Our Fall season opens September 23 with exciting new work from award-winning choreographer Jennifer Monson, a singular evening with artist Ruth Patir and some very special guests, and the continuation of our DraftWork and Community ACCESS programs!

This October, we’ll embark on the eleventh edition of our signature curatorial initiative, the Platform series. Platform 2016: Lost & Found, our most ambitious Platform to date, is curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Will Rawls and examines the impact of AIDS on generations of artists.  (View the full schedule of Platform events here.)

From October 13–November 19, we’ll present over 50 artists in 28 events, including world premiere performances, conversations, a zine project, a print catalogue, film screenings, and a vigil. Platform 2016: Lost & Found will look back at the plague years of mass AIDS hysteria, specifically 1981-1996. The series will “try to recover the loss of a generation of mentors, role models, and muses,” says Houston-Jones, “and what effect that absence has had on the current generation of artists.”

Platform 2016: Lost & Found originated with Houston-Jones’ rediscovery of a pamphlet of collected writings remembering the choreographer John Bernd, who died of AIDS in 1988. Bernd was one of the earliest New York choreographers to represent gay sexuality and the disease explicitly in his work. The Platform title is taken from Bernd’s trio of dances entitled Lost and Found, first performed at Danspace Project in 1981. Bernd is just one of a generation of artists who died too young and have been all-but forgotten today.

How is one able to, or can one, explain the pain, confusion, rage, and fear that HIV/AIDS caused a whole generation? Are there young LGBTQ artists who are making work today unconsciously under the influence of John Bernd and all the others who died before they were born? – Ishmael Houston-Jones

Platform 2016: Lost & Found will place particular emphasis on countering the historical perception around HIV/AIDS as a disease that primarily impacted white gay communities. Hussie-Taylor comments, “in Lost & Found, the curators have kept in mind those who have been disproportionately impacted by AIDS in the United States which was, and continues to be, gay, bisexual, transgender, and female African Americans and Latinx.”

The majority of Platform 2016: Lost & Found will take place in Danspace Project’s East Village home at St. Mark’s Church (131 East 10th Street, Manhattan). Partner venues include Museum of Modern Art, Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project, Arts on Site, and The Graduate Center, CUNY.

The Platform will also include the 11th catalogue published by Danspace Project since 2010.  More information on catalogue contributors here.