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Free Performance Celebrates Queer Artists and Rabble Rousers
Gender Tender is the upcoming artist to perform as part of Artists at the Center, a year-long slate of performances featuring up-and-coming artists to celebrate the recent opening of Climate Pledge Arena, offering unique and varied performances during 2022 at the Seattle Center.
The free performance, MELTED RIOT, will use tactics rooted in dance, durational performance and visual art at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 27 on the Fisher Pavilion Rooftop. MELTED RIOT is a performance inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and other artwork demonstrations by queer artists.
“MELTED RIOT softens the word riot (a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd) and replaces the word violent with somatic, satirical, surreal, and psychedelic,” said the artist behind Gender Tender, Fox Whitney. “This work is a thank you to queer artists and rabble rousers and features a punk chorus of voices, bodies and sculptural interventions coming together to channel messages from our queer and transgender ancestors.”
Gender Tender began in 2012 as a way for Whitney to center his queer, Black, mixed, transgender point of view and investigate his queer relationships, trans histories and the nature of transformation. The performance project engages a team of artists trained in Fox’s unique methods modeled on cults, sitcoms and riots. MELTED RIOT features Whitney, Will Courtney, Moonyeka and Otto Barry.
“…the palpable intimacy between Whitney and Courtney, spoke to the sense of belonging places like the Stonewall (or Seattle’s Double Header, or Wallingford’s Changes) would offer to their regulars: a refuge away from the judgmental mores of the world they lived in,” José Amador wrote in Seattle Dances. “Once established, this sense of Time and Place suffused the proceedings, lending individual moments a diffuse gravity in abstraction.”
MELTED RIOT is the fourth installment of Artists at the Center this year. Whitney is available for interviews Feb. 24-27.
Seattle Center, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Climate Pledge Arena, Uptown Arts & Culture Coalition, and Seattle Kraken partnered to create Artists at the Center. The program features free pop-up performances on Seattle Center grounds through September 2022. It hosts music, dance, theatre, and multi-disciplinary performances, presented by individual artists and performance groups based in the Puget Sound region.
For performance schedules, details, and to learn more about the artists, visit Artists at the Center. To learn more about virtual and in-person activities at Seattle Center this month and beyond, visit www.seattlecenter.com or call (206) 684-7200.
About Artists at the Center
Artists at the Center is a multi-year collaboration between Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Center, with support from Uptown Arts & Culture Coalition and the communities adjacent to Seattle Center campus. The project is made possible by a 10-year grant from Climate Pledge Arena and Seattle Kraken. Join us as we introduce emerging and established artists and celebrate their talent on a newly revitalized Seattle Center campus. The program provides artists with a performance opportunity, allowing them to connect with new audiences, display their talents and advance their careers. Visitors to campus and the surrounding neighborhood benefit from surprising and delightful pop-up performances throughout the year. Each year, artists are selected through an open application process with an equity and social justice lens, ensuring equitable representation for underserved and emerging artists. Artistic genres include music, dance, theater, demonstrations, and multi-disciplinary work.
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