Erupting Presence into Absence: Possibility, Potentiality, and Performance in New Orleans’ 2019 Boycott Bowl

Abstract

Abstract: This essay examines how the concept of performance developed in theatre and performance studies applies to thinking about New Orleans’ 2019 Boycott Bowl. I analyze the Boycott Bowl as a performance of protest that emerged out of what I call a moment of “negated possibility,” drawing upon ideas of possibility and potentiality outlined in Daniel Sack’s After Live: Possibility, Potentiality, and The Future of Performance. I argue that the Boycott Bowl is a productive reclamation project for the city of New Orleans that emerged from a non-productive moment on the field of play.