The Deeper Half Blue: Listening Session with Joe Namy

Sun., Dec. 8, 1 -4 p.m.
Admission is free * RSVP requested
Minnesota Museum of American Art

What gets amplified in our pockets, on our screens, in our DMs? This Saturday afternoon, join an assembly of artists, dancers, and poets for a collective listening experience, using music as material to address modes of deep listening in difficult times.

Join artist Joe Namy and local creatives who will help shape the experience, including: Margaret Ogas, Dua Saleh, Sagirah Shahid, and David Mura. (More local artists may yet be added.) During the listening session, artists will play a track and share context for their choice. Artists and audience will then discuss what resonated. Following three rounds of listening and discussion a dancer will summarize through movement what was heard and felt—how the sounds of the experience reverberated deeply throughout our bodies. This session is conceived as an extension to Namy’s installation Half Blue, as part of the exhibition History Is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary, commissioned by Mizna.

Half Blue comes out of a long-term poetic exploration on the colors, tones, and language that have emerged around the increased militarization of police and its everyday impact on our community. It offers a space for contemplation, a space to honor those who have fallen victim to this type of injustice, and a space to celebrate strategies for coping and resilience.

Joe Namy (b. 1978, Lansing) is a media artist, composer, and educator based between London and Beirut. He completed an MFA from New York University, was part of the inaugural class of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Program where he now teaches, and has independently studied jazz, Arabic, and heavy metal drumming. His work often addresses identity, memory, and power structures embedded in sound/music, and has been shown internationally in galleries, museums, film festivals, and public performances.

Namy will also give a free workshop on December 4 at 1 pm. Details >>