Oral history interview with Nancy Brooks Brody

Scope and Contents

An interview with Nancy Brooks Brody conducted 2018 January 12-28, by Svetlana Kitto, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Brody's home and studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Scope and Contents

Brody speaks of her childhood in Manhattan; her Eastern European ancestry and spending time with her grandmother and great-aunt in New Jersey; early experiences of art-making; early expressions of her gender identity and sexuality; formative childhood and adolescent experiences at summer camp; early memories of Fire Island; various living arrangements, social settings, and jobs as a young adult in Manhattan; her relationship with Jean-Michel Basquiat; attending the High School of Music & Art and the School of Visual Arts; the rise of Lower East Side art galleries in the 1980s; her first exhibitions, at New Math Gallery and elsewhere; her involvement in ACT UP; her involvement in fierce pussy; witnessing widespread death and bodily decay during the AIDS crisis; the illness and deaths of her very close friends David Knudswig, David Switzer, David Nelson, and Tony Feher; her practice of art-making during the AIDS epidemic; working for the Forest Service on Mount St. Helens from 1993 to 1996; working for Circus Amok upon her return to New York; her activism during the George W. Bush era; her memories of September 11, 2001; fierce pussy's series of retrospectives and new work beginning in 2008; her current activism for universal healthcare; and her most recent art-making and exhibition experiences. Brody also recalls Don Tinling, Adele Bertei, Ivonne Casas, Jonathan Schneider, Erika Belle, Madonna, Zoe Leonard, John Lurie, Hannah Wilke, Greer Lankton, Jennifer Bartlett, Jennifer Miller, Joy Episalla, Carrie Yamaoka, Hoaui Montaug, Edwige Belmore, Donald Mouton, Andrea Rosen, Kim Pierce, Sarah Johnson, Barbara Hughes, Jonathan Berger, Andrea Blum, Avram Finkelstein, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Nancy Brooks Brody (1962- ) is an artist who works in painting, drawing and sculpture in New York, New York. Svetlana Kitto (1980- ) is a writer and oral historian in Brooklyn, New York.