Ghosted, Too

Morgan Bassichis has spent several years reanimating the legacies of queer and Jewish icons through neurotic stand-up comedy, incantatory songs, and historical excavations. In 2017, Bassichis began adapting Larry Mitchell’s cult book The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions (1977) for performance and facilitating its reissue. Over the past few years, Bassichis turned to the late comedian and performance artist Frank Maya in their acclaimed off-Broadway solo show Can I Be Frank?, which won two Obie Awards. Next year, Bassichis will take on the Amy Winehouse songbook.

For Ghosted, Too, Bassichis will deliver a talk on their compulsion to commune with the dead. “Adoration has a way of keeping the deceased at least a little bit alive,” Bassichis writes. “I will sometimes refer to them as ghosts, but a bit reluctantly, because that is a term I have only ever heard from the living.” Considering ghosts as manifestations of “unfinished business,” Bassichis will offer provisional reflections on performance as a mode of necromancy, or “visitationship.”

This event is part of the 2026 Triple Canopy Symposium, presented in partnership with Critical Minded.