Unbidden Tongues #6: Cutting Out Reading the New York Times

Since its beginnings in 2020, Unbidden Tongues has published previously produced yet relatively uncirculated work by cultural practitioners busy with questions surrounding civility and civic life—particularly in relation to language and its administration.

Unbidden Tongues #6: Cutting Out Reading the New York Times took the form of an event, held on Saturday, April 9 from 4–6pm at Kunstverein München. The event unfolded over a newly conceived spoken-word version of Lorraine O’Grady’s collage series Cutting Out the New York Times. The initial work consists of 26 'cut-out' or 'found' newspaper poems that O’Grady made on consecutive Sundays from June to November in 1977.

This booklet—which contains the poem The Renaissance Man Is Back In Business—acted as a guide for listeners at the event, during which five of the poems from the series were recited and broadcast through a public announcement system installed at Kunstverein München, reinterpreting the poems through their performance while still maintaining a commitment to the original format from which they sprung: print media and its oral translations in broadcasting.

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Paperback, Publication Studio and Kunvstverein München, 2022
12 p, 21.5 × 28 cm.