Cleaning Up New York City in the 1960s and 1970s
Wed, Oct 19, 2016
6:30 PM
The James Gallery
How do private and public responses to what is perceived as filthy shape the geography of urban living? How do social and institutional solutions designed to address and manage the “problem” of filth interface with the city’s artistic capacity and production? Responding to these questions, Professor Elizabeth Wollman will consider the cultural implications of obscenity laws for experimental and mainstream sites of performance during the period; Aleksei Grinenko will read trash and “mental illness” on Broadway stages in dialogue with the realities of the city streets; and Gillian Sneed will discuss local community resistance to the first iteration of Alison Knowles’ The House of Dust in Chelsea for its challenge to tidy aesthetic norms. Join us for a discussion of cultural encounters with material and metaphorical manifestations of filth and sanitation in 1960s-70s New York City.
Co-sponsored by the Ph.D. Programs in Art History and Theatre, the Graduate Center, CUNY.
