THISISPOPBABY moves between dance party and theatrical spaces, and brings a queer sensibility to both. Their approach to art and politics is that pleasure is also political, and political engagement can be a pleasure. RIOT is a play on words: they balance between a riotous good time and a furious insistence on the necessity of social change.

Use this study guide to learn more about the troupe, contemporary Irish politics, and the “radical possibilities of pleasure” — and get inspired to take the riotous energy out of the theatre and into the streets, with some NYC-based activist groups!

Watch a trailer for the show

Read about THISISPOPBABY and get a glimpse of RIOT on their website

Read a review of a past production of the show in the Irish Times; and J de Leon (NYU Skirball)’s Indefinite Article: THE FIRST GAY PRIDE WAS A RIOT

Are You Up To Date on Pantigate?

Pantigate: An Illustrated Timeline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This amazing illustrated timeline of PANTIGATE by Irish illustrator Chrissy Curtin will get you up to speed on the political importance of Ireland’s Queen of Drag

“Panti Bliss still can’t get hitched” by Emer O’Toole (2017)

“Guerrilla Glamour: The Queer Tactics of Dr. Panti Bliss” by Emer O’Toole (2017)

And a poem on the politics of everyday life by Jameson Fitzpatrick (NYU): I Woke Up

I thought I was not a political poet and still
my imagination was political.

Office Hours with THISISPOPBABY: Double Feature!

THISISPOPBABY & Alexandro Segade

In this installment of NYU Skirball Office Hours, Alexandro Segade (My Barbarian) talks to Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon about queer aesthetics, Mel Gibson’s favorite part of the show (?!)… plus a lesson in Irish vocabulary!

Alexandro Segade is an artist whose work spans fields of video, theater and visual art, with an emphasis on collaboration across disciplines. Segade is a founding member of the collective My Barbarian and co-chair of Film/Video at Bard College’s MFA program. (Keep an eye out for him in NYU Skirball’s 2018-19 season…)

Jennifer Jennings & Adrienne Truscott

Plus, Adrienne Truscott and Jennifer Jennings get in-depth on the variety show format, and the beauty of a sneakily political art form.

Adrienne Truscott is a choreographer, circus acrobat, dancer, writer, storyteller and comedian. She has been making genre-straddling performances in New York City and abroad for over 20 years. Her show Asking For It: A One Lady Rape About Comedy was a highlight of the 2017-18 NYU Skirball season.

The Politics of Queer Performance

Che Gossett, Reina Gossett, and AJ Lewis, “Reclaiming Our Lineage: Organized Queer, Gender-Nonconforming, and Transgender Resistance to Police Violence,” in A New Queer Agenda, special issue of Scholar & Feminist Online, vol. 10.1-2, Fall 2011/Spring 2012.

Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” “The Uses of the Erotic” and “The Uses of Anger” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 1984).

José Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York: New York University Press, 2009).

Benjamin Heim Shepard, Queer Political Performance and Protest: Play, Pleasure and Social Movement (London: Routledge, 2009).

Dean Spade, “Dress to Kill, Fight to Win,” in LTTR Vol. 1, September 2002

Fintan Walsh, Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland  (2016)

More Ways To Change The World

ACT UP — still here, still queer, still working to stop HIV/AIDS

Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes

The Center is the heart and home of NYC’s LGBT community, providing programs for health, wellness and community connection

FIERCE is a membership-based organization building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color in New York City

Make the Road New York (MRNY) builds the power of Latino and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice through organizing, policy innovation, transformative education, and survival services

NYC Books Through Bars is an all-volunteer-run group that sends free, donated books to incarcerated people across the nation

Planned Parenthood — needs no introduction; always needs donations

Queer Nation is a direct action group dedicated to ending discrimination, violence and repression against the LGBT community

Rise and Resist  was formed in response to the 2016 U.S. election and is working nonstop against #45

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence

Extra Credit

Make sure you’re up on your Irish slang!