Rose: You Are Who You Eat is a true story set to music by John Jarboe. Artist John Jarboe writes:
In 2018 my aunt revealed I had a twin in the womb.
She said, “You know you had a twin in the womb?”
I didn’t know.
She said, “You ate her. That’s why you are the way you are.”
This was a lot to swallow.
My aunt’s pronouncement that my gender stemmed from an act of fetal cannibalism is the seed for this piece: a celebration and “digestion” of this new found twin, who I later learned would have been named “Rose.”
A shrine of music, image, objects, and text, Rose brings together a team of queer artists, including composers and musicians Emily Bate, Daniel de Jesús, Pax Ressler, and Be Steadwell with director Mary Tuomanen, to tell the legend of John and Rose. Jarboe, known as the founding artistic director of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, explores this tale through musical styles ranging from art song to 1980s pop ballad, elaborate floral-inspired costumes made by Rebecca Kanach, intimate storytelling, and a feast of wordplay. This evening will feature a concert of original songs performed by a live band and set alongside a garden of images made with filmmaker Christopher Ash. After this event, the project will continue to evolve into films and an art installation in which fellow genderqueers can nourish their own idiosyncratic identities.
For one night only in New York City at Works & Process at the Guggenheim