Performance, Reading

The Berger Project was composed in 2018 to celebrate twenty-five years of Vera List Center Fellowships. For the book published on that occasion, former VLC Fellows Maurice Berger and Robert Sember (appointed 1993 and 2009 respectively) reflected on each other’s fellowship projects, separated by two decades but united in theme and intent. Composed by Sember and lifted from said book, Protocols for the Berger Object or What is the Sound of White Lies? envisions a collective inquiry into the lie of white supremacy guided by Berger’s seminal book from 1999, White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness. 

Composed as a dialogue, the brief sections of the Berger Object shift rhythmically between first-person accounts, reportage, and thematically curated quotations from other texts. Blank pages break this rhythm, providing silences in which to join Berger in the deliberate and rigorous work of naming and undoing the lies he writes to expose. Protocols for the Berger Object or What is the Sound of White Lies? employs techniques of intentional collective listening developed by the sound art collective Ultra-red to enable us to listen to Maurice listening. On October 6, the protocols are read by Molly Rose Kaufman, Michael A. Roberson, and Robert Sember.

Participants
Molly Rose Kaufman, Co-Director, University of Orange
Michael A. Roberson, Ultra-red
Robert Sember, Part-time Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts, Eugene Lang College, The New School

This event is followed by a discussion on the impact of Maurice Berger’s work, with Courtney R. Baker, Lonnie G. Bunch III, David Gonzalez, Nona Faustine, and Sarah Lewis, moderated by Kinshasha Holman Conwill. It concludes with a video tribute by some of Maurice Berger’s colleagues and peers, and VLC Fellow Sarah Rothenberg’s piano recital of Morton Feldman’s last composition, Palais de Mari, recorded earlier this year and dedicated to Berger.

Molly Rose Kaufman is the Co-Director and Provost of the University of Orange, a free school of urbanism in Orange, NJ. UofO builds collective capacity for our friends, neighbors, and partners to cultivate a just and equitable city. UfO offers free courses, works in local coalitions to promote education across the lifecycle, and advocates for equity in urban planning. Molly cofounded the organization in 2008 alongside family members, local activists, and community leaders. She serves as a member of the board of the Jersey City Public Library and as Chair of the Board of the World Fellowship Center.

Michael A. Roberson engages in Public Health and Research (27 years), international art and politics as a member of the international sound art collective Ultra-red (9 years), and race, sexuality, and theology through the Center for Race, Religion and Economic Democracy (9 years). He is also an Adjunct Professor at both Union Theological Seminary NYC and The New School University NYC. He has a BA in Urban Studies from Rutgers University and 2 Masters Degree in Theology from Union Theological Seminary. He has been a member, leader in the house/ball community for over 26 years creating several national and international ballroom initiatives such as House Lives Matters National Leadership Initiative, The Arbert Santana Ballroom Freedom and Free School Project, the nation’s only Black Gay Research Group, and the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Group. He is also the Senior Scholar of the Center for Race, Religion and Economic Democracy, and was a 2019 TED Media fellow accompanied by a TED Talk entitled “the enduring legacy of ballroom.” Lastly, he is a cultural consultant for the FX television show about the house/ball community entitled “Pose”, created by Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals.

Robert Sember works at the intersection of art and public health. He is a member of the international sound-art collective, Ultra-red, which helped establish Vogue’ology, an initiative by and for members of the African-American and Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in New York City. His ethnographic research in the U.S. and South Africa has focused on governmental and non-governmental substance abuse, mental health, and homelessness service sectors with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment access. Robert teaches Interdisciplinary Arts at The New School’s Eugene Lang College. From 2010-2019 Robert was on the faculty of the Summer Institute on Sexuality, Culture, and Society at the University of Amsterdam’s Graduate School of Social Sciences. Robert was a 2009-2011 Vera List Center for Art and Politics Fellow. He is the recipient of the New School’s Distinguished Teaching (2016) and Social Justice (2018) teaching awards.

The Vera List Center Forum 2020 launches the center’s 2020-2022 focus theme, As for Protocols. Curated by Carin Kuoni and Eriola Pira, it is organized with the support of Adrienne Umeh, Heran Abate, Joshua van Biema, and Maryna Arabei.

The Vera List Center Forum 2020 is made possible by major support from Jane Lombard and the Kettering Fund, as well as the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The New School as well as members of the Vera List Center’s board and other individuals.

On Race, Representation, and White Lies: A Tribute to Maurice Berger reflects on the seminal contributions by Vera List Center inaugural fellow Maurice Berger. It is organized with the support of Marvin Heiferman.