45–120 Book Launch and Performance

Join us on Thursday, February 5 at 7pm to celebrate the publication of 45–120, a bilingual poetry anthology (English and Spanish) edited by Juf and published by Caniche Editorial. The questions of space that the anthology brings to the fore are emphasized and amplified on this occasion through an introduction by Juf co-directors Bea Ortega Botas and Leto Ybarra; readings by Kyle Dacuyan and Elijah Jackson; and a performance by Geo Wyex, Nobody Wade Never Too Much Again.

The performance will explore different aspects of improvisation and magic as a professor from the fictional Muck Studies Department reaches into the bottoms of shallow, murky waters so that a certain squelch of history and meaning can emerge through disappearances of objects and redirections in space.

Artist and writer Park McArthur has provided a takeaway artwork for the event.

About 45–120
Personal space is understood as the distance between 45 and 120 cm that surrounds a person. The bilingual anthology 45–120 brings together the work of eighteen contemporary poets who take this intimate measurement as a starting point to challenge its apparent rigidity and explore how political, social, sexual, racial, class, and accessibility factors shape it. Beyond a simple physical distance, personal space also becomes a stage where desire draws and negotiates the boundaries between the inside and the outside.

45–120 features Samuel Ace, Justin Chin, Kyle Dacuyan, Rhea Dillon, Tracy Faud, Elijah Jackson, Taylor Johnson, Nadia Marcus, Park McArthur, Nat Raha, Joan Retallack, Trish Salah, Juan de Salas, María Salgado, Assotto Saint, Cedar Sigo, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Nayare Soledad, and Perla Zúñiga.

The program is presented as part of that that, which transforms CARA into an expanded bookstore environment. In the weeks preceding our spring exhibition of the Martinican poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant’s (1928–2011) personal art collection, we present a series of book launches, readings, and conversations shaped by the poetic force that animates Glissant’s chapter “That That” in his book Poetics of Relation.

Juf is a curatorial and research project focused on contemporary art and poetry that organizes exhibitions, performances, readings, and online and printed publications. Directed by Bea Ortega Botas and Leto Ybarra, it is now based between New York and Madrid. Recently, Juf has collaborated with 99Canal, New York; A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam; Gasworks, London; Judson Memorial Church, New York; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Small Press Traffic, San Francisco; and Tabakalera, Donosti.

Kyle Dacuyan writes poetry and monologues. He has received the Cy Twombly Award in Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a Creative Writing Fellowship from the NEA, and an Open Call Fellowship from The Shed. He was Executive Director of The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s from 2018-2024.

Elijah Jackson is a writer based in New York. Recent work has been published in Fence, Second Factory, Flash Art, Annulet, mercury firs, and others.

Geo Wyex (b. 1984, New York City) is an artist and educator who plays music and makes performances and exhibitions. His 2024 solo exhibition Nobody Wade Never Too Much at JOAN, Los Angeles, featured creative support from collaborators Constantina Zavitsanos, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Will Rawls, Kamron Hazel, NDNMK Solutions, and Ghaith kween Qoutainy.

Geo’s most recent record, muck NO study STARS (2025), was released through Muck Studies Dept.—a persona, and imaginary city agency, who wades through low-lying waters “looking for stars out of what stinks.” Muck Study looks to the mucky social formations and aesthetic practices in the periphery and at the bottom of Black and queer life—where unlikely alliances are formed based on shared need—as a guide for approaching Black and trans history.

Geo’s work has been to Anthology Film Archives, New York; Biquini Wax, Mexico City; the Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam; Human Resources, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Joe’s Pub, New York; The Kitchen, New York; La MaMa, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; MoMA PS1, New York; the New Museum, New York; OCD Chinatown, New York; The Pyramid Club, New York; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Triangle France, Marseille; and more.

Geo has composed music for films by Tourmaline, including Atlantic is a Sea of Bones, Happy Birthday Marsha!, Salacia, and The Personal Things. Geo is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at NYU. He lives and works in Rotterdam, next to the Maas River. He is in a band called Depth Address with S*an D. Henry-Smith.