Opening + Performance: Benjamin Patterson

A co-founder of Fluxus and its sole African American member, Benjamin Patterson consistently treated the score as an ethical prompt: a call to act, listen, and compose social relations anew.

Starting in Spring Church, local musician Damon Smith will perform Patterson’s work Variations for Double-Bass (1961). Moving to Park-Like, there will be a special performance of the installation When Elephants Fight, It Is the Frogs That Suffer—A Sonic Graffiti (2016–2026) an amplified artwork installed throughout the garden. The artwork includes local frog sounds, humans imitating frogs, and readings from Benjamin Patterson, Maya & Lily Crothers Gallego-Patterson, Eirini & Melina Charalampous, Keno Graumann, and St. Louis contributors. Local contributors include Father Panagiotis Kostoulas, Sonia Zamanou, Alkistis Lappas, Lyndsey Ellis, Kayla Reed, Charlie Farrell, Tef Poe, and Nevada Nieves.