Mandy Harris Williams is a renaissance woman working across more media than one could reasonably hyphenate. On social media, in her monthly #brownupyourfeed radio hour on NTS, and with her myriad published essays, she challenges us to consider critical theories on race, gender, sexuality, and above all, privilege. She dares us to meet the most divisive aspects of our charged political culture with a caring ethic that prioritizes those most deprived of our love and compassion. Offline, her DJ sets are like a blast of Naloxone to the automatic nervous system with the power to reanimate the rhythm in even the shyest of wallflowers. After studying the history of the African diaspora at Harvard and receiving a masters of urban education at Loyola Marymount, Harris spent seven years as an educator in low-income communities. From there, she expanded her educational modalities to include a conceptual art practice, musical production informed by years of vocal training, and a lecture format of her own dialectic design. These “edutainment” experiences are one part college seminar, one part church sermon, and one part late-night talk show with a heavy dose of consensual roasting. It’s a Friar’s Club for an intellectual, intersectional, and internet-savvy generation. These performances draw us in with their vibey bass lines and hooks before they throw us under the quietly segregated bus that we’re still struggling to rectify. Mandy and I sat by the fire one lovely winter night in Los Angeles to talk about the contours of fascism, algorithmic injustice, her latest film for the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, and her upcoming residency at MoMa PS1.Read more.
Ring In 2017 With Autre At The Ace Hotel And Swim Club In Palm Springs For A Two Day Multidimensional Desert Ceremony
New Years Eve – presented in association with Spaceland, Mel Shimkovitz and Autre Magazine, Pie Town's Supertemporal Southwestern Sock Hop is a two-day, multidimensional desert ceremony — a catharsis of time and space and sound guided by some of our favorite modern gnostics (Devendra Banhart, YACHT, Owen Pallett, etc). Potential plot points: poodle skirts giving way to poodles wearing skirts, greasers-cum-cult leaders, doo-wop becomes electro-pop. What does any of this mean? Join us and you'll see. Welcome to the future/past/forever. A portion of the proceeds from the party will help put the finishing touches on ProjectQ's HAIRSTREAM trailer-- a mobile salon dedicated to helping LA's homeless queer youth combat bullying, develop self-esteem and find an identity for themselves. Friday December 30 and Saturday December 31 at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs. Click here to purchase tickets.
A Vinyl Bromance: Read Our Conversation with Elijah Wood and Zach Cowie of The DJ Duo Wooden Wisdom
photograph by Kenneth Bachor
At first nobody noticed when Elijah Wood and Zach Cowie began playing music. In those moments the duo had everything they wanted; anonymity, influence and unmediated feeling. Wooden Wisdom, the Wood Cowie DJ duo, was playing the Art Basel party Illuminate the Night at the unfinished Brickell City Center in Miami. Then people did notice; women in ball gowns, 20-somethings in dresses a mother wouldn’t approve of, Miami types, men in whatever men wear to these things. The DJ booth was surrounded. The crowd gathered it does on a major subway line during rush hour: relentlessly, unpleasantly and pathetically. Click here to read more.