Image description: musical score with five horizontal lines of a western musical staff, upon which float five symbols. From left to right: a curling treble clef; a time signature with the word Sick over the word Time. Then, a red arterial painted glob with thin lines extending diagonally; a black rectangle hanging from a middle staff line, the symbol for a whole rest. Finally two small black dots before a pair of vertical lines, a repeat symbol. Beneath the score are the words “sound,” “rest,” and “repeat.”
Thursday, April 24th at 8pm, at the 22 Boerum Pl. theater, ISSUE is proud to present AIR CHANGE PER HOUR, the first commission from 2025 Artist-In-Residence Anna RG that interrogates relationships between sound, space, and accessibility in the context of airborne safety. Rooted in the ongoing realities of the pandemic, this work challenges expectations of silence in performance spaces by embracing the presence of air purifiers—not just as functional access objects, but as sonic, conceptual and political agents within the room.
they said purifiers were loud, meant audible sound. held silence over safety, one sense above another. but here in the corner the purifier is humming furniture music in Bb. it is holding duets between the loud of the ache in my head and the song through the fog. it is setting a room, shared resonant lung, and in we move the air we borrow, and here it filters what our bodies cannot. accompanist to a row of stories; like held their breath and wait for help, like letters from a fever. lean in, a rumble, lean in, what kind of future breeze, out of the corner of your eye?
RG, who lives with long covid, creates AIR CHANGE PER HOUR with support from access dramaturg Alison Kopit, composer Alexa Dexa, and engineer Daniel Neumann; and features guest performers Dave Ruder and Slic, and writing by Jenna Bitar. They will be joined by a group of disabled/chronically ill artists performing “Scores for Sick Music.” The bed performers may or may not be present.
ACCESS INFORMATION: All access will be open, meaning that the full audience experiences the access-rich environment of the show. Audio descriptions will be featured throughout, and the full production will be open-captioned, including sonic descriptions. The audience will also be asked to mask, which is a part of the access infrastructure. The show contains themes of pandemics, chronic illness, isolation, genocide, and collective care, and so we ask the audience to protect each other, as well as the performers, with this material act of solidarity.** The space is wheelchair accessible, and has two gender-neutral accessible bathrooms. The show is seated, and has a series of short rests/breaks. Guests are welcome to move and make sounds as needed, throughout the evening. Air purifiers are present ensuring at least 6 air changes per hour in the space. Please contact us if you have further questions about access, at sylver@issueprojectroom.org. We look forward to speaking with you!
The artist would like to thank: Molly Joyce, Jay Afrisando, and Andy Slater for guidance. Thank you to the members and borrowers of AIRNYC and who facilitate this community air purifier library that allowed this performance to be possible.
**Thank you to Alison Kopit, for the use of this access text, created for “Dan Fishback is Alive and Unwell and Living in his Apartment” at the Public Theater.
Anna RG works in composition, sculpture and community organizing, towards possibilities of Sick Music making and listening. For a decade, she toured with her research-based ballad project, Anna & Elizabeth, their Smithsonian Folkways album called a “radical expansion of what folk songs are supposed to do” by The New Yorker. They performed at Carnegie Hall, Big Ears Festival (where she was guest curator of traditional music), NPR’s Tiny Desk and many other venues not currently accessible to high risk artists. Anna has collaborated widely, including with the Aizuri Quartet, Lonnie Holley, Glen Hansard, Paul Wiancko, Jim White, and the dearly departed Susan Alcorn, and has won blue ribbons in fiddle contests across Appalachia. They hold an MFA in sculpture from Bard College, is a MacDowell Fellow, and recently exhibited at Tulca Festival (Galway). She is a member of the collective Artists In Resistance NYC (AIRNYC) which operates a lending library of the community-owned air purifiers used in the show, which are available for anyone to borrow, for free.
Respect your RSVP
ISSUE encourages a culture of respect around free arts programming–by honoring your RSVP, you recognize ISSUE’s ongoing efforts to cultivate new work by emerging artists. If you can no longer attend this free event, please contact sylver@issueprojectroom.org to let us know. Thank you for respecting the reservation.
