 2020
Negro Ensemble Company’s Poetry Slam & Fundraiser
hosted by Daniel Carlton
Awesome to kick poems with these bad ass cats while raising money for Legacy Black Arts New York City Institutions. I couldn’t ask for a better way to spend a New York night during quarantine.
December 1, 2019
MOCA-Taipei Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague
Blood Brothers, December 1, 2019
Yesterday here in Taipei at Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei I had the honor to open the World AIDS Day culminating events to the Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague exhibition, curated by Kairon Liu.
I met Kai in New York City during his residency 2018 Residency Unlimited (RU) residency and in collaboration with his work and the launch of Luv 'Til it Hurts.
This year has been spectacular for me in so many ways. Perhaps chief among them is the global opportunities to share my work in São Paulo with Pony Zion, the House of Zion Brasil, Festaamem, Coletivo Coletetores, and Luv 'Til it Hurts and here in Taiwan in collaboration with Kairon Liu and so many others.
God knows when I returned to my creative life I could not have imagined how my HIV/AIDS activism would inform my new work and propel me into global spaces.
I am honored and humbled by how my own proximity and witness to this community (which I count as my own) has transformed and magnified my own humanity and has taught me there is no more efficient place to find God than among the sick, the affected, the shunned, the dying, the marginalized. Here in this community--where the racial, class, gender, sex, and sexual diversity of God’s creation refuses to hide from one another or from their own divinity--I have found kinds of human power and beauty I quite likely may have never known.
This community of lovers and livers bring me to my knees.
I’d like to thank especially the men of Taipei, who trusted me and my collaborator visual artist Steven A. Wlliams with their images and their stories for this Blood Brothers project presented here in Taipei. Thank you Eathan for your generous spirit and your able translation.
Kai your brilliance, courage, and tenderness offer a light bridge to the world. Your work and sacrifice lends so many, light, and comfort and hope.
Thank you for the honor to work among the sheer brilliance of these artists from around the world and these community workers in Taipei.
This woman right here, the esteemed visionary artist and activist Shu Lea Cheang is brilliance BEYOND! There are moments where one’s only job is to listen. Meeting Shu Lea and having the honor to share a panel with her during the Interminable Prescriptions for the Plague exhibition at MOCA--Taipei curated by Karion Liu is one of those moments. I believe our connections to others are portals to old and new portions of our own stories. Hearing, if only for a few minutes, this being’s mind is a portal to new planets and galaxies in my creative work and practice. Thank you Shu Lea for having had the courage to propel your creative visions into the Universe all these years. Your impact is never ending. #art #innovation #taiwan
November 11, 2019
The DAILY SHOW with Trevor Noah, November 11
I was fortunate to get surprise tickets to go with a friend to Comedy Central’s The DAILY SHOW. And what does a poet do at a TV Show? Read a poem of course! During the pre-show the opening comedian zoomed in on my shiny bald head and starting to chat me up. He ask me what i did for a living. I told him I'm a poet and he asked me to share a poem with the audience.
A poet’s life is as exciting as it gets! :-)
October 22, 2019
Chapbook Moonstone Press
Honored to have my poem Poetry of America published in a #chapbook published by Moonstone Press honoring the 85th birthday of Amiri Baraka. The Chapbook is beautiful and opens with an introduction by the ever-Legend Sister Sonia Sanchez. The work shares light with a slew of gifted writers some of whom are:
September 3, 2019
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Sactuary Christian Arts Center, September 3, 2019
Sunday nite in Baltimore at Sanctuary Christian Arts Center with
jessica Care moore & a prolific dose of blackened genius:
Sometimes the ancestors sits us down in our tribe and show us how consequential, how important, how necessary, how divine, the gifts with which we are entrusted truly are.. Ase
Thank you Deacon Tucker and Reverend Kim Tucker for making a sanctuary out of a home; for making a way for artists to hold court with your congregation and the spirit world.
February 21, 2019
Cabaret at The Phluid Project, February 21
Thank you Phillip Miner for inviting me to be part of your festive cast at the Apicha sponsored @apicha cabaret hosted by the phluid project.
The night was fun and inspired. Thank you @malaya.lakas for the honor of reading the poem I wrote for you. Your strength and courage bless so many.
February 17, 2019
Every Where Alien Open mic
Brooklyn Arts Fellowship Gallery, February 17th
Thank you Aaron Simms for having the courage to open the only black owned gallery in Brooklyn. Thanks for inviting me to host an open mic and to share my work.
Thanks Brian Polite @polite.brian and Joel Francois @simplelifepoet for featuring. And mega thanks to all the old and new heads who came out.
February 15-16, 2020
Black Poetry Conference at Princeton
#blackpoetryprinceton February 15-16
I had the honor to attend and participate in the discourse among pure black poetry genius. Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Tyehimba Jess, jessica Care moore, Terrance Hayes, Jericho Brown, Mahogony Brown, Roger Reeves, Fred Moten, Nikki Finney, Douglas Kearney, and so much more.
February 14, 2020
Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, Black History Month #bhm2019
Valentine’s Day 2019 I was honored to be asked to host 2 dope show at the iconic Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe curated by my friend and frequent collaborator Joel Francois. Myself Joel and Harlem born singer-songwriter Te’von opened for the incomparable Rudy Francisco. All we killed it! The audience was awesome!!!
Thank you Rudy for letting us rock with you.
February 25, 2019
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Zion Residency, São Paulo Brazil,
Vera Verão Ball January 2019
São Paolo is awesome. The two weeks Pony and I spent with the House of Zion Brazil was nothing short of incredible. Thank you, House of Zion Brazil, Festa Amem, Luv 'til it Hurts and Esponja for hosting us. Thanks to the expert work of Coletivo Colotores we were able to get awesome footage of the work we did there. The Every Where Alien's Zion narrative documentary project is well under way.
I got to conduct two performance workshops: one at the São Paulo Theatre School and the other in the periphery. I also opened The House of Zion Brazil's 2019 Vera Verao REVOLUTION NOW Ball with my poem 1986 chronicling 30 years of Black Queer activism and organizing in response to homophobia, transphobia, and HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Pony conducted several dance and performance workshops and did the earnest joyful work of continuing to lead, build, and inspire House of Zion Brazil with the legacy of the House Ballroom Community and the transference of his wisdom and expertise in leadership development, performance, and community building. Please check out the São Paulo page on the website for my special thanks.
January 11, 2019
Thank you Universe for making a way for me to launch every where alien: a global art, culture, and content producing pedagogy and brand.
Every thing we do as human beings is a collective effort; it is only the language and logic of capital that would suggest otherwise. We are each products of our ancestors. I am a shimmer on a river rich and glistening with the love, joy, grief, courage, and sacrifice of countless friends, teachers, colleagues, mentors, misfits, lovers, cousins, aunties, uncles, brothers, and sisters.
We are all every where alien except in our own skin.
This lens, this pedagogy is a geyser out of which many collaborative projects will emerge. Our aim is to transform our world by co-creating new futures one story at a time.
For every where alien’s inaugural story, I am honored to tell, in the form of a narrative documentary, the story of Zion—a house in the House Ballroom scene founded in New York City by Pony Zion and spread to Brazil. Pony and I leave to São Paulo Brazil on Monday January 14th as part of a Luv ’til it Hurts residency to begin filming this project. We are grateful for the stupendous institutional and personal support we have received thus far and look forward to an astonishing time as every where alien partners with the House of Zion, Festa Amem, Luv til it Hurts and Coletivo Coletores to do the rock scrabble collaborative work of creating a future more suitable for all us humans with alien souls one project at a time.
To find out more about every where alien and this project go to the every where alien tab on this website and peek around.
Love,
Brad
November 12, 2018
Ntozake Shange died October 27, 2018. I was with my close friend
and renown poet jesssica Care moore celebrating her birthday in
Brooklyn, New York when we heard the news of Ntozake’s passing.
Her death hit us hard. We had the honor of sharing quality time
with Ntozake back in March in Miami at the Maroon Poetry Festival
convened by Aja Monet to honor the elder revolutionary poets,
writers, visual artists, and activists of the Black Power and Black Arts
movements. Ntozake was so vibrant and powerful and eager to hear
the younger poets. I’m honored to say Ntozake got to hear me read.
She said, “Brad your audience is waiting for you”. Her words echo
in my heart.
I am here because her life, work, and legacy are standard bearers
of this black poetics tradition. I am here because her pen game bows
to no one. I am here because she understood, perhaps better than any, this work
is a genre splitting full-bodied enterprise that demands a thriving spirit of
collaboration with fellow creatives.
I was honored to attend her funeral service in
Washington D.C on November 12, 2018.
Thank you Ntozake
Poets (from left to right) Brad Walrond, jessica Care moore, & Tony Medina
Zake
she is the stardust dew pooled high on the tall grass of morning
she is the reddened ambition wrapped round the petal of a rose
she is a pile of bravery seeding a unicorn rainforest
she is a giggle un-collapsed and shaking
she is a woman’s voice set free and wild dancing double-Dutch &salsa
in &outside the plastic structure of a poem
she is what a poem cld be without trying.
she is the liquid that knew herself to be fire
she is the music of a whole city on a page
she is the wanderlust of everything feminine
she is the sound of bright soprano birds making love in a tree
she is our first introduction to wet-kissed wind
hers is the tongue that touches you everywhere
she is the first memory of any noun with or without a good reason
to practice living outside the lines
she is the lyric of brown fairytales told in yellows and purples
and greens and blues
she is causing a scene!
she is a lover’s recurring dream
she is apple pie tied to a tie-dye crust
she is a rocket giving birth for the very first time
she cannot be missed
she is everywhere inside us
Laughing at all the rules.
--bw
copyright 2018