Denison: Artist talk with Marcus Young

The Laura C. Harris Series welcomes Marcus Young, behavioral and social practice artist, presenting an artist talk. This talk is in conjunction with “Activating/Performance\Activism,” the Laura C. Harris Scholar-in-Residence initiative of Gabrielle Civil. Young is a collaborating director at Ananya Dance Theater in Minneapolis, Minn. He seeks new tones of belonging and liberation through design of behavioral and social forms, and shifts in systems and awareness that turn things into art. He created “Don’t You Feel It Too?” — an ongoing participatory street dance practice of social healing and inner-life liberation. From 2006 to 2015, he was city artist in St. Paul, where he helped redefine the role of the artist in government as daily collaborator. His project, “Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk,” transformed the city’s sidewalk maintenance program into a publishing entity for poetry. Museum work includes “With Nothing to Give, I Give Myself” — living 10 days around-the-clock at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to foster the understanding that people are the great overlooked works of art.