Updates for Politics of Women’s Health Long Table - July 14

The conversation starters for the POLITICS OF WOMEN’S HEALTH: LONG TABLE CONVERSATION AND INSTALLATION include Dr. Rachael Phelps (PPCWNY Medical Director), Gwen Clifton, Rachel DeGuzman, Luticha Doucette, W. Michelle Harris, Debora McDell-Hernandez, and Gaynelle Wethers. 

After the conversation starters have talked for 30 minutes, then anyone in the audience is free to tap someone out and take their place at the Long Table. It is also perfectly fine to not join the conversation at the table and participate as a witness. See below, for more info about The Long Table.

Join us on July 14, 3 to 6 pm., American Association University Women, 494 East Avenue. Registration is $15. Register at https://PoliticsofWomensHealth. Brownpapertickets.com. Email Rachel at [email protected], to claim one of the limited free registrations (first come, first served).

THE LONG TABLE

 Conceived by artist Lois Weaver and inspired by Marleen Gorris’ film Antonia's Line, the Long Table is an experimental open public forum that is a hybrid performance-installation-roundtable-discussion-dinner-party designed to facilitate dialogue through the gathering together of people with common interests.

With no predetermined outcome save conversation, this Long Table could be an opportunity to both introduce and reflect on some recent initiatives, to discuss what and who are missing from historical accounts, and to explore what kinds of actions and strategies could be undertaken.

The Long Table is a dinner party structured by etiquette, where conversation is the only course. The project ingeniously combines theatricality and models for public engagement. It is at once a stylized appropriation and an open-ended, non-hierarchical format for participation. Both elements – theatrical craft and political commitment – are mutually supporting in this widely and internationally toured work. The (often-feminized) domestic realm here becomes a stage for public thought.

The components are simple: the long table; chairs; a paper tablecloth; pens with which to make comments, to draw, or to scribble ideas. The final, and necessary, component is an etiquette sheet. This list of rules for engagement lays the groundwork for talk that is structured in its participatory aspect without being limited in content or access. The rules, or perhaps helpful hints, include items like ‘There can be silence’, ‘There might be awkwardness’ and ‘There can always be laughter’. The Long Table acknowledges the sometimes-uncomfortable side of both private exchange and public engagement, while celebrating the potential for new forms of knowledge-making and -sharing.

LONG TABLE ETIQUETTE

-There is no beginning

-Those seated at the table are performers

-The menu is up to you

-Talk is the only course

-Step up, step back (no filibustering)

-There is no hostess

-It is a democracy

-To participate, take a seat at the table

-If the table is full, you can request a seat (tap someone’s shoulder)

-Once you leave the table, you can come back

-There can be silence

-You can break the silence with a question

-You can write your questions on the table

-There can be laughter

-There is an end, but no conclusion