Author/choreographer/performer Tim Cusack and director/co-choreographer Patrice Miller discuss the inspiration and development of their site-specfiic performance piece, “I Ping the Body Electric,” a line-by-line, syllable-by- syllable rewiring of Whitman’s iconic ode that premiered as part of the Art in Odd Places performance event held along Manhattan’s 14th Street in May. Written during pandemic lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020, IPBE is a charged response to several overlapping, intersectional crises: HIV/AIDS, COVID, and the ongoing brutalization and fetishization of bodies of African descent.
Tim Cusack was the co-founder and artistic director of Theatre Askew. For Askew he conceived, co-adapted, co-directed and appeared as Caligula in the company’s six-part serial adaptation of I, Claudius, and directed the New York premiere of William M. Hoffman’s Cornbury: The Queen’s Governor with David Greenspan and Everett Quinton. He appeared onstage for Askew in Bald Diva! (Notable Performance of the Year—TheaterMania & NYTheater.com), The Tempest, i google myself, and Horseplay, or the Fickle Mistress: A Protean Picaresque in the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa. He is a Next magazine “Future Legend,” a 2007 NYTheatre.com Person of the Year, was named by Next as one of the most significant figures among the new generation of out gay theatre artists, and is an inductee to the Indy Theater Hall of Fame. He is an adjunct lecturer in the Theatre department at Hunter College where he teaches acting. BFA NYU/TSOA. MA Hunter/CUNY.
Patrice Miller is a director-choreographer and performance artist best known for their interdisciplinary performance making. Recently directed the premieres of This Joint is Jumpin featuring Lillias White (The Other Palace, London), Brian Boone’s The Testament of Josh: A Flesh and Blood Musical, James Judd’s Funny Stories (Crown & Anchor, Provincetown), In the Pines (AUSTRAL Buenos Aires, Argentina). Noted downtown credits: Mad Jenny’s Love und Greed, Sarah Jane Johnson’s Devil in the Box, Maggie Cino’s Decompression, Marion Fayolle’s In Pieces, Evelyn Piper’s Bunny Lake is Missing. Artistic Associate of Untitled Theater Company #61: Paul Auster’s City of Glass, Vaclav Havel’s The Pig … , Money Lab. Installation/performance art work includes work for The Brooklyn Museum, Prelude/CUNY Grad Center, SUNY Stonybrook; Steve Valk & Michael Klein’s Excavation: Martha Graham Company (COIL); Grace Exhibition Space, Postmasters Gallery, NYLA, Performa, NYC Fashionweek. Patrice frequently guest curates throughout NYC is also an enthusiastic cat lady and lazy witch.
Karen Karbiener, president and founding member of the Walt Whitman Initiative, is a Whitman scholar and teaches at New York University. Winner of the Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress and a Fulbright recipient, she has published widely on Whitman (most recently working with Brian Selznick on Live Oak, with Moss, a new illustrated edition of Whitman’s secret same-sex love poems). As a cultural activist in her hometown, Karen has been working on the campaign to preserve 99 Ryerson Street since 2017, and gave testimony at the hearing to landmark 227 Duffield Place, Brooklyn, last year.