As part of the Fall 2022 IDS Lecture Series, Hannah Higgins speaks about the ways writers, artists, activists and a minister have performed wide-ranging readings of the American flag as an icon of governance. The national ensign’s complex history of use, abuse, activism, and weaponization speaks to competing aesthetics of administration, of governance, of activism, and of nativist violence. When the Judson Memorial Church hosted the People’s Flag Show in 1970, these competing performances of patriotism were placed in direct dialogue.

Proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination and booster is required. The use of a face mask is encouraged while indoors. 

Hannah Higgins is a professor in the School of Art and Art History at The University of Illinois Chicago and founding associate director of the interdisciplinary B.A. in IDEAS. Her books include Fluxus Experience (University of California Press, 2002), The Grid Book (MIT, 2009), and The People’s Flag (forthcoming). With Douglas Kahn, she co-edited Mainframe Experimentalism: Early Computing and the Foundations of Digital Art (University of California Press, 2012). With her twin sister, Jessica, Higgins is co-executor of the estate of Fluxus artist, Dick Higgins and the daughter of Fluxus artist, Alison Knowles.

The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.