It’s been called “The Prank Heard ’Round the World.”
On February 21, 2012, a group of young women in candy-colored minidresses and hand-scissored balaclavas mounted the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform a song. Not exactly Nearer My God to Thee, what they belted out instead was titled “Punk Prayer – Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!.” According to the English poet Carol Rumens’s translation, the lyrics call out the Russian despot’s oppression:
Congregations genuflect,
Black robes brag gilt epaulettes,
Freedom’s phantom’s gone to heaven,
Gay Pride’s chained and in detention.
KGB’s chief saint descends
To guide the punks to prison vans.
A dozen years and a spell in a Siberian penal colony later, the feminist art collective Pussy Riot has become that rare phenom: world-famous performance artists who are frontline human rights activists and pals with celebrities like Bono. On May 16, their gutsy co-founder, Nadya Tolokonnikova, will receive the Dynamic Achievements in the Arts Award at the hands of ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, during a benefit for the storied American Folk Art Museum. The evening will feature a performance from Tolokonnikova, aptly titled Pussy Riot-Siberia, as well as an in-depth conversation with Brooklyn Museum curator Carmen Hermo. ❖
An Evening with Nadya Tolokonnikova
Thursday, May 16
Benefit for the American Folk Art Museum
Christian Viveros-Fauné has covered art and its intersections with politics for the Village Voice and other publications for more than 25 years.