Recorded in Onoñdaʼgegáʼ nigaweñoʼdeñʼ (Onondaga Language) by Chief Spencer Ohsgoñ:da’ Lyons, this Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address recording plays in the museum's plaza every 59 minutes until sunset. The recording is 11 minutes long.

The recording repeats every 59 minutes in accordance with a lunar hour (a reference to the Haudenosaunee lunar calendar). Thank you to Saptarshi Lahiri, Makerspace Librarian at OCPL Central for hosting us to make this recording. This recording was created on May 14, 2024. 

Listen to the recording at approx. 9:21am, 10:20am, 11:19am, 12:18pm, 1:17pm, 2:16pm, 3:15pm, 4:14pm, 5:13pm, 6:12pm, 7:11pm and 8:10pm. 

Chief Spencer Ohsgoñ:da’ Lyons is a traditional Hodinoñhsyoñ:nih born to the Onondaga Hawk Clan and was raised in the central fire of the Confederacy. In 2019, he was chosen by his clan to serve as Hoyane (Chief) under the title of Hoyoñnyeñ:nih and continues to represent the Onondaga Hawk Clan family. Along with serving his role on the Onondaga Nation Council, he is currently working with the Hodinoñhsyoñ:nih Environmental Task Force as well as assisting the Onondaga Language Program. Spencer also consults with the Hodinoñhsyoñ:nih External Relations Committee on behalf of the Onondaga Nation Council.

As a person who was born and raised within the traditional and cultural life ways of the Hodinoñhsyo:nih, he continues to apply and enact those teachings within his everyday life by gardening, hunting, fishing and gathering in both modern and traditional aspects. Spencer also promotes and supports those teachings within his community as well as with those who would be allies to the Great Law of Peace and the Hodinoñhsyoñ:nih Confederacy, always with the next seven generations in mind.

Timekeeping Performance (ongoing throughout the day)

Location: Throughout the museum

At 11 am, the museum opens to the public. Throughout the day, the museum will run on alternative timekeeping devices tended by performers. Time and space, according to physics and our lived experience, are inextricably connected. To tend to time is also to tend to space. Performers throughout the day will embody timekeeping to maintain our collective experience. 

Choreography by Tia Kramer in conversation with BIODANCE, a contemporary repertory company based in Rochester, NY. 

Missy Pfohl Smith is a choreographer, performer and collaborative artist who directs the Program of Dance & Movement and the Institute for the Performing Arts at the University of Rochester and is artistic director for the collaborative company, BIODANCE. Her choreography, performance and teaching has spanned across the US and internationally, most recently in Greece, Finland, Scotland and Germany. Missy performed and taught internationally with Randy James Dance Works and Paul Mosley, and apprenticed for the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. She recently received the Lillian Fairchild Award for "the most meritorious and praiseworthy creation of art, poetry, or literature of the imagination." 

Nanako Horikawa Mandrino is a Japanese native who earned her BFA in Dance and a Minor in Theater from The College at Brockport, SUNY. She is currently a Rochester-based freelance dancer and choreographer who performs locally and nationally with artists including Mariah Maloney, Heather Roffe, Andrea Vazquez, Mariko Yamada, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, and Natalia Lisina. In addition to performing at various dance venues across the country, Nanako has toured internationally with her own project, making stops in Spain, France, Romania, Moldova, and Japan. She is also part of the first cohort in the Certification Program of Projective Kinetics Motion Analysis & Training. Nanako joined BIODANCE in 2017.

Doreen S. Prempeh is a dynamic performer based in Rochester, New York. Currently, she is a rising senior pursuing a BA in both American Sign Language and Dance Studies at the University of Rochester, where she performs regularly in faculty and student concerts and in Sansifanyi West African Dance and Drum Ensemble. Doreen grew up in Ghana, West Africa, which enhanced her interest in Afrobeat music and traditional movements. Doreen is also an emerging choreographer, fusing West African dance, Afrobeat, contemporary dance, and other forms. Doreen performed for the first time with BIODANCE in 2023.

This free lunch-as-artwork will be a public conversation surrounding the question, “What is Time Without A Clock?”

The conversation will utilize using a Long Table community organizing format. 11 community leaders from Syracuse will converse about time while sitting around a specially designed round table (in the shape of a clock). There will be a 12th spot at the table for any members of the public to cycle in and out of participating in the conversation. Please join us to either listen and observe or to participate!

Chef Lavinia Fusco will be preparing a free time-based meal that takes over 24 hours to prepare. Pho (vegan and meat-based options) will be served to everyone in attendance on a first come, first serve basis. This event is co-produced by the Kitchen Literacy Project.

To help us accurately understand how much food to prepare, we would appreciate your RSVP. You can RSVP here.

The Kitchen Literacy Project is a Syracuse-based, grassroots organization dedicated to empowering teenagers, particularly those facing socioeconomic challenges from the Syracuse City School District (SCSD), to make informed dietary choices and lead healthier lives. Our core program offers free weekly cooking classes led by experienced local chefs who understand the culinary landscape and cultural nuances of our community.

Lavinia Fusco is the woman behind the disruptive flavor of Syracuse's Phokottahere. Born in Syracuse to immigrant parents (Vietnam & Italy) Lavinia's life has always centered around travel and food. That has led her to study French, Italian and Vietnamese cuisines. At 17, she moved to New York City, and quickly found her first industry job throwing frozen food in fryers at a Hookah "Restaurant" while attending St. John's University. For the next 17 years she would find herself in kitchens from New York to Alaska and now full circle back to Syracuse to serve an experience that is mostly Vietnamese and all New York.

This drawing shows the layout of the time-based lunch. The small black circles represent the 11 invited core participants who sit around a clock-shaped table, with one open space for members of the public to participate. The white circles represent members of the public (this includes you!), who are invited to participate in the lunchtime conversation by rotating in and out of the central table. Those who do not wish to participate in the conversation can listen to the conversation by sitting around the circle. Everyone who attends will share a meal of pho together.

The meal will be served on handmade ceramic dishes from the Everson’s Rosenfield collection.

Location: Sculpture Court

José A. Pérez, Marvin Wade, and editors from Project Mend will read original essays by formerly incarcerated writers. Each text will address the broad topic of time and its relationship to time in prison. This event is co-produced and facilitated by Project Mend.

Join us as we look up at the sky and make alternative timekeeping devices that queer our sense of time and clocks.

This activity will be led by the artwork, "Untitled (Perfect Lovers)", by Félix González-Torres, made in 1991 in recognition of the artist's long-term romantic partnership with Ross Laycock. The artwork consists of two identical wall clocks hung side-by-side so that they are touching. When installed, the clocks are initially set to the same time but may fall out of sync over the course of time. In 1987, Laycock was diagnosed with AIDS. In a letter sent by González-Torres to Laycock in 1988, he showed a rough sketch of the piece, entitled merely "Lovers". In the letter, he ruminates about time, writing:

"Don't be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us. We imprinted time with the sweet taste of victory. We conquered fate by meeting at a certain time in a certain space. We are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit were it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you."

Image above: Untitled (Perfect Lovers), Félix González-Torres, 1991, Courtesy: Wikimedia

Songs for Keeping Time

Location: Sculpture Court

Sing and learn about how people have kept time with songs throughout history. Together, we will sing historic labor and other timekeeping songs with the Syracuse Community Choir. No singing experience necessary!

The Syracuse Community Choir is a community of people who gather to sing songs of peace and social justice. We work to educate each other and the greater community about social and political issues – mainly focusing on issues of peace, indigenous rights, civil rights, environmental rights, religious acceptance, and inclusion of all people. Created in 1985, the choir was started to create opportunities for all people, all ages, all abilities, to come together, be part of a larger community, and to sing.

The Universe is a Clock

Location: Museum Plaza

Is the universe the biggest clock of all? Join us for a sunset conversation about time and cosmology with physicist Scott Watson. 

Before and after our talk on cosmology, The Music for People Collective (Karl Sperber on guitar, Jessica Wooldridge King on bassoon, and Alina Plourde on oboe) played improvised, minimalist music scores in response to the conversation.

Scott Watson is a Professor of Physics at Syracuse University. His research focuses on the connection between fundamental particle physics and cosmology with an emphasis on physics beyond the Standard Model. These investigations lead to testable predictions, which make it tractable to probe the earliest moments of the universe and properties of fundamental theories, such as string theory.

The Music for People Collective is Karl Sperber on guitar, Jessica Wooldridge King on bassoon, and Alina Plourde on oboe. 

Syraucse in 177 Years

Location: Museum Plaza

Join us at sunset to view a specially-commissioned video by Aidan Ackerman for A Day Without A Clock.  

The city of Syracuse was incorporated in 1847 (177 years ago). This video simulation imagines what the Everson Museum plaza might look like 177 years in the future. The project creates a symmetry between the city's past and the city's future. 

Landscape architect and artist Aidan Ackerman used contemporary landscape simulation software and climate prediction models to build this simulation of the Everson Museum plaza in the year 2201. 

This projection is a partnership with Light Work's Urban Video Project. Thank you to Anneka Herre at UVP.

Aidan Ackerman is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. Previously he was the Director of Digital Media and Landscape Architecture Faculty at Boston Architectural College. He received his Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alfred University in New York, and is a Doctor of Design candidate at Florida International University’s College of Communication, Architecture, + The Arts.