April 9-14, 2019
University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts
Free Tickets →
Photo By Manuel Vason at DARC Media
Free Tickets →

Selina Thompson

Race Cards

Race Cards takes place in a room containing 1,000 questions about race, written by artist Selina Thompson. You’re invited to answer one of them.

Date / Time / Site(s)
  • Installation
    Tue 4/10/18–Sat 4/14/18
    1pm-7pm
    Sun 4/15/18
    1pm-4pm

    MATCH
    3400 Main Street
    Houston, TX 77002
  • Performance (ticketed)
    Sat 4/14/18
    3pm-7pm(come + go)
    MATCH Box 1
    3400 Main Street
    Houston, TX 77002
Notes

The installation of Race Cards is limited to six guests at a time and the average time spent in the installation is an hour. The performance of Race Cards is come-and-go. You may arrive any time between 3pm and 7pm and stay as long as you like. Children 14 and under should be accompanied by an adult.

About The Project

Installation + Performance

Race Cards takes place in a room containing 1,000 questions about race, written by artist Selina Thompson. You’re invited to answer one of them.

65. Are you black, or are you ‘new black’?

170. What is the long term psychological impact of white supremacy on people of colour?

220. My mum does not talk about race anymore. It makes her uncomfortable, tired. Will this happen to me?

307. Why do people assume that racism will just passively die out if we wait long enough?

440. Are you angry?

541. What ever happened to Kony 2012?

660. Who is more problematic – famous racist Nigel Farage, or the liberal journalist politely asking him questions?

720. When does it all end?

In this constantly evolving installation and archive, Thompson invites participants to supply their own answers to the many facets of race and racism in modern society.

On April 14 at 3pm, Selina Thompson will ask all 1,000 questions in a durational performance.

Join us on 4/12 for a Current Conversation with Selina Thompson. To download the complete CounterCurrent18 schedule, click here.

Race Cards is supported by Buzzcut, Forest Fringe, and Fierce FWD. Seed commissioned by Camden People’s Theatre and Leeds Library through Room 700.
About The Artist

Selina Thompson is a UK based artist, performer, and writer. Her practice is primarily intimate, political, and participatory, with a strong strand of public engagement that then leads to joyous, highly visual work that seeks to connect to those often marginalized by the arts.

Since 2013, her live work has reached over 8,000 people. In 2016, she retraced one of the routes of the Transatlantic Slave Triangle to Ghana and Jamaica in research for her new show salt. From 2017-20, she is working with teenage girls in five different UK cities to make new performances about their lives.