Multimedia Performance at Guild Hall Featuring Poetry, Art, and Music

The program will include live readings from a new alphabet book created by 28 contemporary poets, along with projections of Szymanski’s video art focusing on the alphabet. Smith will provide musical improvisation, utilizing Szymanski’s sculptural horns and responding in real-time to the poetry and visuals.

Szymanski’s work spans various mediums, including sculpture, photography, video, and performance, often integrating musical elements with poetic texts. She is notably recognized for her series of sculptures resembling invented musical instruments, especially brass horns made with her own alphabetic font.

Barry Schwabsky has authored six poetry collections, among them “The Bone China Years” (2026) and “Water From Another Source” (2023). He contributes to The Nation as an art critic, serves as an editor at Artforum, and has been involved in various projects related to modern and contemporary art.

Wadada Leo Smith has extensively researched different music cultures and was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his work “Ten Freedom Summers,” released in 2012. He was selected as a Mellon Arts and Practitioners Fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration in 2022.

The “Emergency Eyewash” brand represents collaborative endeavors by Szymanski and Schwabsky with numerous artists in art, writing, design, and sound. The term “ABC” in the title pertains to the 28 poets invited to compose works inspired by the letters of the alphabet, reflecting traditional American ABC books that include an ampersand and a period after the letter Z, suggesting a complete thought.

Tickets for the event are priced at $18. Additionally, a performance by comedian Robby Hoffman scheduled for Sunday at 7 p.m. is already sold out.