POSTPONED - Everybody! Come Stand on the Altar!

Dear Friends, We are thrilled to unveil PSSST and share with you our vision for a space founded on the ethos of artists supporting artists. We have long been looking forward to welcoming you to our beautiful space and opening our inaugural exhibition EVERYBODY, COME STAND ON THE ALTAR! However, we will not be opening our doors this Friday evening. We have been asked by a neighborhood coalition to postpone our opening and participate in a community discussion about the gentrification of Boyle Heights–specifically about the intersection of art, real estate, and capital. We believe that our success as an organization depends upon how we embody our mission of openness, generosity, and fostering hard conversations. To wit, we believe that we need to be accountable to the residents of Boyle Heights and move forward with as much compassion and transparency as possible. We have been actively seeking conversations with members of the Boyle Heights community for many months now. We believe that our possible impact on the residents of Boyle Heights can be mitigated by three important tenets that we have been working to develop: (1) inclusive programming, (2) being in solidarity with local tenants rights organizations and neighbors in their struggle for immigrant rights and their ability to remain in their homes, and (3) building alliances and collaborations with local organizations. We have been working towards these goals in a slow and considered manner and will continue to do this work as PSSST grows. We look forward to announcing our rescheduled opening. We hope that you’ll join us then to celebrate the inauguration of PSSST. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGINALLY SLATED TO OPEN FRIDAY, MAY 13 Join us for the opening night of PSSST, an artist-run nonprofit space in Boyle Heights, founded on the principle of artist supporting artists. PSSST actively serves women, people of color, LGBTQ-identified and underrepresented artists who challenge discrete forms and disciplines. We value process over product, transformational conversations, alternative economies of exchange, slowing down, and showing up. EVERYBODY! COME STAND ON THE ALTAR!, the inaugural activation of PSSST, is a performance of materials. It is an invitation to engage in an immersive constellation of objects, sounds, images, language, and lighting. It is a collaboration between PSSST and Anna Betbeze, Jesse Fleming, Luis Flores, Deana Lawson, Keaton Macon, K.r.m. Mooney, Litia Perta, Barb Smith, and Dorian Wood. In the first instant of a theatrical encounter, there is space for abstraction, empathy even, as we begin to ask questions, as we begin to focus. Lights go off and on, sounds overwhelm then recede. Our eyes adjust, if we are sitting, our bodies may sink–we fidget because the feeling is powerful and the space before a beginning is open. In this diffuse moment, we are enraptured by a series of relationships that unfold—things we have seen before, fragments of fantasies and projections, known objects taking different forms. Instinctively, we silence ourselves, we long to know more, we wait for catharsis. Each work calls for, begs for, a delicate attention. When woven together with bodies in space, PSSST believes that a decentralized sacred space can emerge. There is a stage. There is no stage. The stage is always changing. Come stand on the altar.