What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now?

For our last workshop before the election, we've been invited to participate in the Brooklyn Museum's legendary First Saturday programming.  Throughout the afternoon, we will have a pop-up installation where museum-goers can add their ideas into the "I want a ____ for President" fill-in forms, and upload their contributions to social media.  At 6:30pm, after a conversation around contemporary politics, we'll gather to create another crowd-sourced adaptation of Zoe Leonard's inspiring 1992 text.  Asking what has changed and what has stayed the same since then, we'll work together to update and add to her demands.  The new text will be archived, along with past workshop adaptations, on our website.  
 

As part of the programming around this election season, The High Line in NY has organized "Soapbox Response," an opportunity to reflect on artist Zoe Leonard's (b. 1961, Liberty, NY) 1992 text-based work "I want a president." Leonard's piece, currently presented as a 20 x 30 foot wheat-paste installation adjacent to the High Line at West 13th Street, calls for a president who more accurately represents neglected and disenfranchised communities. 

SoapBox Response invites artists, activists, and thinkers to share contemporary responses to Leonard's work, on Mondays, Oct 17th, 24th, and 31st at 5pm on The High Line, in front of the installation, just under the Standard Hotel at Little West 12th St. Learn more at: http://bit.ly/hlsoapbox. (We encourage you to go to all 3, and RSVP on the High Line's event page as well: https://www.facebook.com/events/177498402699829/) 

For the October 31 event, we've been invited to participate by organizing another (shorter) Collective Reading of the original & our 2016 adaptation. We will read these two texts in unison one time each, connecting the concerns of the past with the needs of the present, and collectively-voiced desires for an alternate future. Please come as early as you can to support the other readers starting at 5. We're likely going towards the end, around 6, but won't know exactly when till it all comes together. Please bring your voice, heart & brain! 

This event is free to attend & free to participate - closest entrance is either at Gansevoort and Washington St and walk north, or at the 14th St entrance and walk south.

The New York reading is presented in collaboration with Visual AIDS & The High Line.

Other SoapBox Respondants: 
Nancy Agabian
Shaun Leonardo
Ivan Monforte
Meera Nair
Amir Parsa
James Scruggs
Caron Atlas
Mahina Movement
Michael Kennelly
Sol Aramendi
Risa Shoup
Pauline Park
Patty Heffley
Diya Vij
Melissa Liu
Sherry Dobbin
"I want a president...(a collective reading-DC)" in partnership with Visual AIDS
Manon Slome
Andrea Louie
Glory Edim
Jaret Vadera
Susana Torruela Leval
...among many others

Join Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson and the Corcoran School for the Arts-GW for this editing workshop, and help shape the final text to be read at the White House. Here we will compare the many updated versions created across a series of workshops responding to a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard, which listed demands for a new U.S. president, to create.

The goal of this workshop will be to create a composite adaptation that addresses what we deem the most pressing issues and experiences missing from presidential politics today. This final adapted text will be read, along with the original, in a large collective action on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House.

The event is free and open to the public.
 

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. To learn more about the project and our growing list of community partners, visit: https://www.facebook.com/iwantapresidentdc/

The event is free and open to the public.

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. To learn more about the project and our growing list of community partners, visit: https://www.facebook.com/iwantapresidentdc/

The event is free and open to the public.

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. To learn more about the project and our growing list of community partners, visit: https://www.facebook.com/iwantapresidentdc/

The event is free and open to the public.

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. 

The event is free and open to the public!

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. 

The event is free and open to the public, but please register here to reserve your spot at the table! 

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now?

Curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson invite the public to join in a writing workshop to adapt, update and engage with a 1992 text by artist and activist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president. The adapted texts from a series of workshops this fall will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House. To learn more about the project and our growing list of community partners, visit: https://www.facebook.com/iwantapresidentdc/

The event is free and open to the public, but please register with the following link to reserve your spot at the table! 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-workshop-at-the-potters-house-tickets-26932446673

What do you want in a president? What experiences should be reflected? What do you wish to see in government that seems impossible from where we stand now? 

We are thrilled to announce our first community-based writing workshop.  Co-hosted by Transformer as part of the fantastic programming line-up for EXILE Books@Transformer, this participatory public workshop will be led by E:13 resident writer Ikram Landahar in tandem with IWAP-DC curators Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson.  

This event is an opportunity for collective political re-imagining, engaging with and adapting a 1992 text by artist Zoe Leonard listing demands for a new U.S. president, as well as the pop-up EXILE Books installation. The adapted texts from the workshops will be archived online and will culminate in a public collective reading on Oct 16 at 5:30 pm in front of the White House.

We are thrilled to have been invited by the DC-based collective Furthermore to share I want a president...A Collective Reading - DC at their upcoming Furthermore Happy Hour.  Every once in a while, Furthermore hosts these casual events to check in with their community and fellow creatives, see what everyone is up to, and introduce new projects.

This month, IWAP-DC co-organizers Natalie Campbell and Saisha Grayson will present ideas and invite feedback for the first US iteration of this international action inspired by Zoe Leonard’s 1992 text, and the collective readings of it that have happened across Europe since 2010. Please join us!