An Evening: Election Special

In 2021, Chet Hanx coined the term #whiteboysummer. This term, and all of its subsequent content, was created as a direct response to the two previous non-white, non-male ‘summers’ in American pop culture. In 2019, Megan Thee Stallion coined the term #hotgirlsummer. It was incredibly popular. In the summer of 2020, social media platforms were populated by #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter activism, protests, and infographics. In response to this outpouring of celebration, compassion, and sympathy for real marginalized groups, people across the internet get #whiteboysummer. The hashtag and its implications become an amorphous rallying cry for the ‘spicy white boy': the confused hip-hop lover with (very?) conservative parents. The subject itself certainly has an affinity for Black culture, but it stops in an odd, potentially sinister, place—think Post Malone, Jack Harlow, etc.

Why do white, non-Black people believe they have a right to Blackness as property?

David Lisbon’s #whiteboysummerarchive gathers content related to the colonial impulse in digital space. His site-specific lecture, An Evening: Election Special, presents a new model for thinking about how American leadership informs its public about the current state of affairs, ranging from cultural to systemic issues. This is the second in an ongoing performance series, the first of which was hosted by Quarters Gallery in August, 2024.

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David Lisbon (b.1994, Kansas City, Missouri) is a New York-based curator, architect, and designer. His multidisciplinary practice supports nuanced storytelling in the exhibitions and projects Lisbon organizes, with attention to people and experiences that are often overlooked, categorized, or pigeonholed by contemporary institutions.