On January 23, 2020, The New Red Order, an open secret society, held an event called “Informants Get Paid!” at Artists Space in New York City. As part of the night’s events, Lou read passages from “Desiring the Tribe” (Pinko, Issue 1) with accompanying images of radical faeries, early Kent Monkamn painting (before his major misstep in failed satire), and works of David Wojnarowicz. After a brief interlude, “Desiring the Tribe” was then re-imagined through monologues, inductions, and ritual. What follows is a rough transcript of the proceedings.
[A voice from off-stage]
Let’s be clear: You cruised me. Made the eyes. “Shipped” it. You came onto the scene.
You made this possible. Now all we talk about is you and what you want.
[“Come and Get Your Love” from Native rock band Redbone plays for 53 seconds.]
Hell (hell), what’s the matter with your head, yeah
Hell (hell), what’s the matter with your mind and your sign and a oh oh oh
Hell (hell) nothin’ the matter with your head baby find it, come on and find it
Hell, with it baby ‘cause you’re fine and you’re mine and you look so divine
Come and get your love
Come and get your love
Come and get your love
Come and get your love
[Lou enters in an open denim vest, bolo tie around a bare neck falling onto a bare belly, denim jeans and old boots]
[Lou reads from Clipboard]
Welcome to the Indian Captivity Kink Workshop.
Let’s discuss boundaries.
The following “I” is I, the savage. A savage with the safety on.
The “you” is the you who are not Indian but sometimes think about what all this looked like before and wish you felt it somehow. You who don’t know loss like that. You, you’ve always had too much to lose. Maybe it makes you good at sex but worse at being a person. You want to be ravaged.
I’m not interested in complicating the dynamics of domination. Arguing for or from a bottom. In this workshop there is no pretense that radical sex politics changes anything about the system of production. So, let’s get started. Up for negotiation:
If I make you cum, will you burn your family’s ranch?
When you’re captive, will you eat only cum: mine and yours?
How will you describe our sex in the memoir you eventually write about your “desert years”? (I ask only that you mention my cheek bones.)
During the captivity scene, you and your partner might find yourselves in the unaccountable excess.
This stage is marked by: the way she looks at me when I’m fucking her. With my turquoise brushing by her hole then pressing against her clit.
The savage might say: I will care for you. You may be redeemed and granted status.
My boundary? My pleasure? It looks different.
[Pause]
If you are ready to practice, step up to the front…...
Burn a flag and see.
This is the Renunciation Kissing Scene.
The rules:
¶ Set fire to a flag.
¶ Then if you’d like, a kiss from safe savage lips.
[One by one, audience members approach the stand, take a small American flag from Lou, use a lighter to set it on fire and they watch it burn together. There is a bucket of water to dispose of the remains. Over the ashes, Lou leans to give a kiss. This is repeated eight or so times.]
For the rest, may your squirming some day lead to action or dissolution. It’s time now for a little opacity.
If you’re white, please raise your hand. Excellent.
[Somebody from the audience asks about being mixed…they will have to decide for themselves.]
Now, if you will, take the black cloth strip you were given upon entering and the ear plugs provided to you. Tie the blindfold around your face. Put the ear plugs in your ears. If you don’t have the access or ability, please use manual means to close your eyes and plug your ears.
[The song “Indians Never Die” by the Native band Blackbelt Eagle Scout plays]
Wastin’
Wastin’
Wastin’ away
Wastin’
Wastin’
Wastin’ away
Do you ever notice what surrounds you?
When it’s all bright and tucked under
Do you ever notice what’s around you?
When it’s all right under our skin
[Lou reads in a semi-whisper]
Are you ready for a secret? This is the induction to the dispossesed dyke sex co-op. Welcome.
This is the question: Can my fucked up body fuck and unfuck your fucked up body?
This is the future: Fuck buddies from the blockades, we work and fuck and unfuck now in the new commons. We un-enclosed each other. We un-enclosed the world together.
This is the pledge.
Repeat after me.
No allegiance but to the people. No pleasure but in loss. No reproduction but in destroying the destroyers.
No flag will ever represent us.
We Insist Always On Life.
[A performer un-plugs the white audience members, taking off the blindfolds and unplugging the ears of every other person. Each freshly unplugged person is then told to unplug the person to their right.]
[“Come and Get Your Love” plays again. ]
Hell (hell)
What’s the matter with you, feel right, don’t you feel right baby
Hell, oh yeah
Get it from the mainline, all right
[The safety savage has already left the stage.] ⊱