Johnny Blazes

The East Side Institute invites you to a gender-bending weekend of play and performance

Gender Bending Performances

An Evening with Johnny Blazes

Friday, October 21, 7-9pm

Most people are taught from infancy how to perform their assigned gender.  While some stereotypes are quite blatant (pink is for girls, blue is for boys), many more of them are supremely subtle.  It is these unacknowledged, unchallenged stereotypes that serve to maintain the status quo.  Johnny Blazes’ lecture/demonstration uses visual puns and performance tropes to make some of these underlying stereotypes visible, as well as to discuss the visual vocabulary of gender available for the conscious performer to use in their work.  Johnny draws upon hir experience as a clown, dance improviser and drag performer to fuel discussion on the performance of gender in daily life as well as onstage.

PLAYGROUND! :  Playing Around with Gender

with Carrie Lobman and Johnny Blazes

Saturday, October 22, 10:30 am-12:30pm

Little boys can be ballerinas and little girls, cowboys. Kids’ gender play and experimentation with roles is typically lots of fun and often developmental. As adults, it gets a bit more complicated.  For many, gender is something we don’t think about, or are uncomfortable with if we do. For others, challenging gender norms can be serious business, with little room for play or pointlessness.  Performance artist, Johnny Blazes, and developmentalist, Carrie Lobman, invite you to join in creating a “playground” where we try out some new performances of gender and, in that process, raise some fun and philosophical questions about our commitment to a “true identity,” be it pink, blue or purple.

Carrie Lobman, Ed.D. is associate professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. An innovative teacher and teacher trainer, she is the Institute’s director of pedagogy and faculty member.  Carrie is a sought-after workshop leader and frequently presents to professional associations, including the American Educational Research Association, The Association for the Study of Play and the International Society for Culture and Activity Research. She is co-author of Unscripted Learning: Using Improvisation Across the K-8 Curriculum.

Both events will be held at 920 Broadway, 14^th Floor (at 20^th Street)

Fee:  $20 in advance/$25 at the door for Gender Bending Performances, October 21
$15 in advance/$20 at the door for Playground, October 22
$30 for both (advance registration required).