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@micdwy.bsky.social

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beach praxis michaeladwyer.com

excerpt from the Schulman book, relaying Avram Finkelstein’s reflections on a Gran Fury poster (the bullet points represent lines from the poster). “• Have you given up hope for a cure? ‘There were people who became so absorbed in the idea that you could treat it as a chronic manageable condition. The day I heard that phrase, I knew we were in for it… There's no money in curatixes. There's money in medications for people who are sick. So the second that people agreed to the idea that it would be okay to continue to be sick, I realized that the entire dynamic had changed, the entire dialogue was changed, and that's what that phrase was about.’ • When was the last time you cried?”
black and white composite image by Audrey Wollen with the words BEWARE MALE ARTISTS MAKING ARTWORK ABOUT EMPTINESS/NOTHING DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU/GIRLS OWN THE VOID/BACK OFF FUCKERS!!!! next to crossed out images of works by John Cage, Yves Klein, Bas Jan Ader, and Robert Barry
Excerpt from Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show, spotlighting Dan Keith Williams on needle exchange actions: “Dan was profoundly affected by the death of his lover, and by the deaths of Ortez Alderson, Alan Robinson, and Ray Navarro. Alcohol had eventually got the best of Dan, and he was burned out. When he heard other people talking about the dying, he would start to laugh.” ‘I couldn't cry no more, couldn't feel sad no more, because I'd done it so long. I was just burnt on it... People were talking about going to a memorial service. It was, like, Let me go to a bar and have a drink-let me have ten drinks, let me have twenty drinks. Let me just knock myself out...Everybody sort of hung out in the East Village. We sort of took over the East Village and we said the regular gay guys could have the West Village, the East Village belongs to us. And there was that whole dynamic, because ACT UP became a world of its own... But even in that safety, there is a lot of vulnerability because... death was still there.’”
screenshot of instagram comment that reads, “Gay means NOTHING, what are his policies?!!”
Red scruffy muppet Elmo holds pink soccer ball in front of a little goldfish bowl
dimly lit scene outside neighborhood bar; giant TV is showing Jalen Brunson postgame interview. Michaela drew an orange heart around Jalen
A film title sequence, white font on black screen. “A Cabin Creek Film Production / A Program under Cabin Creek Center for Work and Environmental Studies / And the Cultural Council Foundation”
"The Living Room was a space that especially elevated the voices of the oppressed, including the Palestinian struggle,” said Durham City Council Member Nate Baker, noting the duplex’s prominently placed Free Palestine yard sign and the political activities the space hosted. “Was that a motivation for Duke to shutter The Living Room? I don’t know. It would not be out of character from what universities across the country have done to silence recent anti-genocide and anti-apartheid campaigns."
"Creedon was, per city directories, the latest in an unbroken line of largely working-class renters at 407 Swift stretching back more than a century: machinists, textile workers, postal clerks, waitresses, painters, students. Her departure means one of Durham’s increasingly scarce parcels of naturally occurring affordable housing has seen its last tenant."
Michaela in a green and white striped shirt holds a copy of Miranda July’s All Fours outside a green wood little free library. Dead brown and orange leaves in the background.
A copy of Zohran’s campaign platform re. library funding, still live on his site. The overall text reads: “Libraries are critical to our city’s success—they enable access to the internet, provide cool from summer heat, serve as vital community hubs, and help New Yorkers seek career advancement and education. Yet, Eric Adams’ library closures have been devastating. As a state legislator, I supported neighborhood organizing to restore funding to Astoria’s Broadway Library and have used Assembly discretionary money to fund programming at the Queens Public Library. As Mayor, I will end the practice of using library funding as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations and commit 0.5% of NYC’s budget to libraries, ensuring we have enough revenue for robust services and well-staffed facilities.” In the image I have highlighted the final sentence.
Michaela holds a copy of Joanna Ruocco’s novel DAN — the cover includes the title and author’s name in white all-caps, a vintage wooden television console with tv screening a woman in a pool with a striped beach ball and inner tube, all set atop an image of a forested mountain valley. Michaela is on the train.
Michaela holds a Brooklyn Public Library card and mini keychain card, the former a dark grey crowd shot with sea foam text “2024 WNBA Champions” and the latter featuring NY Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant holding a trophy up in her Statue of Liberty crown and jersey. An orange Zohran pin is visible on the butcher block below where Michaela holds the cards.
Clear Nalgene water bottle, black lanyard, and blue and red Zohran for NYC flyers laid out on the concrete sidewalk
a homemade meme featuring an MTA bus making a turn on a sunlit street. atop the bus, I've typed "They could never make me hate u" in yellow italic Helvetica and drawn magenta hearts
Excerpt from Russo’s speech; white text on black background: “So, if I'm dying from anything, I'm dying from homophobia. If I'm dying from anything, I'm dying from racism. If I'm dying from anything, it's from indifference and red tape, because these are the things that are preventing an end to this crisis. If I'm dying from anything, I'm dying from Jesse Helms. If I'm dying from anything, I'm dying from the President of the United States. And, especially, if I'm dying from anything, l'm dying from the sensationalism of newspapers and magazines and television shows, which are interested in me, as a human interest story -- only as long as I'm willing to be a helpless victim, but not if I'm fighting for my life.”
Photo of black text on off white page, from Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg: “I, too, thought the poem with the black schists beautiful and was consumed with envy not to have written it myself. It was simple. Green pastures, black schists. I'd seen those things myself so many times in the mountains, but it had never occurred to me that I could do something with them. All I had done was observe them. That's what poems were then, simple and made of nothing, made of things that you observed. I looked around me with watchful eyes. I looked for things that could be like those black schists, those green pastures, and made sure that this time no one would take them away from me.”
Excerpt from Nikki Giovanni’s website: “I was asked to do a biography so this is it. I am 71 years old. I highly recommend old age; it's fun. I have been awarded an unprecedented 7 NAACP Image Awards which makes me very very proud. I have been nominated for a Grammy; been a finalist for the National Book Award. I am very proud to have authored 3 New York Times and Los Angeles Times Best Sellers, highly unusual for a poet. I am a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. I don't have a lot of friends but I have good ones. I have a son and a granddaughter. My father, mother, sister and middle aunt are all deceased literarily making me go from being the baby in the family to being an elder. I like to cook, travel and dream. I'm a writer. I'm happy.”
ACT UP activists dressed in ironic patriotic garb holding signs that say “Fight AIDS” and similar statements stand in the white pillared Great Hall at The Cooper Union.
Michaela holds a copy of Being Here is Everything: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker. An early expressionist self-portrait of Modersohn-Becker fills the cover. She stares out with dark pupils, amber necklace, red hair parted in the middle with pieces in the front hanging down. The background are purple lilies against green.
Scruffy umber and white dog in chartreuse harness cowers on a wet leafy sidewalk.
Pauli Murray in work shirt and pants stands on grass with their dog in front of an academic or church building. Pauli is smiling.
Painting by Ruth Nazario: NYC’s Twin Towers frame a snippet of the Lower East Side, where a block party takes place between brick buildings. Neighbors chat and dance on the street, which houses a geodesic dome in the middle. the East River and beyond are visible in the background.
Grayish brown text against a cream-colored background; a screenshot from an interview between Siobhan Burke and Gillian Walsh. "Siobhan Burke: What is a dream dance? Gillian Walsh: The first day, I asked everyone to take time to think about what their dream performance would be, their fantasy performance. Every single thing about it, every detail. Like, is it at night? In the day? Are you in the center? Are you even onstage? Did you make it? Is it cold out? Is it on film? Are you dancing? Are you singing? Can I see your face? Are you playing the guitar? Who’s watching you? How are they watching you? Maybe you know what you're doing, maybe you don't."