Learn Self-Defense Techniques At Interactive “I Can’t Breathe” Performance At BRIC House

This Friday, neighbors are invited to participate in a performance that will use spectators as the performers, in an artist’s response to police brutality and other recent current events.

Artist Shaun Leonardo will lead his performance as a self-defense class, where participants will learn several self-defense techniques. The performance is running in conjunction with Sable Elyse Smith, whose self-portraiture work is part of the current exhibition Inherited — the work from the two artists has a focus on “rendering imagery with the body,” according to BRIC.

Titled “I Can’t Breathe,” the performance will take place at the BRIC House Stoop (647 Fulton Street), just steps away from where a protest was held over the weekend to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, an incident that was preceded by the death while in police custody of Staten Island’s Eric Garner, who was captured on film during the arrest repeating the phrase that is the title of this performance.

The performance is free and is happening on Friday, August 14 at 7pm. Afterwards, stick around for a conversation with the artists, moderated by Kimberly Drew, founder of Black Contemporary Art.