The Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov once said: “We endlessly curse Comrade Stalin, and, of course, for the cause. And yet, I want to ask—who wrote the four million denunciations?” This immersive performance created by Dasha Ziborova and Juliette Hermant invites the audience to participate in the sinister process of creating “denunciative drawings.” Commencing at Maison Bergogne with a perfomance, then threaded throughout the day and town, look out for these agents and provocateurs, they will surely be watching you.

Embedded within the festival and on the streets of Narrowsburg, 2024 channels Orwell’s newspeak in an attractive campaign devoid of context. This series of poetic works and imagined documentation is created by Seth Indigo Carnes and co-curated as an intervention by Rodney Harder and Seth Indigo Carnes.

For the first time, the acclaimed writer and critic will show her collage work in a special exhibition at Ruffed Grouse Gallery, as part of a group show that also features David Kener and Dave Walsh. Sante writes, “I’m primarily drawn to the first half of the twentieth century for its colors and its graphic simplicity. Some of my work is frankly pastiche; the two series on lotto cards (which belonged to my grandparents) allude respectively to Aleksandr Rodchenko’s collages and to early Dada collage as practiced by Francis Picabia and others. The majority of my collages, however, involve words and employ as few elements as possible. The use of single words is very much influenced by Ed Ruscha’s word paintings and the titles Robert Rauschenberg gave his pieces. I tend to work small, but think of even the postcard collages as posters–they shout. Making collages is for me very much like writing poetry, because it involves balancing a delicate structure of ambiguities, always just on the verge of meaning.”

The show runs June 10 to August 13 in addition to festival hours.

“Almost certainly we are moving into an age of totalitarian dictatorships – an age in which freedom of thought will be at first a deadly sin and later on a meaningless abstraction. The autonomous individual is going to be stamped out of existence.” – George Orwell

In a special festival commission, Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, has created a new composition “Parallax of Quantum” featuring strings, electronic music and the legendary science fiction writer, Samuel R. Delany, author of Babel-17 and Dhalgren, reading from George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. Featuring the the WCM Beloveds: Nurit Pacht & Andrew Waggoner (violins), Kathryn Lockwood (viola) and Caroline Stinson (cello).

The Black Library takes over the 108 on Main St, to host a Hip-Hop centered cultural and historical immersive experience. Through the use of music and art carefully curated by founders Douglas Shindler and Michael Davis, this project will highlight and detail the path and trajectory of the genre as well as the profound impact it has had on countless individuals around the world today. “Come dance, laugh, sing, and celebrate with us as we approach the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.” The Black Library is Sullivan County’s most exciting new arts organization, with a mission to promote greater understanding of Black history and culture, advocate for racial justice in Sullivan County and beyond, and to act as an incubator for the next generation of local artists.