I Am a Stranger and I Am Moving

2022

Swiss Institute | Offsite

curated by Alison Coplan

I Am a Stranger and I Am Moving is a series of drawings inspired by queer poets who have lived in and around the East Village in New York City. The illustrations, which are loose interpretations of lines by writers such as Andrea Abi-Karam, W.H. Auden, Federico García Lorca, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, viento izquierdo ugaz, June Jordan, Jaime Manrique, Eileen Myles and David Wojnarowicz, have been transformed at Astor Place North Plaza into a sidewalk installation. The poems selected as source material speak intimately of the lives these artists lived in the neighborhood: of falling in love here, mourning here, experiencing dreams, anguish or revelations here. They are testimonials to personal experiences of this place, yet they become communal, shared through the mediums of poetry and now, drawing. Considered together, they are reminders of the layers of memories that coexist among us, the various histories that accumulate every day as we move through this city.

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