The neglected mansion of beta fraternity
held secrets in the walls
this wasn’t our house but we found our way inside.
Four hundred and fifty pairs of donated
blown-out
worn-out
underwear.
Wheatpaste made them hard
rendered them hollow
as if there was an invisible body wearing each pair.
Repeated rituals bear more weight.
76% of u.s. senators.*
Each gesture
fused memory with somatics,
primary agitators.
Each installation, each score,
an ephemeral monument
mobilized.
Suspended in the grand foyer
dumped down basement stairs
spilled onto their hazing room floor
hurled at the initiation wall
piled in the center of the chapter room.
Repeated rituals bare more weight.
85% of fortune 500 ceos.*
One hundred and fifty taper candles,
witness them burn.
New rituals smother
beta brother traditions of the last hundred years.
Violence flourishes in secrecy.
85% of u.s. supreme court justices since 1910.*
Deep pasts are being uncovered
overturned by the tilling
of protesting hands.
Uprising, demanding accountability.
Recover your, our, their guts.
Bodies vulnerable to constant threat.
Our last week of working,
on the basement floor in chalk:
ALL GAYS SHALL DIE.
We left the underwear
hanging in the foyer.
They are not ours anymore;
they never were, in a way.
We wish you could have
felt the fire burning.
Instead you are left with the residue.
The only materials brought into the space were the underwear, rope, fishing line, our bodies, and candles.
The words and images you see on the walls were painted by Beta members.
* These statistics, illustrating the percentage of professionals that have been members of fraternities, come from Alan Desantis' 2007 book Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and Prestige.