Luncheon with artist collaborative Kegels for Hegel

Terri Smith

June 8, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Texas-based artist collaborative Kegels for Hegel; Nutritionist Nicole Rose M.S., R.D.; and Naturopathic Doctor and Nurse Midwife Cindy Anderson will participate in a luncheon where attendees explore art, gender, philosophy, nutrition, and food.  To reserve one of the 14 spots for the event, interested parties should RSVP info@franklinstreetworks.org.

The event is exhibition programming for Franklin Street Works current show “All Byte: Feminist Intersections in Video Art,” which includes seven videos by Kegels for Hegel. Guests will enjoy casual presentations and a lunch by Chef Erin Emmett that focuses on nutrient rich foods from 12:30 – 1:30 pm with open discussion from 1:30 – 2:00 pm.  There is an $18.00 admission, which includes lunch and a beverage. To reserve one of the 14 spots for the event, interested parties should RSVP info@franklinstreetworks.org.

Kegels for Hegel is a Texas-based collaborative project where the artists make music videos that, in part, queer the work of (mostly white, straight, male) philosophers and theorists. The collaborative elaborates on their approach to making these videos, “Unlike our academic training, which consisted of specialized study over decades, Kegels for Hegel is based in the emancipatory potential of a lack of expertise. We make songs using simple computer programs, cellphone apps and loops of noise that we find or create.” This embrace of the amateur combines with a scholarly understanding of the philosophers they riff on to create videos that are comfortable with being simultaneously silly, sexual and wickedly intelligent.

For this event Kegels for Hegel will discuss how their practice parallels the processes of choosing, eating and digesting food, but in the realm of ideas, which are imbibed and transformed via cognitive digestion and elimination. “Rather than penetrating, we pull in philosophical texts and let parts of them become parts of us,” write the artists,  “The encounter between the two changes both. Through the brain and the pelvic floor, we build up the necessary muscles to be able to hold onto something. Like the Kegel, we explore small enactments that can beget great changes.”

The artists’ philosophy informs the luncheon’s themes and inspired the café’s chef and “All Byte” co-curator, Terri C Smith, to also invite Nutritionist Nicole Rose M.S., R.D. and Naturopathic Doctor and Nurse Midwife Cindy Anderson to make brief presentations on the nutritional assets of the foods served and to explore some terminology around gender and health.

ABOUT CYNTHIA ANDERSON Dr. Cynthia Anderson known by her patients as Dr. Cindy is a licensed Naturopathic Physician who brings more than 25 years experience and skills working as a Nurse and Midwife to her practice. She has worked with adolescents in a school clinic setting and as a psychiatric nurse. Dr. Cindy specializes in natural ways to decrease anxiety and depression, fertility concerns, a healthy transition during menopause, healthy weight management, identifying and treating gluten sensitivity and helping women prevent and recover from breast cancer. She is certified in Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome and works with subclinical hypothyroidism. She enjoys teaching Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University of Bridgeport Naturopathic College. Recently she presented at the National Midwifery Convention on Natural options for menopause.

ABOUT NICOLE ROSE Nicole Rose M.S., R.D. is a registered dietitian nutritionist with a Masters Degree in Science/Clinical Nutrition from NYU in partnership with Mt. Sinai Hospital. Immediately following her graduate studies, Nicole’s focus was strictly clinical in nature during her time practicing at Montefiore Medical Center. It was only after several years of Nicole’s more conventional experience that her focus became more rooted in a holistic approach to wellness. Nicole’s most passionate belief, is that the foundation for health is based upon prevention of disease. It is her ultimate view that this can only be accomplished by eating Earth’s most wondrous gifts in conjunction with a productive lifestyle.

(MORE) ABOUT KEGELS FOR HEGEL Straddling philosophical smutcore and tongue in chic, Kegels for Hegel (K4H) is a conceptual art project that makes queerly ambivalent songs, music videos, and art objects that both revere and mess with the intellectual production of philosophers. K4H is a “band” fronted by two academics who have no musical training and use computer programs to make songs. But really K4H is an open collaboration of artists, academics, and other creative, clever, disreputable types who make things.