Emily Johnson / Catalyst:
Overflow Radio
Premiering 2026
“Merging art and activism, Johnson’s expansive work [draws] our attention to the land beneath and around us — to what has been here before and what could be in the future. She heightens our awareness . . .”
—The New York Times
OverFlow Radio is a new exhibition / installation / performance / broadcast that emerges from Emily’s practice of creating large scale social choreographies. The exhibition share the culmination of a community sewing and visioning project that has generated 84 individual quilts, which form a single 4,000-square-foot design by Maggie Thompson. Along with these vibrant quilts and the hand-written messages they carry, the exhibition features activations and events, including a marathon storytelling performance which broadcasts and streams a live radio show/performance over a non-consecutive 24-hour span. OverFlow Radio will feature a multitude of Indigenous collaborator-contributors whose readings, performances, skill shares, sound experiences, star stories, ghost stories and more are synched with interludes that offer time for meals, naps, participatory actions, and performance, for in-person and remote audiences alike.
COMMISSIONING & SUPPORT
Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project commissioned by Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and co-commissioned DiverseWorks, MASS MoCA and University of Minnesota Dance Program, more information at www.npnweb.org.
Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is developed through creative residencies provided by University of Minnesota’s Imagine Fund with support from the McKnight Foundation, and Danspace Project with support from the New York State DanceForce, a partnership program of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is created with generous support from First Peoples Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.