Theater in A Post-Truth World

Delighted that my chapter on performance art, conspiracy theories, and the new culture war is now available alongside other amazing work in the book Theater in A Post-Truth World from Bloomsbury Press.

You can find the details of the book and purchase it here. A paperback will be available in 2023.

Edinburgh 2019

Lewis was delighted to once again lead The Sick of the Fringe's writing program at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.  Click the link below to read his round-up of the experience of being there!

You can also follow the link to access the important, urgent and provocative writing from the four commissioned writers that Lewis was lucky enough to work with as editor - FK Alexander, Harry Clayton Wright, Demi Nandhra and Sage Nokomis Wright.

TSOTF Edinburgh 2019

The Sick of the Fringe and Lewis's work within it is continuing to grow, so look out for announcement of new projects and partners coming in 2020 and beyond! 

Take the Money and Run: Power, Money and Counter-Power

Lewis was recently commissioned by the Managing the Radical Group and the Live Art Development Agency to produce a written response to the event Take the Money and Run: Power, Money and Counter-Power. 

Taking a moment to reflect upon some real successes achieved by campaigns such as Liberate Tate, the event invited artists, activists, curators, producers, researchers and anyone engaged with these issues to share ideas about how we might build for future struggles to free art and artists from their dependency on the proceeds of toxic capitalism. What might a politically and environmentally responsible approach to money in the arts look like today and tomorrow?

Take the Money and Run: Power, Money and Counter-Power featured contributions from Jess Worth of Culture Unstained, Jane Trowell of Platform, Elona Hoover of The Common House, Natasha Nkonde of Edge Fund, writer and artist Morgan Quaintance, and Cecilia Wee and Amit Rai from the Managing the Radical Action Group.

You can read or download this response here.

Vooruit / Upcoming Events

Lewis returned earlier this month from Vooruit in Ghent (Belgium), where he was working with writers at Women and Children First for The Sick of the Fringe.

You can access writing from the festival here.

UPCOMING:

- Lewis will be leading the live writing response to Live Art Bistro's 24hr 'Performing Britain' event in Leeds, March 29th-30th 2019.

- Look out for forthcoming commissioned writing on Keijuan Thomas and Gabriele Longega's residencies at ]performance s p a c e [

- More Diagnoses and Prognoses out of The Sick of the Fringe London Festival, Care & Destruction.

- Lewis' article 'Everyone Was Doing Everything: The Post-Punk Polymath on the Lower East Side' is available in the latest issue of Intellect Journal's Punk & Post-Punk.

SPILL Reader

Lewis has contributed a new essay, 'World of Your Own Making: Artist Partnerships and Subcultural Support for Live Art' to On Time: A SPILL Reader.

It was available at the 2018 SPILL Festival in Ipswich (UK) and is available for online purchase here.

Recent Projects and Writing

Lewis is back in London following a great summer teaching at SUISS 2018 in Edinburgh, then writing about the festival for The Sick of the Fringe.

- Edinburgh 2018 Round-Up for The Sick of the Fringe

Lewis also has a short piece on the great 1930s Italian-American author John Fante's novel The Road to Los Angeles in the Autumn edition of The First Line Literary Journal.

Coming Soon:

- The SPILL Reader, featuring an essay by Lewis

- Further teaching at Queen Mary, University of London

- A new teaching role at Birkbeck University

Hotel Artemis

Lewis really enjoyed attending the recent Film Distributors Association screening of Hotel Artemis in London.

You can find his review for Loose Lips here.

Gig/Conference

Lewis recently played his second gig with Daniel Oliver and the Hot Hot Air Balloons at Vogue Fabrics Dalston.

He also presented a paper discussing his work as Dramaturg with Sh!t Theatre on She Bangs the Drums at the conference Centennial Reflections on Women's Suffrage and the Arts: Local, National, Transnational at the University of Surrey, UK.

More gigs and papers coming soon!

TSOTF at Normal? and Joey Mellen

Lewis is delighted to be returning to Normal? Festival of the Brain at Folkestone's Quarterhouse Arts Centre to work with another group of local writers to produce 'diagnoses' of artworks.

Follow along on Twitter @TSOTFringe or access the writing here.

Lewis also attended a talk by self-trepanation pioneer Joey Mellen at the MOTH Club, writing up the experience for Hackney Citizen. Access his article here.

Joey Mellen's Bore Hole Memoir

East End Film Fest 2018

Lewis recently reviewed two films at the East End Film Festival for Loose Lips. Find them below:

The Icarus Line Must Die

The Legend of the Ugly King

Yilmaz Güney, subject of The Legend of the Ugly King

Something Other Chapter 5

Lewis is delighted to have his piece What You Doing? Recording. Silence. included in Chapter 5 of Something Other - 'On Silences and Noise'.

--Read it here--

Lewis also performed the piece at Something Other Live at the Peckham Pelican on the 20th of March 2018.

She Bangs The Drums

Lewis is working as Dramaturg for Contact Young Company's new performance She Bangs The Drums, directed by long term collaborators Sh!t Theatre.

Lewis will also be presenting a paper on this performance and the relation between contemporary live art and the histories of social movements at the Centennial Reflections on Women's Suffrage and Arts conference.

Critical Interruptions at Steakhouse Live

Lewis was one of the live writers for Critical Interruptions at Steakhouse Live 2018. 

 - Read the work of all the writers here -

Madeline Botet de Lacaze / Nature

Recent Writing + New Projects

Lewis recently reviewed Julia Gorton's exhibition Pretty in Punk at Untitled Bar for Hackney Citizen, as well as Richard Linklater's new film Last Flag Flying for Loose Lips.

Read them here:

Last Flag Flying
Pretty in Punk x Julia Gorton

Lewis is also delighted to be working with Bootworks Theatre Company on their publications DIY. 

DIY and DIY Too are available for purchase through Unbound here, with further information about DIY Three to follow.

Happy New Year!

Heres to a great 2018, and a new stage of projects! Having completed a PhD in 2017, ran writing projects at huge international festivals, had writing appear in numerous publications and taught several undergraduate courses at different universities, the new year is full of promise. In 2018 Lewis will:

• Continue to work with writing partners at international arts festivals.
• Be producing more arts journalism and commentary for various sites and publications.
• Expand his academic and research profile through conferences and publications.
• Continue to develop his teaching profile in HE.
• Reengage with creative projects more directly. Lewis' most recent dramaturgical work - Stacy Makishi's The Comforter, is at The Yard in January 2018.
• Be bringing a new focus to his personal creative practice, including new music and performance projects. 

Enquiries or information about interesting projects are always welcome! Contact.

Raindance Film Festival 2017

Lewis reviewed two films for Loose Lips' coverage of the Raindance Film Festival 2017 in London. Read them below:

Bruce La Bruce's The Misandrists, and its revolutionary politics (sexual and otherwise).

Out Of The Shadows, a fantastic documentary on British artist Penny Slinger.

Penny Slinger, Deal Breaker, 1977

TSOTF Edinburgh 2017

Lewis is now back in London after a month in Edinburgh as lead writer for The Sick of the Fringe.

See Lewis's diagnoses below:

Give Me You Love - Ridiculusmus
Me and My Bee - ThisEgg
Stegosaurus - ES Productions
Wretched - Richard Stott
Out - Rachael Young with Dwayne Antony
Ensonglopedia of Science - John Hinton
Siri - La Messe Base with Aurora Nova
I Am A Tree - Jamie Wood
Hear Me Raw - Lipsink Theatre
Eve - Jo Clifford and NTS

Read his prognosis, a longer reflection on Edinburgh, here.

See those by other writers here.

In other projects, Lewis is returning to Queen Mary University of London to teach in September 2017. He is also working with Stacy Makishi on a new performance piece, and developing a band, Gemma From The Poster, with several old friends.

Check back here for more updates on publications, conferences, teaching and performances.

Forthcoming Projects

Lewis will be in Edinburgh for all of August with The Sick of the Fringe, as Lead Writer for the Diagnoses project.

This is alongside the work that Lewis has been doing with groups of new writers at Normal? Festival Folkestone and Manchester International Festival 2017. He will also be returning to teach at Queen Mary University of London in September, after passing his PhD with minor corrections in July 2017.

Stay tuned for more details about forthcoming projects!

Recent Writing

Lewis recently reviewed Maeve Brennan's film installation The Drift at Chisenhale Gallery for Hackney Citizen.

Also, click here to see Lewis's contribution to Something Other's 'Library of Unfinished Texts', an essay fragment on Ron Athey, Jerry Lee Lewis and Evangelicalism.

The Sick of the Fringe - Prognoses

Lewis is delighted to continue his work with The Sick of the Fringe. For the forthcoming London edition of the festival he has coordinated five 'Prognoses' as an extension of the 'Diagnoses' produced for Edinburgh in 2015 and 2016.

Read Lewis's introduction to the project here.
Read Prognosis 1 here.
Read Prognosis 2 here.
Read Prognosis 3 here.
Read Prognosis 4 here.
Read Prognosis 5 here.