NIle Harris’ Social Security Presents
THIS HOUSE IS NOT A HOME
A frenzied rant of online logic delivered outside an inflatable mausoleum, Nile Harris' this house is not a home surrounds a bounce castle purchased by Harris' friend, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Trevor Bazile (born Miami, FL, 1996-2021). Over the course of the performance, the castle comes to represent an ephemeral monument, a besieged U.S. capital, and a simulacrum of hollow liberal care.
this house is not a home extends from Harris and Bazile’s collaboratively created, live-Google-document-based‘you niggas in trouble’ manifesto (2020), a metaphorical board meeting that asked: will the revolution have 501c3 status? In and around the sound-responsive plastic shrine, this house is not a home situates this question within the detritus of the past two years—in bitter inheritance, fugitive avatars, political theater, Tucker Carlson redacted texts, and the cleansing of money through arts philanthropy.
Figures—a gingerbread minstrel, Dimes Square vape addicts, a beloved children’s movie cowboy—appear, haunted by the fraught question: what does it mean to be an American? Enlivened by collaborators Crackhead Barney and Malcolm-x Betts, and featuring sonic composition by slowdanger and GENG PTP, this house is not a home uses clowning and live-mixed sound scoring to enact a memorial in an “Incellectual” spew of discourse.
Co-Commisoned and Presented by Abrons Arts Center and Ping Chong and Company
Nile Harris
Director & Performer
Crackhead Barney, Malcolm-x Betts, Cricket Brown, Tony Jenkins, Brandi Mckinnon
Performers
Morgan Johnson
Stage Manager
Dyer Rhoads
Scenic and Effects Designer/Dramaturg
Thom Weaver
Lighting Designer
Hasseim Muhammed
Fight Choreographer
Aminah Ibrahim
Project Manager
Costume Design by Victor Jeffreys II with additional garments by Malcolm-x Betts
Sound Design by slowdanger & GENG PTP with additional process contributions by Akeema Zane