At first, Another Day appears to be a scene of domestic neo-bourgeois bliss. A young couple sit down to a nice homemade dinner by candlelight. Yet, their privilege acts like a filter, a thin barrier rapidly eroding. Everything is over saturated, overstimulated and therefore numb as the peal of ambulance sirens relentlessly persists. There are no smiles or pleasant small talk, only strain throughout the meal. Outside the ambulances race around the otherwise empty streets to care for the sick (disproportionately people of color) and carry the dangerously ill to overfull hospitals straining beyond their capacity. Elmhurst hospital, which just a few days earlier made headlines for having thirteen COVID-related deaths in a single day, is just a few blocks away. The meal concludes, the candles burn out, but the sirens continue.
This piece was created during the early days of New York City’s COVID-19 lockdown as part of a series of daily works aiming to cope and process with the new emergency reality of quarantine. It became a ritual of resilience and self-care to use whatever we had available in our apartment for the creation of short performing or visual works to be shared that evening. Another Day was recorded in one long take and then streamed on Facebook.
Another Day was performed with Allison Brzezinski at our apartment in Jackson Heights, NY, on March 31, 2020.