STATIONS OF THE LOST

A TRANS REQUUIEM

STATIONS OF THE LOST

is a secular/gnostic requiem, a theatre piece written by Dr. Felix Graham in collaboration with TRANScend, New York's trans/gender-expansive vocal ensemble, and Randy Polumbo, visual artist. The requiem, in oratorio form, is performed alongside an installation of 14 panels, replacing the traditional stations of the cross with commemorative art pieces honoring the lives of trans artists (both past and present).

The text of the libretto is based on the writings of Aleister Crowley, a queer, gender-fluid spiritualist and author — once described as “the wickedest man on Earth.” His text, Liber XV, forms what was known as the ‘Gnostic Mass,’ meant to replace the traditional liturgical text in a way that celebrated the internal divine and spirituality that was not directly related to the catholic church. 

TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE & RESILIENCE

November 20 is the transgender day of remembrance, a day of commemoration begun in 1999 by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith as vigil to commemorate trans lives lost to violence – particularly trans women of color, the most frequent targets of transphobic violence. In the years since, it has expanded further into a dual day of remembrance and resilience: to remember the lost, certainly, but also to honor the life, spirit, and contributions of the living trans community, too, through art, music and poetry. Art (and particularly music) is a powerful medium for social change and in recognition of that, today’s performance is dedicated to the trans activists and artists who committed their time and energy to creating a more equitable society — one in which we can stand and sing openly and freely.

The fourteen stations displayed were created to memorial fourteen different trans activists and artists — many of whom were lost to violence and societal neglect, and all of whom were foundational to the existence of trans visibility and culture today. Their names are Rita Hester, Billy Tipton, Sophie Xeon, Lorenza Bottner, Claude Cahun, Angela Morely, Virginia Prince, Wilmer Broadnax, April Ashley, Lili Elbe, Greer Lankton, Mark Aguhar & Maxine Feldman

ABOUT THE LIBRETTO

  • The text of the libretto is adapted from Aleister Crowley’s Liber XV. The movements are named after the traditional movements of the liturgical requiem of the Catholic and Anglican church, and contain some snippets of text that tie Crowley’s poetry together with the original requiem form.

  • Requiem aeternam, dona eis requiem (Give them eternal rest)

    Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen may there be granted the attainment of their true Wills.

    Whether they will absorption into the Infinite, or to be united with their chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labor and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another, or in any Star, or aught else

    Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen may there be granted the attainment of their true Wills.

  • Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy!)

    Term of all who liveth
    Whose name is inscrutable
    Be favorable to us
    In Thine hour.

  • In memoria aeterna erit iustus (In eternal remembrance, they will be justified)

    Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen may there be granted the attainment of their true Wills.

  • But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
    Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!
    A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
    But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
    Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!
    A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!

  • Liber scriptus proferetur in quo totum continetur, unde mundus judiceturJudex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet apparebit.Nil inultum remanebit.

    (A book will be brought forth, in which all will be written, by which the world will be judgedWhen the judge takes his seat all that is hidden shall appear Nothing will remain unavenged.)

    Let Fire and the Air make sweet the world! 

    Dies irae, dies illa (Day of wrath that consumeth the world.)

    I am a man among men. How should I be worthy?

    Let Fire and the Air make sweet the world!

  • Make open the path of creation
    and of intelligence
    Make open the path of creation
    between us and our minds. 

    Encourage our hearts
    Enlighten our understanding
    Let thy light crystallize itself in our blood,
    fulfilling us of Resurrection.

    Make open the path of creation
    and of intelligence
    Make open the path of creation
    between us and our minds. 

  • Thou who art, beyond all I am,
    Who has no nature and no name,
    Thou, the true fire within the reed
    Brooding and breeding, source and seed

    Seed of life, love, and light,
    beyond speech and beyond sight,
    Thee we invoke, abiding one,
    Thou center, secret of the Sun!

  • Thou that art One,
    our Lord in the Universe the Sun,
    our Lord in ourselves
    whose name is Mystery of Mystery, 

    uttermost being whose radiance
    enlightening the worlds
    is also the breath that
    maketh even Death to tremble before Thee

    Thou that art One,
    Our Lord in the Universe the Sun,
    Be thou glorious, glorious,
    glorious on the throne.

  • Upon those that gather here
    Who unite in love
    Let fall success,
    Let fall success.

    May strength and skill
    Unite to bring forth ecstasy
    And beauty answer beauty,
    And beauty answer beauty.

    Upon those that gather here
    Who unite in love
    Let fall success,
    Let fall success.

  • O circle of Stars whereof our Father
    is but the younger brother,
    marvel beyond imagination,
    soul of infinite space,
    before whom Time is ashamed,
    the mind bewildered,
    the understanding dark,
    not unto Thee may we attain,
    unless Thine image be Love.

  • Lux perpetua luceat eis
    (Let perpetual light shine upon them)

    Lord, visible and sensible,
    of whom this earth is but a frozen spark
    turning about thee with annual and diurnal motion,
    source of light, source of life,
    let thy perpetual radiance hearten us
    In our continued labor and enjoyment 
    so that as we are constant partakers of thy bounty
    we may give out light and life, sustenance and joy
    to those that revolve about us 

    Et lux perpetua luceat eis

    Unto them from eyes
    the veil of life hath fallen
    may there be granted
    the attainment of their Will.

  • Secret and most holy,
    source of life and love,
    Secret and most holy,
    source of all, we plead:

    Be thou ever constant
    mighty within us,
    force of energy, fire of motion,
    font of liberty

    Secret and most holy,
    Source of life and love
    Secret and most holy
    Source of all we need.

    With diligence let us ever
    labor with thee,
    that we may remain
    in thine abundant joy!

  • In paradisum deducant te Angeli (May angels lead you into paradise)

    Mysterious Energy, mysterious matter,
    the interplay of which things weave
    the dance of the Veil of Life
    on the Face of the Spirit,

    let there be Harmony
    and Beauty in your mystic love,
    that in us may be health
    and strength and divine pleasure

    Let the gates of life
    be open in peace,
    In peace
    and in well-being,

    Let each pursue their Will
    as a strong man that rejoiceth in his way,
    as the course of a Star that blazeth for ever
    among the joyous company of Heaven.

    In paradisum deducant te Angeli

JOINT ARTIST STATEMENT

Traditionally, memorial works for marginalized people have posed as a mea culpa - looking back in sorrow. While looking back is important, we believe that looking forward is just as important...and a lot more beneficial to the people still living. As such, we are creating new art music in the classical tradition in honor of the national trans day of remembrance/resilience. Not just to celebrate the trans artists who have been lost to violence or societal neglect, but to uplift the trans artists who are with us now.

In the spirit of Dr. Graham’s composition, Polumbo painted a series of images of birds from life. These were re-imagined by his studio from 3-D scans of TRANScend members hands and faces. Each bird is made of Reishi Mushroom mycelium grown into a mold made from elements gathered from TRANScend members and is associated with an important trans artist or activist, many of whom were lost to violence or societal neglect, and all of whom contributed significantly to trans art, culture and visibility. Soaring fiercely, with wings made of human hands, and witnessing through over-scaled blown glass eyes. They draw a line between the tragic past and celebration of living trans people and mark that we are all watching and demand a just and inclusive future.

THE FOURTEEN STATIONS

Item 1 of 14

ABOUT THE ARTIST: RANDY POLUMBO

Randy Polumbo is an installation-based artist who lives and works between Joshua Tree, California and New York City. His artwork has been shown nationally and internationally across metropoles and natural landscapes such as deserts, ruins, and caves.

Major exhibitions include Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Ohr-O’Keefe Museum (Biloxi, MS), Prospect 3 (New Orleans, LA), Kasmin Gallery (Miami/NYC), Bass Museum (Miami, FL), Bombay Beach Biennale (CA), Norton Museum (Palm Beach, FL), and The Bunker Artspace (West Palm Beach, FL). Press and interviews include New York Times, Paper Magazine, The Cut, Vice, The Art Newspaper, Artdaily, the Golden Handcuffs Review, and New York Magazine. Residencies include Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY) and Park Stewardship Through the Arts (Joshua Tree, CA).

 Polumbo’s work is in the private collections of Lorinda Ash, Beth DeWoody, Tim & Stephanie Ingrassia, Ann Magnuson, Rick Moody, John & Amy Phelan, Kenny Scharf, Jon Stryker & Slobodan Randjelovic, Uma Thurman, David Walsh & Kirsha Kaechele; as well as the public collections of the Museum of Old & New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Crocker Museum of Art (Sacramento, CA), and The Museum of Sex (NYC).

He is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, as well as a LEED accredited master builder and serves on the Board of Directors of New York Live Arts.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Randy Polumbo is a visual artist whose practice intervenes in perceptual, ecological, and propagational systems. Informed by his wide-ranging study of horticulture, engineering, and regenerative design, his projects use recycled, repurposed, as well as living materials to enact alchemical, spatial, and social transformation. Polumbo’s projects center the formal and elemental aspects of a site such as light, water, and earth to draw our attention to geological time—that is, processes beyond the scale of human perception. The works reveal their own chronology, framing the simultaneity of growth, endurance, and impending collapse. Sometimes this is to frame the enormity of the natural world, such as caves and grottos which are not static forms but phenomena constantly advancing. Other times this is to repair travesties of industry and instruments of destruction, recuperating sites of petroleum spills or monocultural agriculture by creating moments of surprise interaction, collective curiosity, or beauty.

He is excited to collaborate with TRANScend in these same spirits, to conjure curiosity and beauty from troubling material, and with a homespun yet highly resolved synergistic spin.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: FELIX GRAHAM

Felix Graham, ED.D.C.T., is an NYC-based musician, writer and teaching artist whose practice explores the juxtaposition of voice, gender & identity. He has had two careers as a performer: initially as a classical singer & pianist, then post-transition branching into cabaret/queer musical theatre, which included a role in Decadence, where he was the first openly trans-masculine singer to perform at the Friar’s Club.

As a choral composer/director, his work explores ensemble singing as performance art, examining the shift in interpretation of the art music canon when performed by GNC voices/ensembles. His first large-scale composition, Stations of the Lost: A Trans Requiem, was written as a subversion of the traditional liturgical memorial, using the gnostic poetry of the gender-bending occultist Alastair Crowley – the “wickedest man on earth.”

As a teaching artist, Dr, Graham works with trans/GNC singers and gives workshops nationally on trans voice, music & identity, and creating secure musical learning spaces for marginalized communities. He is currently the artistic director of TRANScend & founder of TRANScend Choral & Community Music Foundation – a non-profit dedicated to gender-inclusive music and music education in New York City.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Dr. Graham’s work as an artist can be neatly categorized as Before Transition and After Transition. Before Transition was escapism – dysphoric sublimation through the performance of highly-stylized gender roles in opera and classical music. After Transition has been deconstructing gender and voice and allowing himself the freedom to put his deepest feelings about (and rebellion against) gender into physical form.  He works in multiple complementary disciplines, all of which examine the intersection of singing, gender, and identity. The underlying premise of his my artistic output, regardless of the medium, is inserting non-conforming voices into places society has decided we don’t belong..