Filibuster #2 (Bernie Sanders)
Filibuster #2 (Bernie Sanders) (2016), is a full re-enactment of Sanders' 2010 filibuster against the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy. In his filibuster, Senator Sanders touches on ideas regarding class, the economy, and the history of capitalism. Projected behind me was a slide show of art work found in the US Senate House, sugarcane, and a flag of Puerto Rico, a present colony of the United States. The full length of the filibuster, and of the performance, is 8.5 hours. As a part of my artistic practice, I create social interventions and performative re-enactments that assert the lived experiences of people left out of, or in this case central, to history. By inserting myself into the Senator’s role, the reenactment also became the retelling of a historic moment from a woman of color's point of view, and thusly charged with new cultural, social, and political import.
Link to performance: New York University Libraries Hemispheric Institute