Jeremiah Day
Proposal To Add Townhall Meetings To The Constitution
The Emily Harvey Foundation, New York
May 1, 6 PM: Performance
May 2, 2 PM: Book presentation, workshop & discussion around Without The Consent Of The People, by Fred Dewey
Let’s declare a four-month break from business, and dedicate ourselves, all of us, to a countrywide conversation.
Let’s meet our neighbors and boycott, with them, the void and garbage calling itself news and governance and business. We have a right to this. What do we want? Why are our rights in ruins? What is a meaningful life? What happened to the people’s self-government? Stop the wars and looting for four months and let’s talk and figure this out.
Starting from this rubble, why not begin imagining?
-Fred Dewey
In this two part program, Jeremiah Day will offer different approaches to embodiment, imagination and the meaning of gathering in assembly.
May 1st, 6:00 PM
Hannah Arendt argued that townhall meetings, or council democracy, represented the potential for “a new concept of the state.” Day's slideshow performance fleshes out this provocative thought through images of the parks of Istanbul, the New England townhalls, Basque courtyards, aiming to sketch out this “nameless tradition.”
May 2nd, 2:00 PM
At the time of his passing, Day’s long-time collaborator Fred Dewey was known as a cultural organizer and political thinker, simultaneously long-time director of Beyond Baroque poetry center in Los Angeles and a crucial force behind the establishment of neighborhood counciles in Los Angeles. Dewey left behind an unfinished manuscript which Day and a small group of friends carried through to publication which is timelier than ever in evoking a proto-totalitarian situation and how to respond within it. This event will introduce Fred’s work (and its link to Arendt’s) through a participatory format, discussion and book presentation.
The Emily Harvey Foundation
537 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012
