Stopping Time

Unable to attend in person? Watch the streamed event here.

On Halloween night in 2020, Lou Cornum, a writer and member of the Navajo Nation, arrived at Sovereignty Camp near Southampton, New York. Members of the Shinnecock Nation had constructed the encampment in protest after the New York State attorney general, along with local civic and beautification associations, tried to stop the tribe from erecting monumental, revenue-raising billboards on their own land. In an essay for Triple Canopy, “Who Belongs to the Land?,” Cornum reflects on the billboards as assertions of sovereignty and on the month-long camp as an expression of Indigenous models of life, art, and activism that seek to remake the world. “These alternative political formations have the power to restructure the relationship between human life and the land, and the efforts of Indigenous peoples to denaturalize—and diminish the influence of—the American nation-state represents a major front against climate change,” Cornum writes.

For Stopping Time, Cornum will speak with Raven Chacon, an artist and composer, and Audra Simpson, a political anthropologist, about how Indigenous people are restructuring the relationship between people and the planet. They’ll discuss how the relationship between Indigenous people and nature is often romanticized, reflecting a desire for authenticity that manifests in progressive protests against pipelines as well as in the claims of libertarian ranchers to “ancestral rights” over the land. But the camps and blockades built by Indigenous land defenders are not only symbolic; they are means of “breaking from the premises of civilizational advancement,” in Cornum’s words, and of abolishing the liberal nation-state, which has always been a myth sustained by violence. Drawing on experiences of art as well as activism, Cornum, Chacon, and Simpson will ask how to imagine alternative forms of governance, whether through the speculative narratives of Indigenous Futurism or the protests that halt the world in order to enable the construction of a different one.

Stopping Time is free and will be livestreamed. RSVPing is not mandatory, but we encourage you to register in advance in order to receive updates on the event and the link to the live stream. The event is part of a series that concludes Unknown States, an issue devoted to the fictions that make up nations and nationalities. The series also includes First World Order, with Ilana Harris-Babou and Yasmina Price, organized with Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI); Empires in the Sky, with Atossa Araxia Abrahamian and Rana Dasgupta; and Executive Fiction, with Richard Beck, Ari Brostoff, and Sean McCann.

COVID-19 Protocols, Seating, and Accessibility

All attendees are required to present proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and to wear masks unless otherwise indicated. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis (even for those who have RSVP’d). The doors will open thirty minutes prior to the event and attendance will be limited, given safety concerns and the capacity of our venue.

Triple Canopy’s venue is located at 264 Canal Street, 3W, near several Canal Street subway stations. Our floor is accessible by elevator (63" × 60" car, 31" door) and stairway. Due to the age and other characteristics of the building, our bathrooms are not ADA-accessible, though several such bathrooms are located nearby. If you have questions about access, please contact rachel@canopycanopycanopy.com in advance of the event.

This public program was made possible through generous support from Jane Hait, a founding member of Triple Canopy Director’s Circle; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Research for Unknown States, Triple Canopy’s twenty-seventh issue, was made possible through a Craft Research Fund grant from the Center for Craft.