Bowerbird is pleased to present Philadelphia based filmmaker and artist Tiona McClodden conducting a live presentation and artist talk for her project Af·fixing Ceremony: Four Movements for Essex, which recently debuted in recognition of 2015’s Day With(out) Art. Af·fixing Ceremony commemorates the life and work of celebrated African-American poet Essex Hemphill who was a important member of Washington D.C.’s poetry and artistic community. This is the twentieth anniversary of Hemphill’s death from HIV/AIDS complications on November 4, 1995 in Philadelphia, PA.

On Dec 1, 2015, World AIDS Day, Af·fixing Ceremony, an online commission, took over the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia’s website so that visitors encountered the work and consider some of Hemphill’s questions before entering the site. The work was presented to invoke Hemphill’s spirit within the liminality of cyberspace and in context of Day With(out) Art—an occasion for both action and mourning. Af·fixing Ceremony: Four Movements for Essex will be on view at icaph.ly/EssexHemphill until midnight on Monday, February 1, 2016.