Performance: Malcolm Peacock, To breathe out or die
Date and Time
Location
East St. Louis
About the Event
Coyote Time Convening: Climate Futures and Infrastructural Imaginaries
To breathe out or die is a long-distance run that will take place in East St Louis and links sites connected to the 1917 East St. Louis riots. The performance takes the shape of what the artist describes as “slow choreo,” a form of coordinated movement with shared intentionality that heightens awareness of bodily rhythm and mutual reliance. To breathe out or die is inspired by Peacock’s ongoing research into the 1928 and 1929 historic Bunion Derby, a nearly 3,400-mile transcontinental footrace, which included Black runners who faced targeted racial violence in the Jim Crow panhandle, including in St. Louis. Thank you to the St. Louis Run Crew for their generous support in the development of this performance. Viewing locations will be released the week of the performance.
This event is part of Counterpublic 2026: Coyote Time and our three-day Climate Convening, which brings together artists, writers, organizers, designers, scientists, cultural leaders, and community practitioners to explore climate as a lived reality and exhibitions as opportunities for worldbuilding.
For questions, reach out to Kristin Fleischmann Brewer at kfbrewer@counterpublic.org.
Register
Coyote Time Convening Registration
Space is limited and registration is required. We hope you’ll join us for this focused conversation and opportunity to learn alongside peers working to build more sustainable, responsive, and resilient cultural institutions.
Convening Support
The Coyote Time Convening is supported by the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, established by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
The Climate Forward Institutions Workshop directly supports Counterpublic’s Climate Impact Plan. Learn more here.
This year, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation awarded The Luminary, G-CADD: Granite City Art + Design District, The Griot Museum of Black History, and the National Building Arts Center funds to lower their carbon impacts across their campuses. In addition, the Foundation awarded Counterpublic a grant to support our work with Laura Lupton of LHL Consulting to implement our climate action plan with a long-term vision toward mitigation, adaptation, and resilience and creating a model for biennials, triennials and other large-scale exhibitions to account for their climate impacts.
The Frankenthaler Climate Initiative is the first nationwide program to support energy efficiency and clean energy use for the visual arts and the largest private national grantmaking program to address climate action through cultural institutions. The ongoing initiative provides critical support to visual arts organizations in the United States seeking to assess their impact on the environment and to lower ongoing energy costs. The Foundation has conferred more than $21.8 million since its launch in 2021, with 401 unique grants given for energy efficiency and clean energy projects at 295 institutions across 42 states and Puerto Rico.
