I Can't Breathe

I Can't Breathe is a public-participatory workshop and performance that will take the form of a self-defense class. Over the course of a half hour, participants will learn a range of self-defense technique – from purely pacifist, self-protective maneuvers (including how one may relieve the pressure of a chokehold) to more overt, defensive strategies. (Participants will not learn offensive strikes or moves.)

Participants will then be placed and paired off in a staggered arrangement. With certain cues given by the artist, each pair will enact the self-defense technique just learned, alternating in the role of the aggressor. As the artist recites a script inspired by Nina Simone, each pair will elect which action to take solely based on how s/he internalizes the words' meaning.

The overall, impromptu composition of defensive actions will, thus, create a reflection and meditation on our community's legacy of self-preservation, and continued desire/need/fight to protect and survive. The piece will be conducted in memory of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Jamar Clark, Laquan McDonald, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, Ramarley Graham, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin… and countless others.

This performance will be documented.

WOUND is a study center for practices of listening, attention, and collaboration. The study center is pronounced /waʊnd/, as in: the clock has been wound. WOUND aims to mend time and attention by providing (1) practice spaces for groups, (2) a study center for sculptural tools, and (3) trainings in practices of listening, attention, and collaboration.

In its month-long installment at The Cooper Union, WOUND director Caroline Woolard worked with curator Stamatina Gregory to select tools from artists and collectives whose multi-year practices register in the visual arts. In its online archive, WOUND will present a full spectrum of tools, facilitators, and practices from the performing arts, speculative design, community organizing, geography, and engineering.