Nile Harris
this house is not a home
14–16 July 2023
8pm
A frenzied rant of online logic delivered outside an inflatable mausoleum, Nile Harris' this house is not a home surrounds a bounce castle purchased by Harris' friend, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Trevor Bazile (born Miami, FL, 1996-2021). Over the course of the performance, the castle comes to represent an ephemeral monument, a besieged U.S. capital, and a simulacrum of hollow liberal care.
this house is not a home extends from Harris and Bazile’s collaboratively created, live-Google-document-based ‘you niggas in trouble’ manifesto (2020), a metaphorical board meeting that asked: will the revolution have 501c3 status? In and around the sound-responsive plastic shrine, this house is not a home situates this question within the detritus of the past two years—in bitter inheritance, fugitive avatars, political theater, Tucker Carlson redacted texts, and the cleansing of money through arts philanthropy.
Figures—a gingerbread minstrel, Dimes Square vape addicts, a beloved children’s movie cowboy—appear, haunted by the fraught question: what does it mean to be an American? Enlivened by collaborators Crackhead Barney and Malcolm-x Betts, and featuring sonic composition by slowdanger and GENG PTP, this house is not a home uses clowning and live-mixed sound scoring to enact a memorial in an “Incellectual” spew of discourse.
Image by Maria Baranova
About Nile Harris
Nile Harris is a performer and director of live works of art. He has done a few things and hopes to do a few more, God willing.
About Ping Chong and Company
Ping Chong and Company creates works of theater and art that reveal beauty, invention, precision, and a commitment to social justice. Founded by Ping Chong, the company is a welcoming home and site of experimentation for multigenerational artists. The company creates original interdisciplinary, community-specific work; and cultivates artistry through training and education programs.
Funding
this house is not a home is co-commissioned and co-presented by Abrons Arts Center and Ping Chong and Company, with funding from Abrons Arts Center’s Performance AIRspace Residency which is supported by the Jerome Foundation.
Additional support is provided by the MAP Fund, the Franklin Furnace Fund 2022-23, the friends and members of Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, the Movement Research Artist-In-Residence Program with support of the Jerome Foundation, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. this house is not a home is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
this house is not a home was created in part at The Watermill Center– a laboratory for performance through the Baroness Nina Von Maltzen Fellowship for Performing Artists.