ANOHNI

ANOHNI, Laurie Anderson & Hal Willner performing at The Kitchen during theatre run

As mentioned, ANOHNI is being honored at The Kitchen‘s 2019 Spring Gala Benefit, and there is a related ‘LOVE’ art exhibition and a theatre piece. It has now also been announced that ANOHNI will perform at The Kitchen in the midst of the theatre piece’s run, alongside Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner. It’s billed as a benefit performance and cast party, and it happens Sunday, April 21. Tickets are $150 ($100 tax deductible).

The theatre piece, titled She Who Saw Beautiful Things, will be performed on April 19, 20 and 22. Here’s more info:

Written and directed by ANOHNI, SHE WHO SAW BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a two-act, absurdist and surrealist drama containing music, painting, video, and performance by some of NYC’s greatest luminaries, including Laurie Anderson, Charles Atlas, Matteah Baim, Michael Cavadias, Tom Cole, Johanna Constantine, Eliza Douglas, Connie Fleming, Scott Jackson, Lola Niasse, Lorraine O’Grady, Kembra Pfahler, and Marti Wilkerson.

As described in a Johnsons program from 1996—when a portion of this work appeared in first draft—the premise of this one-off, multimedia performance event is: “A hermaphrodite searches for her parents in an apocalyptic landscape.”

Yet at the very heart of SHE WHO SAW BEAUTIFUL THINGS is the late Johnsons member Dr. Julia Yasuda (1943-2018) and, more specifically, a book of portraiture photography by Yasuda’s wife, Erika Yasuda (1946-1986), which ANOHNI has reprinted and expanded, interlayering the images with transparencies of ANOHNI’S delicate drawings, culminating in a beautiful, hardcover, limited-edition volume that functions as much as an artifact.

Each audience member will receive one of these artist’s books, signed by ANOHNI, as part of their ticket purchase.

Tickets for the theatre piece are on sale now, and “a limited number of $35 rush tickets will be released online only on Wednesday at 2pm.” She Who Saw Beautiful Things is also a book, and you can purchase that here.

The LOVE exhibit — “an exhibition of new works in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and video revolving in part around the figure of The Johnsons’ late member Dr. Julia Yasuda” — is underway now through May 11, and it’s free. More info here.

The Spring Gala Benefit happens May 16, and tickets are still available.