Bob Flanagan Memorial and Marathon Reading
Human Resources Los Angeles
May 16 th 12-7pm

Bob Flanagan Memorial and Marathon Reading is a durational performance, live reading, and space to gather and honor the life and legacy of Bob Flanagan (1952–1996). Flanagan was a poet, artist, performer, and sadomasochist with cystic fibrosis. Over the course of his 43 years of life, he was a piercer at The Gauntlet, a reader in the mid-1970s at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, and in the 1980s, met the love of his life and his dominatrix Sheree Rose. With Sheree, he built a D/s dynamic that lasted over sixteen years, spanning underground BDSM spaces, artistic exhibitions, performances, and private scenes in and around their home. Rose and Flanagan collaborated on dozens of performances and educational scenes for the BDSM community; they are two of the founding members of Society of Janus in Los Angeles. In 1992, Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan exhibited A Matter of Choice at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). Rose and Flanagan also exhibited Visiting Hours in 1992 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art and again at the New Museum in New York in 1994. Over the course of his career, Flanagan also read at the Poetry Project in New York numerous times. During Bob’s life and after his passing, their work was exhibited internationally in Germany, Australia, and Japan. In 1997, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize.

The 30th Anniversary Memorial and Marathon Reading is a testament to Flanagan’s broad-reaching impact across countless communities for decades. His work with Rose set the precedent of contemporary performance art in relation to BDSM, kink, and body modification. The lineages Flanagan and Rose built through their collaborations continue to shape the work of disabled, leather, and freak artists today. Curated and produced by Sheree Rose and Mae Howard, the event brings together artists, poets, disabled folks, and leather freaks across generations to uplift Flanagan 30 years after his passing. Running from 12pm to 7pm, the event will be a marathon reading of some of Flanagan’s writing, including Pain Journal (1996), Slave Sonnets (1986), The Wedding of Everything (1983), Fuck Journal (1988), and Book of Medicine(unpublished).

The readers and performers for the event, in alphabetical order, are as follows: A., Sydney Acosta, Iris Afantchao, Jerri Allyn, Quetzal Arevalo, Ron Athey, Daniel Babcock, Amelia Bande, Badly Licked Bear, Alcide Breaux, Rocio Bolivar, John Burtle, Kathe Burkhart, Grace Caiazza, Camilla Caldwell, Andy Campbell, Cassils, Lena Chen, Navah Chestnut, Monet Clark, Vivian Crockett, Amina Cruz, Jess Dayan, Bec Dean, Nat Decker, Jane DeLynn, Spike Einbinder, Ruben Esparza, FLESHPIECE, Fluent, Beatrix Fowler, Micol Hebron, Johanna Hedva, Spyke Hirshon, Sloane Holzer, Mae Howard, Y Howard, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Xandra Ibarra, Dominic Johnson, Amelia Jones, Kerosene Jones, Vishal Jugdeo, Peter Kalisch, Amy Kingsmill, Pony Lee, thái lu, Ren L[i]u, Angelo Madsen, Amanda Majors, Jasmine Marin, Shelley Marlow, Jeanelle Mastema, Carta Monir, Martin O’Brien, Mehregan Pezeshki, Dominic Quagliozzi, Riven Ratanavanh, Siyona Ravi, Sam Richardson, Sheree Rose, Jamie Ross, Nina Salerno, Cielo Saucedo, Margie Schnibble, Judy Sisneros, Stuart Sweezy, Rebecca Teich, Roger Tréfousse, Julie Tolentino, Jeanne Vaccaro, Valentino Velez, Anuradha Vikram, Agnes Walden, Ione Wang, Emir West, and Empress Wu.

The Bob Flanagan Memorial and Marathon Reading will take place in hybrid form. Attendees can join in person at Human Resources or via YouTube Live to livestream from bed, the waiting room, the dungeon, their couch, a gallery, or the bath. Please complete this form to register for the YouTube link; it will be sent out on May 15th. To make space for disabled and chronically ill readers and attendees, we strongly request that in-person guests mask unless physically unable to do so. The gallery will have a variety of seating options including padded chairs with backs, non-padded chairs, and benches. Human Resources Los Angeles is wheelchair and rollator accessible.

In conjunction with the Memorial and Marathon Reading, on May 14th from 7–8:30pm at the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, join NEED ME, or, (de)mystifying the myth of the modern primitive curator Quetzal Arévalo on a tour of the exhibition. Spanning everything from the early network of body modifiers throughout the United States and Europe, the founding of the first-ever body-piercing-specific business and magazine, to the artists who made work inspired by the body piercing renaissance, this walkthrough guides viewers through the history, research, and making of NEED ME. This tour will include a special focus on performance artists Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose. In honor of thirty years since Flanagan’s passing, additional objects from Flanagan’s archive will be showcased for the occasion. Masks are required for this tour. The tour will be moving, so audience members should be prepared to be mobile for approximately 45 minutes. There are no accessibility barriers for entry. Ample free parking is available right in front.

The Bob Flanagan Memorial and Marathon Readings is made possible by Human Resources Los
Angeles and the ONE Archives at USC Libraries alongside the following individuals:
Produced and Curated by Sheree Rose and Mae Howard
Accessibility Coordinator: Cielo Saucedo
ASL Interpretation: David Banda and Natanael Escalera
Zoom Monitors: Cielo Saucedo and Casey Wait
Livestream Tech: Jazzy Romero
Day of Stage Management: Natalie Nicole Dressel and Lee Rosen
Screen printed Shirts: Kate Mosher Hall