Witch’s Kitchen Presents: Shana Lutker in Conversation with Liz Glynn

Witch’s Kitchen: Part One presents a series of online events hosted by Shana, taking up themes and strategies put in play by Valeska Gert. The second program in the series turns to Los Angeles, seeking out the histories of the spaces and folks that existed at the intersection of cutting-edge performance and the underground. Liz Glynn features prominently in this research: In 2012, Liz created a temporary performance venue called Black Box. Open only for eleven days in an empty warehouse in Hollywood, Black Box hosted dozens of performances and programs at an important moment when the city was seeing itself, finally, as an art scene with considerable history and international prominence. The project stemmed from Liz’s interest in the Public Spirit Festival (1980), a performance series spearheaded by a group of artists that included Barbara T. Smith and Paul McCarthy. Black Box was an homage to the artist-driven performance in Los Angeles that came before these practices were embraced, framed, and canonized by art institutions. Both Black Box and Public Spirit are case studies for Witch’s Kitchen.

Taking as its starting point a revisiting of Black Box and the Public Spirit Festival, this program offers a window into Liz and Shana’s shared fascination with the past and appreciation that history that is full of examples of the deeply intertwined innovations and failures of human civilization—as well as the importance of awkwardness, eating cake, and darkness.