READ THE ROOM

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Read the Room is an immersive storytelling installation that integrates traditional storytelling, sound and film, textile and fabric arts, and sui generis text objects to tell an interactive story of decolonial love, bordertown housing, and Indigenous futurism in Kinłaní (aka Flagstaff, AZ). Set in an historic home in the Southside neighborhood, visitors encountered actors and objects in a theatrical experience that share the conventions of both an open house and haunted house.

Read the Room 2024 was inspired by Natalie Diaz's Pulitzer-Prize winning collection, Postcolonial Love Poem. A second installation is planned for 2025 based on Tommy Orange's There, There.

Producer

Lawrence Lenhart & the Northern Arizona Book Festival

Concept & Design

Lawrence Lenhart

NAU students in ENG 608 - Arts Entrepreneurship: Maisy Phelps, Rachel Goodman, December Verbout, Kayleigh Boomgaard, Jack Galati, Nicole Collingwood, Denton Ohler

Porch

Sound Installation: iiwaa

Actor: Katie King

Living Room

Filmmaker: Deidra Peaches

Bedroom #1

Filmmaker: Deidra Peaches

Textile: Nicole Collingwood

Bedroom #2

Playwright: Will Cordeiro

Director: Evangeline Jimenez

Voice Actors: Evangeline Jimenez; Katie King

Kitchen

Traditional Storyteller: Sunny Dooley

Artists

Students in Andrew Tegarden's ARE 330W - Critiquing and Writing about Art: Cree Brothers-Watahomigie, Erik Brown, Julia Ermis, Emma Fortner, Ezekiel Hodo, Yesenia Kanney, Lauren Malmstrom, Raymond Marto, Abigail McGee, Cheyanne Rihanna, Andrew Tegarden, and Belsy Trigueros.

PRESS full article link

KNAU: Do you have a favorite event that you’ve gone to so far?

Julie Sokol (ARTx Director): I think my favorite one is one that has already ended, so you’ll have to view it virtually. It’s called “Read the Room.” That was in partnership with the Northern Arizona Book Festival. They took over a home in Southside and each of the rooms was dedicated or an homage to part of the Postcolonial Love Poem, which is a collection of poems by Natalie Diaz. It was an immersive experience, a beautiful experience, I cried, I laughed, it was amazing. They had a sound installation by iiwaa and a film by Dierdra Peaches. Just a really amazing collaborative experience.