Canceled

Join Rachel Kessler and Sierra Nelson, founders of the innovative poetry-science collaborative Vis-à-Vis Society, as they share excerpts of their previous multimedia literary work and process, and perform a live collaborative experiment of embodiment with those in attendance. Using a core practice of interactive performances, literary performance artists Sierra and Rachel have performed and created installations across the nation.

About the Artists

The Vis-à-Vis Society is a group of poet-scientists founded by Drs. Ink and Owning (a.k.a. Sierra Nelson and Rachel Kessler). Working across media including interactive performances, installations, theater, film, visual art, music, dance, and text, the Vis-à-Vis Society has appeared at 10 Tiny Dances at On the Boards, Live at the NW Film Forum, V2, Henry Art Gallery, Hedreen Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum, NEPO 5K, and Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space.

Rachel Kessler is a writer, cartoonist, multi-disciplinary collaborator and educator who explores landscape and community. Co-founder of Typing Explosion, then Vis-à-Vis Society, their book of collaborative poems, 100 Rooms, is forthcoming fall 2020. She recently helped open collective Wa Na Wari, a Center for Black Art in the Central District, and is Artist-In-Residence at public housing project Yesler Terrace.

Sierra Nelson is a poet, essayist, and multi-disciplinary artist interested in the intersection of art and science. Nelson’s books include The Lachrymose Report (Poetry NW Editions) and I Take Back the Sponge Cake made with visual artist Loren Erdrich (Rose Metal Press), and her poems have appeared inside Seattle Metro buses, sound boxes on Denny Ave, the Seattle Aquarium and Slovenian Natural History Museum, and with Nordic runes on lava stones in Iceland, as well as published in journals and anthologies. Co-founder of performance art groups The Typing Explosion and Vis-à-Vis Society, their book of collaborative poems, 100 Rooms, is forthcoming fall 2020 (Entre Rios Press). songsforsquid.tumblr.com