Rites of Passage/Sacred Spaces Lawrence Graham-Brown

Held at the Judson Memorial Church, with financial assistance from the Franklin Furnace Fund NY, among others, “Rites of Passage/Sacred Spaces” was a performance art, experimental theatrical, variable media piece drawn from my memory of the beating of a gay man in Kingston, Jamaica, where I was born. As the man was being beaten, he called on the Christian bible and Jesus Christ for help and, as his violators beat him, they too called on the Christian bible for his destruction while quoting scriptures.  A liturgy where a union of love triumphs over fear, ostracism, disparagement, hate, et al.

It was a very difficult work to produce because it required nudity for all of the participants and drew on religious, sexual, violent themes in the church, which some participants found very disturbing. Up to three days before the performance participants dropped out of the production because they were still too uncomfortable with the work. However, the show had to go on and a number of porn stars who worked in the New York metro area reached out to me; thus, an exciting performance was held.