Triple Canopy: Answers with Questions, Gregg Bordowitz with Morgan Bassichis and The Illustrious Pearl, 12/2
[Image description: Two black and white photographic portraits sit side by side. On the left is Morgan Bassichis, he has shoulder length hair and mascara, and on the right is The Illustrious Pearl she has exaggerated makeup and false eyelashes with a page boy haircut, neither looks at the camera.]
You can also watch this event on December 2 at 8 p.m. EST, here.
Join Triple Canopy for the premiere of episode 3 of Answers with Questions, an advice show hosted by Gregg Bordowitz and friends. This three-episode streaming series follows from Some Styles of Masculinity, an ongoing series of performances (commissioned in 2018 by the New Museum) in which Bordowitz probes the personas of the rock star, rabbi, and comedian, which are fundamental to his formation as an artist and activist.
The comedian and performer Morgan Bassichis will join Bordowitz to parse the relevance and political possibilities of humor. They will either try to make each other laugh or sit together and quietly sob. Featuring musical guest The Illustrious Pearl.
Readers are encouraged to submit questions by emailing questions@canopycanopycanopy.com or calling 201–467–8592. Send questions on how to navigate the awkwardness of social isolation, conquer bad habits, and find freedom and belonging amid so much uncertainty.
Participant Biographies
Gregg Bordowitz is a writer, artist, activist, and educator whose work dissects and expands discourses on HIV/AIDS, queerness, and Jewish heritage through video, sculpture, drawing, writing, and performance. Bordowitz’s work has been exhibited at Artists Space, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and the Whitney Museum among other institutions. His retrospective, “Gregg Bordowitz: I Wanna Be Well,” was organized in 2019 by the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, and subsequently presented at the Art Institute of Chicago; the exhibition will open at MoMA PS1 in the spring of 2021. He is the author of several books, and his films have been screened worldwide.
Morgan Bassichis is a performer who has been called “a tall child or, well, a big bird” by the Nation and “fiercely hilarious” by the New Yorker. Recent shows include Nibbling the Hand that Feeds Me (Whitney Museum, NYC, 2019), Klezmer for Beginners (with Ethan Philbrick, Abrons Arts Center, New York City, 2019), Damned If You Duet (the Kitchen, New York City, 2018), More Protest Songs! (Danspace Project, New York City, 2018), and The Faggots & their Friends Between Revolutions: The Musical (with TM Davy, DonChristian Jones, Michi Ilona Osato, and Una Aya Osato, New Museum, New York City, 2017). They live in New York City.
The Illustrious Pearl is a queer poet and drag performer. Their work has been published in POETRY, the Margins, WUSSY, and elsewhere. They have received honors from the New York Foundation of the Arts, Kundiman, the Asian American Writers Workshop, and MacDowell. As a standing member of the Brooklyn-based drag/burlesque collective Switch N’ Play, they have performed at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Sawdust, and New York Live Arts. Wo was born in Macau, China, and currently lives in New York. Follow their work at @theillustriouspearl.