VIEWING HOURS

Viewing Hours came to be in 2019 when I was working in the Bronx as an urban farmer, making compost and feeling that the compost was somehow informing every aspect of my life. At the same time I was writing letters to my chosen ancestor, Marsha P. Johnson who came into my life through my friend and artist, Micah Bazant who helped me learn an alternative history of this queer ancestor that I hadn't learned when I was in college. Micah painted a beautiful portrait of Marsha and I fell in love with her story from that painting. When I was 46, I moved to New York and I realized that Marsha was 46 when they found her decomposing body in the Hudson River. I was going through a dark period of my life at the time and contemplating death a lot--especially Black queer death.  It all came together as I was participating in a program called Dance and Process at The Kitchen where I began to buy myself in compost and decaying flowers from the farm where I was working. Viewing Hours was an intimate performance where I buried myself in over 40 pounds of compost and decaying flowers, invited small groups (no more than 5 people) into the room as I lay in repose. We would breath together for about 15 minutes and the next group would come. This lasted for two hours. It was an homage too Marsha.