TIM MILLER - Internationally Proclaimed Performance Artist
| Date: | November,12 2009 |
| Time: | 7:00pm |
| Location: | Tom Miles Theatre, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon |
| Price: | $10.00 (free to Pacific University Students) |
| Tickets: | For tickets: Box Office (503)-352-2918. Hours 1-5 p.m., Mon.- Fri. |
| Info: | Kayla@pacificu.edu |
TIM MILLER is an internationally acclaimed performance artist. Miller's creative work as a performer and writer explores the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man. Hailed for his humor and passion, Miller's performances have been presented all over North America, Australia, and Europe. He is the author of the books SHIRTS & SKIN, BODY BLOWS and 1001 BEDS, which won the 2007 Lambda Literary Award for best book in Drama-Theatre. He is a co-founder of two of the most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA.
Miller has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Miller was awarded a NEA Solo Performer Fellowship, which was overturned under political pressure from the Bush White House because of the gay themes of Miller's work. Miller and three other artists, the so-called "NEA 4", successfully sued the federal government with the help of the ACLU for violation of their First Amendment rights and won a settlement where the government paid them the amount of the defunded grants and all court costs. Though the Supreme Court of the United States decided in 1998 to overturn part of Miller's case and determined that "standards of decency" are constitutional criteria for federal funding of the arts, Miller vows "to continue fighting for freedom of expression for fierce diverse voices.
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Since 1999, Miller has focused his creative and political work on marriage equality and addressing the injustices facing lesbian and gay couples in America. Glory Box and US are funny, sexy, and politically charged explorations of same-sex marriage and the struggle for immigration rights for lesbian and gay bi-national couples. They recount the trials Miller has been forced to undergo in trying to keep his Australian partner in the United States. Says Miller, "I want the pieces to conjure for the audience a site for the placing of memories, hopes, and dreams of gay people's extraordinary potential for love."
www.TimMillerPerformer.com
Sponsored by the Center for Gender Equity
