WE BE WE KNOW
MAY 19, 20178 PM
LE PETIT VERSAILLES COMMUNITY GARDEN346 E. Houston St. / 247 E. 2nd St.RAIN OR SHINE
Poet-filmmaker Stephanie Gray returns to LPV to show a new selection of recent and rarely screened super 8 films and reading of new poems written in residency this past year at the LMCC. Often invoking the city and its character as well as its mysteries, Gray's works explore the hidden under the everyday. Signage that might go unnoticed becomes a film. Glimmers and shimmers become characters, not just what you walk by. In her recent poems, Gray explores the undercurrents of the phrase "under the surface" and will be reading from a new series investigating this phrase, along with poems that explore disappeared streets of Lower Manhattan that were paved away in the mid 60s for forced development. In all of her work, that which we do not see becomes visible and become questions instead of answers. Starting with poetry reading, Gray will conclude the evening with a film screening, some with live reading, some screened silent.Films include:WE BE WE KNOW (7 min, b/w & color super 8 film, silent ) How do you “know” a neighborhood? This film wrote itself after having gone by this corner almost once a week for nearly 12 years. Handprocessed and color developing give way to mysterious wording: We Be We Know.What You Thought You Knew / What You Knew You Thought (3 min, color super 8, live reading) NY’s secrets full of mystery, color and real or fake memories between dulled sparkles. it’s what you thought you knew, what you knew you thought, what you’ve known, all along. What is the word for a story behind a story behind a story?Dresses and Mountains into Windows (7 min, b/w super 8, live reading) Windows not seeming what they seem on hot NYC streets.Satanic Bible on Interlibrary Loan (9 min, b/w super 8, poem live reading with film) The title is a true situation that occurred when I was 14 or 15. To partly explain (or place the blame): I was an ardent metal head in junior high. You can guess what happened next. What you see is what you get.Untitled Windows at Dusk (3 min, color super 8, rarely screened, silent) What lurks beyond the the time hard to capture, between when it was just that sunset to when did it get dark?Towers Under the Bridge (3 min, negative b/w super 8, rarely screened, silent) I stood there not knowing if I should or not, whether everyone in our city would wanted me to or not. In the end I did, leaving it negative. Whose books? Whose Ivan?Plus possibly a new short film surprise in progress or lesser seen film classic!About the artist: Stephanie Gray is a NYC-based poet and filmmaker. She is the author of five collections of poetry, Shorthand and Electric Language Stars (2015, Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs); A Country Road Going Back in Your Direction (Argos Books, 2015); Place Your Orders Now! (belladonna*, 2014); I Thought You Said It Was Sound/ How Does That Sound (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2012); and Heart Stoner Bingo (Straw Gate Books, 2007). Her films have shown in featured screenings including a retrospective at Anthology Film Archives (2015); San Francisco Cinematheque (2016); Microscope Gallery; Mono No Aware; and internationally at fests such as Viennale, Oberhausen, Ann Arbor, Antimatter, Onion City, Mix NYC, and others. She is currently a resident in writing at the LMCC.