Performance “Radical Citizenship Tutorials” by Mary Walling Blackburn

Over 25 tutors, ranging from archaeologists to musicians, artists to ecologists, will provide one-on-one tutorials with visitors to Governor’s island. Each tutor will offer a separate deconstruction of citizenship, offering abstract and concrete examples and investigations of radical citizenship, an unregulated form of belonging. Some tutorials will be broadcast real-time by a radio transmitter throughout the island, allowing other visitors to listen in via portable radios from the lawns. This expands the classroom into something simultaneously intimate and "long distance." Both coasts will be simultaneously activated, in August and September, when Anhoek School offers tutorials on Angel Island, the historic site of immigration processing for the West. In NYC, the triangulation of Governor’s Island, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty, both geographically and symbolically, point towards an investigation of citizenship – as practice rather than status.
On both sites, each tutor creates their own tutorial that elaborates on their own specific interpretation of the topic and what information they wish to discuss with their student/collaborator/visitor. The length of time will be a joint decision, negotiated on site. Adjacent to the room where the tutorials take place will be a waiting room, of sorts. After each tutorial, the objects within the waiting room alter; the chairs, water cooler, and remains of the performances move according to the subject of the tutorial and the remains of previous tutorials. Check website to see the name of the tutor.