MOUTHS WIDE OPEN
Announces
A COMMUNITY CENTER
July 20th-August 24th 2004
GET INVOLVED!!
Mouths Wide Open will host a summer Community Center in Washington Square Church, 135 West 4th Street, Manhattan. The Center will serve as a meeting place, hub and information exchange point for the six weeks leading up to the Republican National Convention. We envision the Center as a vibrant hive of civic, activist and artistic activity – a space that will encourage collaborative civic-engagement projects, inspire daily discussion and conversation, offer to register voters, provide a venue for meetings and video screenings, function as a place to make fliers and posters for distribution, and foster the creation of on-site elements for the Mouths Wide Open performance event in the same space. That performance event, The Republic in Ruins, on August 31st and September 1st & 2nd, will be the culmination of Mouths Wide Open’s summer activities.
The Center will be staffed by Members of Mouths Wide Open along with other volunteers. They’ll be on hand to serve as through-line support, to distribute materials and to help promote involvement. Passersby and visitors to Washington Square Park (half a block away) will be encouraged to drop in, and people from various communities and organizations will be contacted and invited to participate in activities, exchange ideas and collaborate on projects. We’ll spread the word about the Center via our web site, through our activities at other events, actions and demonstrations in the city, by going out into surrounding communities, through our connections to other organizations and through word of mouth.
ART and COMMUNITY
"Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves.
It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context so conversation
can flow back and forth and we can be influenced by each other."
W.E.B. Du Bois
The connection of art with community has been a core concern for many of us in our lifework, and to this end, the Community Center will foster a crossover of energy between artistic and social expression. A community art project will evolve over the course of the Center’s life span that will have an in-process nature, so people dropping in can constantly view the progress and add on to the work. This interactive art component will consist of three elements: video montages, a wallpaper piece and books.
Two Video Montages
1. People will be taped reciting what they know of the First (and what some consider the most crucial) Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Free copies of the Constitution will be on hand to flesh out the parts they don’t remember.
2. Children will be recorded saying the Pledge of Allegiance. This particular video montage will be subsequently used in the installation element of our performance event, The Republic in Ruins, August 31st and September 1st & 2nd.
Wallpaper
In addition, "If the Walls Could Speak," a visual expression of what’s on the minds of those who visit and participate in the Center, will be developed. Through the use of a series of hanging "walls" covered with excerpts from people’s thoughts, ideas and comments, we will define the perimeter of the Center’s space – creating a lively, evolving "conversation" at all times.
Books
Two books will be on display for people to read and consider: One will consist of a sequence of emails sent to us by a witness for peace in Iraq; The other will be filled with soldiers’ letters relating their experiences of the war.
WHY HOST A COMMUNITY CENTER?
The Community Center is an expression of Mouths Wide Open’s commitment to share in citizen making. Our motto, the Gunter Grass statement: "The job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open." – refers to the job of a citizen, a concept at the core of why the work of our group, and groups like ours, is a social imperative. Being a citizen does take work, it’s a responsibility, and democracy can’t flourish without active citizens enriching and enlivening its fundamental principles. That sense of citizen-ship has atrophied to a large degree, and many people have no access to developing that part of their lives. Our goal is to create a forum for expressing thoughts and feelings about larger social issues. Because Mouths Wide Open is not affiliated with a particular ideology, because it invites everyone to participate, because it makes shape for thought through artistic form, and because it has a "can-do" attitude about the importance of ordinary citizens contributing to the policies and conduct of their nation … For all these reasons, we encourage you to get involved! JOIN US!
Mouths Wide Open members, spearheaded by Katt Lissard, will lead and coordinate events at the Community Center. Much will be happening and much will need to be done: committing time to staff the Center; leading information forays out into the surrounding communities and beyond; going to other meetings and events to popularize the Center; organizing speakers, video screenings, etc. Guest artists, like members Noni Pratt and Merry Conway of Conway and Pratt Projects, will be on hand to help facilitate the "If the Walls Could Speak" component, and videographer Mike Taylor will be taking the lead on capturing the video segments.
All are welcome to participate. We imagine a lively, creative atmosphere in which people from a cross-section of class and community come together.
The Community Center will be open from late afternoon until early evening Monday, Tuesday and Thursday – Saturday (see schedule below), until right before the Convention. Beginning August 24th, all our efforts will be focused on the big Anti-RNC Demonstration on Sunday, August 29th (see: www.unitedforpeace.org), and on the Mouths Wide Open performance event The Republic In Ruins. We will be open later on Friday and Saturday nights, which are designated as "event nights." An event night might include a video showing and post-screening discussion; a speaker or a panel of speakers brought in to address a particular topic; a reading (theatre, poetry, prose, etc.); or something like an open mike/idea exchange.
Please JOIN US!!
CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER!
Mouths Wide Open's Community Center
WHERE: Washington Square Church 135 West 4th Street
(Between 6th Avenue and MacDougal)
Subway stops: CLOSEST: West 4th Street on the F, V, E, C, A, D & B trains
Also, the 8th Street stop on the R train; Astor Place stop on the 6
WHEN: Tuesday, July 20th through Tuesday, Aug 24th:
DOORS OPEN:
Monday: 1:00 - 3:00 & 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Tuesday: 1:00 - 3:00 & 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 1:00 - 6:30
Friday: 5:30 - 10:30
Saturday: 4:00 – 10:30
Sunday: Closed