The Church is featuring three programs this weekend presented in conjunction with the Sag Harbor venue’s current exhibition, “Here and There: The First Churchennial,” with work by former resident artists.
After Hours, a series focused on current shows and the people who make them happen, will bring in a cadre of artists Friday at 6 p.m. Sheri Pasquarella, the executive director, will begin the evening with a talk about the organization and design of the exhibition, after which several of the artists will discuss their work.
They include Linda K. Alpern, Amy Wickersham, John Wittenberg, Mark Webber, Sharon Van Liempt Brown, Margaret Garrett, Jim Gingerich, Roisin Bateman, Peter Solow, Francine Fleischer, Kerry Sharkey-Miller, and others to be announced.
Tickets are $20, $10 for members.
Johnnie Cruise Mercer, a dancer-choreographer-director based in Brooklyn and resident alumnus of The Church, will return there on Saturday at 6 p.m. with a preview performance of “Mercies of a Butterfly.” The piece will have its premiere in January 2026 as part of the Pioneers Go East Collective’s Out-Front Festival in Manhattan.
A movement allegory, the one-act dance-theater work follows a recently born spirit as it contends with weight, builds strength to run, and eventually learns how to fly. With the artist’s Black-movement history at its root, it unfolds as testimony to both flying through and weathering the storm.
The performance involves close collaboration with a creative team including Young Denzel, music producer; Robert McSweeney, horn player; Jean Chalot, drummer and percussionist; Torian Ugworji, film and video artist, and Pierre Rashad, fashion designer.
Mr. Mercer is a queer performance artist who has received the 2022 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award and the 2021 Princess Grace Award for choreography. His work has been seen in New York City at 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Dixon Place, Danspace Project, BAAD!, Abrons Arts Center, and the La Mama Experimental Theater, and at the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C.
In addition to The Church, he has had residencies at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New Dance Alliance’s Black Artists Space to Create, and the Center for Performance Research. He is now a resident at Movement Research.
Tickets are $25, $20 for members.
Bill Goldstein and Thymaya Payne, writers and alumni residents of The Church, will discuss the points of intersection between writing a biography and writing a memoir on Sunday afternoon at 3.
Mr. Goldstein’s work in progress, a biography of Larry Kramer, was developed through years of research as well as a working relationship with his subject, a noted playwright, novelist, film producer, and AIDS activist.
A filmmaker and screenwriter, Mr. Payne’s previous work includes a biopic on the civil rights leader Walter F. White and a documentary film about the Somali pirates. His memoir in progress, “AIDS, Raves, and Pirates,” reflects on his relationship with his father, exploring the validity of memory and questioning the mind’s tendency toward projection.
Both men developed their projects during their residencies at The Church. A question-and-answer session will follow the conversation. Tickets are $15, $10 for members.
