Ishmael Houston-Jones will present “Looking For Laure” as part of JAM, Just Above Midtown, Changing Spaces, at MoMA. This is a study on racial/gender pseudo binaries through a mashup of Eduard Manet, Nina Simone, Kurt Weil, Bertolt Brecht, The Jeffersons, The Help, Gone with the Wind, Imitation of Life, and others.

Growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1960s, there were domestic workers among my family members. When I took my first trip to Paris when I was 20 years old, a decades-long fascination began with the woman, Laure, who modeled as the maid in Eduard Manet’s painting Olympia (1865): Who was she? What did she desire? What were her joys, pains, and hatreds? Who were her loves? Who are her descendants?  

This rendition of "Looking for Laure” will be performed by Johnny Walker and Raymond Pinto.

More about JAM:

Celebrate the legacy of Just Above Midtown during an experimental evening of artist activations, short performances, and storytelling in response to the question, “What do you carry with you from JAM?” Connect with the people who made JAM a place that centered creativity, care, and support for artists and cultivated a wide and diverse public to engage and experience their work. Come on your own or bring your friends and family for food, music, creative prompts, and a chance to make new friends. Participating artists include Sydney Blum, Linda Goode Bryant, Maren Hassinger, Janet Olivia Henry, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Randy Williams, Tony Whitfield, and more.