Mixed Taste: At Home is where even the most mismatched subjects find common ground in an interactive lecture series that can go pretty much anywhere. On Wednesday nights at 7PM, two speakers get twenty minutes each to enlighten participants on unrelated topics, without making any connections to the other. It is only as participants begin to ask questions that these talented, sometimes hilarious, speakers start to take our highly engaged audience on an adventure of words with twists and turns that eventually bring the two together in extraordinary ways. 

 Co-curated by MCA Denver and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Mixed Taste: At Home will bring together favorite speakers from years past live from their living rooms to yours.

This week:

• 7/22: Keith Haring & Smog Meringues  |  Featuring Nora Burnett Abrams & Nicola Twilley

Each evening will conclude with an original poem inspired by the topics performed by some of Denver’s best poets, including Suzi Q. Smith, Brenton Weyi, Mahogany, and James Brunt. 

This six-week series will be free with registration, and accessible via YouTube live on Wednesdays, beginning July 15. Please join us for laughs, intellectual gymnastics, and community-building through a fun, fascinating cultural discourse.

Nora Burnett Abrams is the Mark G. Falcone Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Prior to this role, she was the museum’s chief curator, responsible for its exhibition program and special artists’ projects. Her career began at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, before arriving in Denver in 2010. Over the last decade, she has organized over 35 exhibitions and authored or contributed to over a dozen accompanying publications. She has taught art history at New York University and lectured throughout the country on modern and contemporary art. She holds art history degrees from Stanford University (B.A.), Columbia University (M.A.), and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Previous Mixed Taste lecture topic: German Expressionism in 2010 and 2014, Pop Art in 2011, and YBAs in 2013.

Nicola Twilley is co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. She is currently writing a book on the topic of refrigeration for Penguin Press. She is also co-authoring a book about the past, present and future of quarantine with Geoff Manaugh for Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In her spare time, she makes smog meringues as part of an ongoing exploration of the taste of “aeroir” with the Center for Genomic Gastronomy. Previous Mixed Taste lecture topics: Artificial Flavor in 2012 and 2014, Refrigeration in 2013, Fern Bars in 2015, and Calorie Chemistry in 2016.

Kenya Fashaw (Mahogany) is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of 5280 Artist Co-Op. Kenya is a Spoken Word artist, actress and Playwright. She is a member of Denver Slam Nuba’s (we cut heads) slam team. She has written and directed Colorism, Breaking The Chains of Complexion produced by 5280 Artist Co-Op in 2015, and won a Henry Award for “Best New Play” in 2018. She was also nominated for another Henry award for “1 Night 6 Plays,” produced by 5280 Artist Co-Op, in 2019 which included two of her micro scripts; Hiphop Matrimony: A Hiphop musical and Cages: No More Boundage. Kenya has always had a passion for creative writing and wants to create stories that normalize people of color.