FOUR VENUES, FOUR LANGUAGES, FOUR DAYS.
In partnership with The Clemente, a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space rooted in the Lower East Side; Mount Sinai Hospital, Rivington Street branch; South Street Seaport Museum; Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem; and additional locations TBD. Open Call to NYC-based immigrant artists, dancers, and musicians. Presented in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Wolof, and two other languages.
Poetic Consultations are individual conversations between artists and members of the public. Each consultation takes place around a table: it begins with a free conversation and ends with the artist reading or singing a poem or song specifically chosen for the participant. At the end of the consultation, the participant receives a personalized poem or song in the form of a “poetic prescription.” Consultations are free 20-minute experiences, individual meetings based on listening, on time given to the other, on a moment to share life, poetry, music and dance. Poetic Consultations is a new practice that rethinks the relationship between the public and the performer, imagined by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, Director of the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and playwright, poet, and novelist Fabrice Melquiot.
An unexpected meeting, face to face, in the flesh, between an actor, a musician, or a dancer and a person around poetry. A table and two chairs create intimacy. Equipped with a collection of over 100 poems, invented on the model of the medical dictionary of the same name, the actor chooses a poem from what has been said, the dancer a choreography, the musician a melody. A poetic consultation is a 20-minute individual conversation with an artist. It begins with a simple question: "How are you?" Based on the answer a poem, a dance or a music is selected by the artist as a "poetic prescription" and read or performed in the streets and public gardens of the city, wherever possible. Initiated as a means to combat isolation and create activities for artists during the first lockdown, the project has evolved in different forms, always remaining free of charge for the public.
Location & Schedule