Poetry &
Poetry &: In Light of Water, Birds Take Flight with Jeffrey Yang and Susie Ibarra
A participatory orchestraSunday, March 31, 2024, 2 pm, Dia Beacon
Event details
Sunday, March 31, 2024
2 pm
Dia Beacon
3 Beekman Street
Beacon, New York
Free with museum admission; register for the event here.
Celebrated poet, translator, and editor Jeffrey Yang and renowned Filipinx sound artist and composer Susie Ibarra debut a new participatory text and sound score at Dia Beacon. Drawing on their interest in relays and resonances, the body and movement, and synesthesia and perception, this hybrid performance takes inspiration from the natural world—particularly the souls and spirits of birds and water as a symbol of interconnectedness—as well as Robert Irwin’s spatial installation Full Room Skylight – Scrim V – Dia Beacon (1972/2022) on view at Dia Beacon. Audiences are invited to help realize this collaborative work by joining the participatory orchestra. Whether one claps, snaps, whistles, or makes bird calls, any necessary instruments will be provided.
Jeffrey Yang is the author of several poetry books including most recently Hey, Marfa (2018) and Line and Light (2022). Among the anthologies he has edited are Birds, Beasts, and Seas: Nature Poems (2011) and The Sea Is a Continual Miracle: Sea Poems and Other Writings by Walt Whitman (2017). His translations include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo’s June Fourth Elegies (2012) and Bei Dao’s autobiography City Gate, Open Up (2017). Yang has received fellowships from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, Lannan Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. He is an editor-at-large for New Directions Publishing and also edits titles for the New York Review Books. His translation of Bei Dao’s Sidetracks will be published by New Directions in May 2024. Yang is based in Beacon, New York.
Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Among her many projects, she is the founder of Susie Ibarra Studio and, with artist-musician and engineer Jake Landau, the label and publisher Habitat Sounds. Her interdisciplinary practice includes performance, mobile sound-mapping applications, multichannel audio installations, recording, and documentary. She works to support Indigenous and traditional music cultures, like musika katutubo from the Philippines; advocates for the stewardship of glaciers and freshwaters; and collaborates with the Joudour Sahara Music Program in Morocco on initiatives that preserve sound-based heritage, support women and girls, and address desert climate. She has recorded over 40 albums and performed in events and venues such as Carnegie Hall, New York; the Olympics; and the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates. Her book Rhythm in Nature is forthcoming, and recent honors include a 2024 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program fellowship, for which she is based in Berlin.