OPEN LAB | CARRYING DAT: thick circles & soft survival prep with Joy Norton

2026 AiR Joy Norton presents a workshop gathered around the question: if the world as we know it ends, who survives and how? 2026 AiR Joy Norton presents a participatory OPEN LAB workshop developed in conjunction with her forthcoming work Reveries of the Sacred Floor: Plus One. Rooted in the belief that Black, queer, trans, and femme people must be the architects and protectors of their own futures, this lab draws from club culture, historic codes, Afrofuturism, and Afropessimism to gather around one question: if the world as we know it ends, who survives and how? Together we will move through video, history, and past revolutions, excavating the tools our communities have always carried, the codes that have kept us alive, and the knowledge we pass through dance floors, back channels, and word of mouth. We will sit with the reality of collapse: what sustenance looks like, and what we can grow, gather, and protect. We will build emergency bags together, develop contingency plans with our people, and ask how our current sites of pleasure can become our most radical infrastructure. We will practice regulating the nervous system as a communal act, learning that dependence on each other is a skill, and that skill is a politic. Participants will leave with an understanding of emergency kits, tools for communal conflict resolution, and a seed for transforming their leisure and the club into something that pulls them closer to themselves, their community, and their survival. ABOUT THE ARTIST Joy Norton (she/they) is a Brooklyn based performance artist and movement instructor channeling Black femme resistance through time, endurance, and improv. Through performance, sound, choreography, sewing, and video, their work examines radical honesty, sensuality as sacred tool, and defiance as catalyst for resistance. In 2025 they launched PPPleasure Pulse Studios (formerly Jeffery's Studio), transforming the space into an experimental dance venue with low-cost rentals for Brooklyn performance and sound artists. Like their vision for the studio, Norton transforms personal narrative into communal healing. Their pieces create portals where Black care and resistance merge, reflecting political urgencies while opening pathways to liberated futures. Norton recently choreographed and directed ‘Reveries of Metanoia: who all gon be there’ at Abrons Arts Center and ‘Speaking Tongues’ at Judson Church. Recent performances include collaborations with Miles Greenberg at Farchou Gallery and Powerhouse Arts' inaugural performance, and with Monica Mirabile for Kunsthall Bergen, 3rd Festival Berlin, and Performance Space NY. They've led workshops and retreats across Puerto Rico and New York. Past residencies include New Dance Alliance, Movement Research Artists of Color, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Norton holds certifications in Liquid Motion Floorwork, Pilates via Power Pilates, and nutrition via NASM. OPEN LAB is a series that encompasses theoretical and practical discussions, movement research, and workshops open to the public that invite practice-based inquiry and creative exchange of ideas.