Note: This video contains mature content and explicit language.
Combining poetry, objects, and video, (Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts is an immersive installation by multi-genre writer and performer Anastacia-Reneé that offers a rageful meditation on gentrification—of neighborhoods and its insidious effects on the body—as seen through the eyes of her multilayered and witty character Alice Metropolis.
On Thursday, March 25, 2021, Anastacia-Reneé and Wa Na Wari co-founder Elisheba Johnson spoke about the central themes of the exhibition (Don't be Absurd) Alice in Parts, including the gentrification of the Black female body.
Elisheba Johnson is a curator, public artist, and administrator. Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings and creative gatherings. For six years Johnson worked at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture on capacity building initiatives and racial equity in public art. Johnson is currently a member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network advisory council and has won four Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Awards for her work. She currently co-manages Wa Na Wari, a Black art center in Seattle’s Central Area that uses the arts to build community and resist displacement.
Learn more about Wa Na Wari’s Building Fund.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Explore this collection of recommended reading for the exhibition available for purchase at the Museum Store’s website.
Can’t see the exhibition in person? Explore a 3D tour of the immersive installation. If you prefer video to 3D, we invite you to view this this special tour of the exhibition, narrated by the restless, late-night thoughts and fears of Alice Metropolis, the main subject of the exhibition. Note: This video contains mature content and explicit language.