Artists and Poets Gather in Chelsea for “Cathartic” Election Night Event

by Amy
Artists

Artists and poets gathered in Chelsea for a night of readings and performances centered around Carrie Mae Weems’s installation at Gladstone Gallery. The event, held on election night, provided a space for reflection and community in the hours before the polls closed across the U.S.

At 5:30 p.m., as voting continued, a small crowd gathered on a quiet street outside Gladstone Gallery on West 21st Street. Attendees, dressed in light jackets, mingled while smoking cigarettes, enjoying free Modelos, and eating paella-style chicken and lamb served from a makeshift kitchen set up outside.

Inside the gallery, poet Terrance Hayes took the stage within the blue-curtained walls of Weems’s The Shape of Things (2021). Hayes read his poem American Sonnet for the New Year from 2019, along with pieces from his 2018 collection American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, which was inspired by the political climate of Donald Trump’s first presidential term.

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