THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT

SICK CENTER proposes Sick Music(s) as a category, and tool of communal speculation; the innovation of Sick Music as genre(s) is an experiment towards creating new nodes of connection and solidarity between Sick musicians (and listeners)- living, ancestral, and our shared critical fabulations (a term borrowed from Saidya Hartman).

This event is the first in a series of meet-ups for Chronically Ill/Sick Musicians and Singers in NYC, towards building community, sharing questions, ideas, struggles with each other. We'll start with a short presentation of research by Anna : “Bed Pianos, and a missing Sick Music archive,” followed by discussion, and opportunity for a few communal musical experiments — trying out ideas around sick and tired improvisation and singing.""

Access info :

The event is located at Arts on Site at 12 Saint Marks Place. Elevator access, no step entrance, accessible bathroom

Those who are not able to join in the space can join via Zoom. Register below. Also, a link will be shared with all who have registered prior to the event.

Air purifiers will be in use, and masks required. Rapid Tests will be available for any who are not able to mask.

A textured background of textured in brown colors peek out behind 4 drawings pinned onto the background.The top right drawing has a bold black border. It’s filled with black hand drawn text.The first line says Songs To  Keep You Company. An old black and white newspaper drawing of a person in bed playing a suspended piano. Two colorful drawings on white are to the right. The 1st drawing is a profile of a brown person with long black hair wearing all pink. They sing into a microphone while using their wheelchair.  A solid light blue arc embraces the singer. A bright yellow square at the top of the drawing says J Dilla Legend of Hospital music. The 2nd is a drawing of a kneeling figure with no face wearing pink robes and a black head covering.They are holding a circular flat, tan object and tapping it with a stick. Their head is slightly bent forward with streams of red flowing upwards.  A light blue arch surrounded by pink embraces them. 5 pink stars are at the edge of their robes. A yellow square says HILDEGARDE FOUNDER OF RHINE SICK CENTER, 1113

Anna RG (she/they) makes work in composition, traditional music, sculpture, and community organizing. Based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, her experimentation is rooted in a decade of apprenticeships in communities of traditional song, fiddle and banjo in Appalachia; and more recently in her experiences with long covid and disability justice community. Her longtime folk music/theater duo Anna&Elizabeth was heralded a “a radical expansion of what folk songs are supposed to do”(The New Yorker). Smithsonian Folkways artists, they performed at Carnegie Hall, the Newport Folk Festival, the Hirshhorn Museum, Big Ears Festival (where she was guest curator of traditional music), and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Newport Folk Festival, The Stone, Cafe Oto, Big Ears Festival (where she was guest curator of traditional music), NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, and many other venues which are not currently accessible to high risk/immunocompromised artists, and played with musicians across genres, including Lonnie Holley, Cochemea Gastelum, Susan Alcorn, Ellen Fullman, Sarah Hennies, and wrote a piece for the award winning Aizuri Quartet. She recently completed her MFA in sculpture at Bard College, was part of the recent Tulca Artist Festival in Galway, Ireland, and took part in an annual High Risk Club in Dublin, hosted by the Chronic Art Collective. She is a proud member of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), and an active member of the NYC Mask Bloc, and is one of the many founders of a new initiative CLEAR THE AIR NYC, a collective of disabled organizers committed to supporting covid-safer events in the city, through an air filter library, masks, education, and resources.