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PE Reading Group
August 8, 2024 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
PE READING GROUP
PE started as a small hang-out reading group among friends, and we maintain the social yet critical nature of its origins. By providing libations, refreshments, and a comfortable atmosphere, we create an environment that is playful and relaxed, immersive, investigatory, and critical of content. We will make our reading selections available online through the SFD+I website, our email list, and social media. People will have time to review the materials as much or as little as they like before the reading group. We encourage all to come and eat, drink, listen, and participate whether they have studied the materials or not. We assert that all levels of engagement contribute to the conversation. Materials range from articles, essays, videos, and podcasts. Past examples of readings include “Delusions of Whiteness in the Avant-Garde,” by Cathy Park Hong, “Delusions of Progress,” by Daniel Borzutzky, “Looking for My Penis” by Richard Fung, “A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia” by David L. Eng & Shinhee Han, “The Company That Never Comes” by Renee Gladman & Lucy Ives, Excerpts from Rammellzee’s ICONIC TREATISE GOTHIC FUTURISM, VIDEO: The Otolith Group in Conversation
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Physical Education (PE) is keyon gaskin, Allie Hankins, Takahiro Yamamoto, and Lu Yim. Co-created in 2013, PE organizes and hosts performances, reading groups, workshops, artist talks, and dance parties. Originally started in 2013 as a private reading group and discussion date over dinner and drinks, PE has curated and facilitated public programming since 2014. PE’s vision is to offer contemporary artists and audiences, as well as curious individuals, immersive modes through which to engage with artworks that center around performance and performativity. PE acknowledges and scrutinizes the perceived illegibility and messiness of the performing body, and seeks to collaboratively confront and embrace questions about it with a community.
Lu Yim is an artist who works in experimental performance and dance. They have received support through Pageant (NY), Center for Performance Research (NY), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and recently through Queer | Art’s mentorship program with Julie Tolentino.
Takahiro Yamamoto is a multidisciplinary artist and choreographer. His current conceptual investigations revolve around the phenomenological effects of time, embodied approach to the presence of nothingness, and the social/emotional implications of visibility. He co-directs the performance company madhause with Ben Evans, and is part of the Portland-based support group Physical Education with Allie Hankins, keyon gaskin, and Lu Yim.
keyon gaskin prefers not to contextualize with their credentials
Allie Hankins is a dancer, performer, and choreographer. She is a resident artist and steward of FLOCK Dance Center, a creative home to Portland’s experimental dance artists founded in 2014 by Tahni Holt. In 2013 Allie co-initiated Physical Education, a critical and casual queer cooperative/support group comprised of herself, keyon gaskin, Taka Yamamoto, and Lu Yim. Physical Education hosts open reading groups and lectures, curates performances, and teaches workshops nationally. Most recently she has performed with Linda Austin (PDX), Milka Djordjevich (LA), and Morgan Thorson (Minneapolis). When she’s not working on performances, she is doing step aerobics and learning American Sign Language. Her website is alliehankins.com.
Photo by Mario Gallucci